Financial Secretary Paul Chan said Hong Kong needs to focus on creating more quality jobs in different sectors, as he announced that the budget would be unveiled on February 25.

Writing on his weekly blog, the minister said there was also a need to find more drivers of economic growth as the local economy undergoes transformation.

"During the economic transition, it is hard to prevent uneven and unbalanced development, and certain people and industries are indeed facing challenges," Chan said.

He said creating jobs and finding new economic drivers are equally important to the wider and high-quality use of technology such as AI, which will define the core competitiveness of an economy in the coming future.

The financial secretary also noted it has been almost a month into the public consultation exercise for the budget.

He said people he's met agreed that from a macro perspective, the local economy has been developing steadily since the Covid pandemic.

Chan went on to say that the government must be cautious about the potential effects of global market turbulence on local markets and capital flows as a result of more uncertainties borne out of geopolitical tensions.