The government aims to publish Hong Kong’s first “strategic, forward-looking and operable” five-year plan in the third quarter of this year, the city’s constitutional affairs chief has said, as authorities launched a public consultation while rejecting concerns that the move signalled a shift towards a planned economy.

As the government launched a two-month public consultation on the blueprint on Monday, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Janice Tse Siu-wa stressed that the road map, designed to better align the city with national development, would “complement” Hong Kong’s annual budget and chief executive’s policy address.

“The five-year plan is a high-level strategic guiding document which defines the direction of Hong Kong’s development in the next five years and outlines the key tasks,” she said during a press briefing.

She described the five-year plan as a “strategic, forward-looking and operable” one that would focus on speeding up the development of innovation and technology centres as well as the Northern Metropolis, the city’s mega-infrastructure project in the New Territories.

The annual policy address and budget would serve to advance the development goals and vision of the five-year plan, which aims to align with Beijing’s blueprint guiding the country’s development from 2026 to 2030, Tse said.

In response to whether Hong Kong was moving towards a planned economy, Tse said the government remained committed to the “one country, two systems” governing principle that ensured the continuation of Hong Kong’s free market.

“Aligning with the national 15th five-year plan does not mean replacing the free market, but clearly shapes the vision and deployment through macro-policies,” she said, adding that the blueprint would allow the market to develop more clearly and steadily.