Tag Archives: China

     The Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Caspar Tsui, today (April 7) held two briefing sessions and met with representatives of District Fight Crime Committees, District Fire Safety Committees and Area Committees of Kwun Tong District and Sha Tin District to brief them on the amended Annex I to the Basic Law on Method for the Selection of the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) and Annex II to the Basic Law on Method for the Formation of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and its Voting Procedures as approved by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.
 
     During the briefing sessions, Mr Tsui introduced the background, basic principles and major contents of the improvements to the electoral system of the HKSAR. He said improving the electoral system of the HKSAR and implementing the “patriots administering Hong Kong” principle is conducive to the progress of the “one country, two systems” principle and can ensure the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong.
 
     He called on support from the attendees for the amendments and reiterated that the Home Affairs Bureau will fully co-operate in the work of improving the electoral system and spare no effort in explaining the amendments.

    

     The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, today (April 7) met with some of the Legislative Council (LegCo) Members and Hong Kong members of national organisations at three briefing sessions to continue to explain the improvements to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR)’s electoral system.

     Mr Cheung stressed that the amended Annex I and Annex II to the Basic Law approved by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress ensures that the electoral system of the HKSAR can progress with wider representation and better cope with the actual situation of Hong Kong, with a view to putting Hong Kong’s political structure back on a firmer and more promising footing. Improving the electoral system is an urgent move to ensure the steadfast and successful implementation of “one country, two systems” and a pragmatic move to promote Hong Kong’s long-term prosperity and stability.

     He said that the HKSAR Government would spare no effort in taking forward the task in amending the relevant local electoral laws within a tight time frame, with a view to introducing a bill to the LegCo in mid-April. He expressed the hope that LegCo Members would support the work on local legislation and strive to pass the bill by the end of May.

     Mr Cheung said that the core of the current improvements to the electoral system is to enlarge the membership of the Election Committee (EC) to 1 500 and to adjust and improve the composition of the EC by empowering it with new functions. The Hong Kong deputies to the National People’s Congress (NPC) and Hong Kong members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) will be the Ex-officio Members in the new “fifth sector” of the enlarged EC, while some EC seats will be returned through election among Hong Kong members of the relevant national organisations. Apart from nominating LegCo Members, the Hong Kong deputies to the NPC, Hong Kong members of the CPPCC and that of the relevant national organisations will elect one LegCo Member in one of the new functional constituencies of the LegCo.

     He encouraged participants to brief people in different sectors of the community on the improvements to the electoral system to deepen their understanding of the new electoral system as well as its necessity and urgency.

        

The following is issued on behalf of the Legislative Council Secretariat:

     The Legislative Council Secretariat (the Secretariat) today (April 7) released a Research Brief on “The 2021-2022 Budget”.

     The Financial Secretary (FS) delivered the fourth Budget of the current-term Government on February 24, 2021 and reported the largest ever fiscal deficit of HK$257.6 billion for the 2020-21 financial year, which was far above the original estimate of HK$139.1 billion made in his previous year’s Budget. The larger-than-expected fiscal deficit resulted in substantial reduction in fiscal reserves from the equivalent of 23 months of government expenditure in 2019-20 to 13 months in 2020-21. This arouses the concern over the fiscal space available for FS to revive the COVID-hit economy while ensuring the health of public finances.

     In the Budget, FS unveiled an unprecedented initiative of giving out HK$5,000 worth of electronic consumption vouchers to each adult resident to revive the local economy. The initiative would cost a total of about HK$36 billion. While Hong Kong is new to the voucher scheme, several other Asian economies have implemented similar schemes. They have distributed the vouchers in one-go and allowed the transferability of vouchers. Some have also fine-tuned the distribution of vouchers to benefit low-income groups, COVID-hit industries and sectors, small and medium-sized enterprises, and/or goods with low import content.

     Though FS expected that the consumption voucher scheme would contribute 0.7% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2021, the effectiveness of issuing consumption vouchers may be undermined by the “substitution effect” in which households may use the vouchers to buy goods and services they would have bought anyway and save the money that has originally been set aside for consumption; and the “inter-temporal effect” in which consumption vouchers can only bring forward consumption that would happen anyway without creating any new spending. According to the experience of Taiwan and Japan in issuing consumption vouchers/shopping coupons, such measure did not achieve the projected effect of stimulating spending and economic growth. 

     Another unprecedented initiative in the Budget was the introduction of the Special 100% Loan Guarantee for Individuals Scheme for the unemployed. There are calls for extending coverage of the scheme to the underemployed as the underemployment rate averaged 3.3% in 2020, visibly 2.2 percentage points higher than in 2019.

     Similar government-guaranteed loan schemes in the United Kingdom and Australia target low-income households, whereas those in Japan also support the unemployed and those households whose income have been reduced during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a special measure in response to the pandemic, Japan allows those households which continue to suffer from reduced income to be exempted from repaying the loan when repayment is due.

     FS also announced in the Budget to expand the issue of green bonds to preserve fiscal strength. Hong Kong has ample room for further issuance of bonds in view of its hefty foreign exchange reserve assets and relatively low government debt to GDP ratio. Infrastructural bond is a possible efficient option to ease the Government’s fiscal pressure amid the current low-interest environment and considerable infrastructure spending in the coming years.

     The Legislative Council will resume the Second Reading debate on the Appropriation Bill 2021 at its meeting of April 21 and Members will speak on the Bill.
 
     The Research Brief is prepared by the Secretariat’s Research Office of the Information Services Division with a view to enhancing information support for Members. It is a concise summary aiming at explaining a subject matter which may be of interest to Members and the general public.
 
     The Research Brief is now available on the Legislative Council Website at https://www.legco.gov.hk/research-publications/english/2021rb03-the-2021-2022-budget-20210407-e.pdf. read more

The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:      Regarding an earlier announcement on a cluster of patients confirmed to be carriers of Multi-drug Resistant Acinetobacter (MDRA) in medical wards, the spokesperson… read more

     The Secretary for Education, Mr Kevin Yeung, today (April 7) continued to meet and exchange views with members of the education sector on the work relating to the improvement of the electoral system of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).

     Mr Yeung hosted a total of four briefing sessions at the Central Government Offices. Participants included the chairman of the University Grants Committee (UGC) and presidents of UGC-funded universities as well as representatives from government advisory bodies on education, school sponsoring bodies and the self-financing post-secondary education sector.  Also present were the Permanent Secretary for Education, Ms Michelle Li, and the Under Secretary for Education, Dr Choi Yuk-lin.

     Mr Yeung said that based on the decision by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the HKSAR, by amending the local electoral legislation, could enhance the balanced and orderly political participation of the community. It could also put the principle of “patriots administering Hong Kong” into practice, fully and accurately upholding and implementing the principles of “one country, two systems”, “Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong” and a high degree of autonomy. It would be conducive to the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong as well as the sustainable development of all sectors, including the education sector.

     Mr Yeung said he hoped that with explanations through a number of briefing sessions and other communication channels, members of the education sector could have a better understanding of the matter and support the legislative work.