Abbreviation BPA | Chairman Lo Wai-kwok | |
 | ||
Vice-Chairmen Jeffrey Lam
Christopher Cheung
Priscilla Leung
Kenneth Lau Founded 21 August 2011 (2011-08-21)
(as alliance)
7 October 2012 (2012-10-07)
(as party) Merger of Economic Synergy
Professional Forum Headquarters 3204A, 32/F, Tower 1,
Admiralty Centre,
18 Harcourt Road,
Hong Kong | ||
The Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港經濟民生聯盟, BPA) is a pro-business pro-Beijing political party in Hong Kong. The alliance came into existence on 7 October 2012 after the 2012 Legislative Council election, as a rebranding of the former Economic Synergy and Professional Forum grouping with two other independent legislators. Chaired by Lo Wai-kwok, the party is now the second largest party in the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, holding seven seats. It also has one representative in the Executive Council and 19 seats in the District Councils.
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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. Twelve 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.
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 Ying-yen, the former chief secretary who lost to Leung Chun-ying in the race in 2012 for the Chief Executive. 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. The government's reform proposal failed as eight legislators voted in favour and 28 voted against, barely meeting the quorum of 35. Since it had been expected the reform would be voted down by 41-28 (which would fall only six votes short of the two-third 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.
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 with 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.