The food truck pilot scheme in Hong Kong : governance, stakeholders and regulatory responses

Abstract

Since the Food Truck Pilot Scheme has entered the Hong Kong market in 2017, wide variety and creativity of local street food has changed public’s perception about it, providing more choices to attract tourists and stimulating existing street food culture. With most street food hawking activities yet to be legalized, the Hong Kong Government is facing the dilemma of promoting local street food culture, while protecting the legalized catering business and operators in the society. Different stakeholders have taken actions to influence the Government's policy on the Scheme and other types of street food businesses, including whether and if so how the regulatory framework should evolve to preserve local culture. Their actions and dynamics of their interactions with the Government and each other are instrumental in shaping the framework and future of food truck development in Hong Kong. The present project summarizes and analyzes the above developments using theoretical tools of governance, stakeholder action and responsive regulation. The empirical analysis is informed by a combination of desktop research and conversation-discussion based interviews. Though the Government offered monetary and logistic assistance to introduce the Scheme, food truck operators are hard to survive in local market. The Government actively seeks interactions and coordination with the venue and food truck operators to improve the Scheme; however, has no intention to largely refine the framework for sustaining it, considering the interest of other catering businesses. The Government aims to present a conservative rather than proactive strategy against innovation to strike a balance between vested and public interests.