Hong Kong leader plans economic shift Hong Kong's incoming chief executive says his government will play a bigger role in the economy, in a departure from the territory's laissez faire tradition as he seeks to address rising public discord and worsening inequality. In an interview with the Financial Times, Leung Chun-ying said Hong Kong would move away from its traditional "small government, big market" model towards a more "pro-active" administration. "We will have to look at social implications and social costs and not just private benefits and private costs," said Mr Leung, who was chosen last month by a 1,200-member "election committee" in a hard-fought contest with Henry Tang, a former senior government official and heir to a textile fortune. Despite years of strong economic growth, ordinary residents increasingly feel that the former British colony's free-wheeling economic system disproportionately benefits the city's tycoons. Twenty per cent of Hong Kong's 7m people live below the poverty line. The 59-year-old British-trained surveyor said his government would do more to help local industries, in part by drawing on its HK$600bn ($77bn) in fiscal reserves. Mr Leung cited Singapore's use of tax benefits to shore up its shipping industry, and set his sights on overtaking London as a centre for shipping services. In another example of his government's more activist approach, Mr Leung said businesses should pay more for the pollution and waste that they generate. The city's poor air quality has often been cited as a reason why it is losing investment and foreign talent to cleaner, greener Singapore. Despite running on a platform that emphasised the need for a more equitable distribution of wealth, Mr Leung comes into government with lower public approval ratings than his two predecessors, Tung Chee-hwa and Donald Tsang. Some figures in the territory's pro-democracy camp fear that Mr Leung's close ties with the Chinese central government could translate into reduced support for civil rights and judicial independence - fears that the incoming chief executive has sought to dispel. In a populist gesture on Monday, Mr Leung said private hospitals in the territory would no longer be allowed to provide maternity services to mothers from mainland China, who hope to secure Hong Kong residency rights for their children. Mr Leung, who also suggested that babies born to non-residents might no longer be entitled to residency rights, said he had decided to "cut to the chase" because Hong Kong's basic infrastructure was under stress.