Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong

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Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong
香港經濟民生聯盟
AbbreviationBPA
Chairman Lo Wai-kwok
Vice-Chairmen Jeffrey Lam
Christopher Cheung
Priscilla Leung
Kenneth Lau
Ng Wing-ka
Founded7 October 2012;11 years ago (2012-10-07)
Merger of Economic Synergy
Professional Forum
Headquarters3204A, 32/F, Tower 1,
Admiralty Centre,
18 Harcourt Road,
Hong Kong
Ideology Conservatism (HK)
Economic liberalism
Political position Centre-right
Regional affiliation Pro-Beijing camp
Colours   Blue and green
Slogan"Business Drives Economy,
Professionalism
Improves Livelihood"
Executive Council
2 / 33
Legislative Council
9 / 90
District Councils
24 / 470
NPC (HK deputies)
2 / 36
CPPCC (HK members)
6 / 124
Website
www.bpahk.org
Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong
Traditional Chinese 香港經濟民生聯盟
Simplified Chinese 香港经济民生联盟

The Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong (BPA) is a pro-business pro-Beijing political party in Hong Kong. Chaired by Lo Wai-kwok, the party is currently the second-largest party in the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, holding eight seats. It also has two representatives in the Executive Council and five seats in the District Councils.

Contents

The Alliance came into existence on 7 October 2012 after the 2012 Legislative Council election, as a rebranding of a loose pro-business parliamentary group including Economic Synergy and Professional Forum, as well as two other nonpartisan legislators who mostly came from trade-based functional constituencies consisting of Hong Kong's leading chambers of commerce or business sectors. Out of the seven founding legislators, the party's only directly elected representative was Priscilla Leung of Kowloon West.

The party immediately emerged as the second-largest party in the legislature, overtaking the Liberal Party who had an uneasy relationship with Beijing as the representative for the big business interests. It also slowly expanded its grassroots by absorbing Priscilla Leung's Kowloon West New Dynamic and won 10 seats in the 2015 District Council election. The Alliance retained its seven seats in the 2016 Legislative Council election which saw its party chairman Andrew Leung elected as the Legislative Council President.

History

Founding

The Alliance was officially launched on 7 October 2012 on the basis of a loose political alliance under the same name on 21 August 2011, where 12 members of the Legislative Council from three pro-business groups, the Liberal Party, the Professional Forum, and the Economic Synergy joined together as a counter force to the pro-labour factions in the Legislative Council as well as the government. They fought over the Competition Bill subsequent to the Minimum Wage Bill with the support of powerful business unions and representative of small and medium-sized enterprises. [1]

After the 2012 LegCo elections, members from the two members of the Professional Forum and three of the Economic Synergy with two other independent legislators officially formed the Alliance on 7 October 2012. Members were mostly supporters of Henry Tang, the former chief secretary who lost to Leung Chun-ying in the race in 2012 for the Chief Executive. [2] The group consists of seven legislators which makes it the second largest political group in the Legislative Council, six of the seven members are from the functional constituencies. Unlike the grouping of the former legislature, the Liberal Party did not join the Alliance.

Development

During the 2015 Hong Kong electoral reform, Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung of the BPA and Ip Kwok-him of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) led a walk-out of pro-Beijing legislators right before the historic vote on 18 June as an impromptu attempt to delay the division so that his party member Lau Wong-fat, who was delayed, could cast his vote in favour of the Beijing-backed reforms. [3] The government's reform proposal failed as eight legislators voted in favour and 28 voted against, barely meeting the quorum of 35. [4] Since it had been expected the reform would be voted down by 41-28 (which would fall only six votes short of the two-thirds absolute majority stipulated by the Basic Law), the failure in pro-Beijing camp's sudden tactics resulted in a surprising landslide defeat that gave the rest of the world the impression there was no support for the blueprint. [5]

In the 2015 District Council election, the BPA won 10 seats in total. The alliance retained all seven seats in the 2016 Legislative Council election with the vice-chairman Jeffrey Lam narrowly defeated Liberal Party challenger Joseph Can Ho-lim in Commercial (First). After party chairman Andrew Leung was elected President of the Legislative Council, he resigned from as chairman post and was succeeded by Lo Wai-kwok. Leung was promoted as honorary chairman alongside Lau Wong-fat, while Lau's son, Kenneth Lau who took over his father seat in Heung Yee Kuk, was picked as the new vice-chairman. [6]

In December 2018, legislator Ng Wing-ka of Industrial (Second) was invited to join the party, making the alliance the second largest party in the legislature with eight seats. [7]

In February 2021, after Xia Baolong said that only "patriots" must govern Hong Kong, the BPA released a statement supporting Xia's position and that it looks forward to the changes. [8] Additionally, the BPA claimed that Beijing is not trying to suppress antigovernmental voices. [9]

Leadership

Chairmen

Vice-Chairmen

Secretaries-General

Honorary Chairmen

Council Chairmen

Council Vice-Chairmen

Performance in elections

Legislative Council elections

ElectionNumber of
popular votes
 % of
popular votes
GC
seats
FC
seats
EC
seats
Total seats+/−Position
2016 49,745Steady2.svg2.29Steady2.svg16
7 / 70
0Steady2.svg2ndSteady2.svg
2021 052
7 / 90
1Decrease2.svg3rdDecrease2.svg

District Council elections

ElectionNumber of
popular votes
 % of
popular votes
D.E.
seats
E.C.
seats
App.
seats
Ex off.
seats
Total seats+/−
2015 27,452Steady2.svg1.90Steady2.svg111
12 / 458
Steady2.svg
2019 66,504Increase2.svg2.27Increase2.svg32
5 / 479
7Decrease2.svg
2023 59,105Decrease2.svg5.04Increase2.svg48102
24 / 470
18Increase2.svg

Representatives

Executive Council

Legislative Council

ConstituencyMember
Industrial (First) Andrew Leung
Industrial (Second) Ng Wing-ka
Commercial (First) Jeffrey Lam
Heung Yee Kuk Kenneth Lau
Engineering Lo Wai-kwok
Textiles and Garment Sunny Tan
Real Estate and Construction Louis Loong
Election Committee Benson Luk
Priscilla Leung

District Councils

The BPA holds five seats in three District Councils (2020–2023):

DistrictConstituencyMember
Kowloon City Kai Tak North Leung Yuen-ting
Kai Tak East He Huahan
Oi Chun Cho Wui-hung
Tuen Mun Ex officio Kenneth Lau Ip-keung
Sha Tin Ex officioMok Kam-kwai

See also

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References

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