Letters | Hong Kong voucher scheme risks leaving out smaller, neighbourhood businesses

Make voucher scheme fairer by including more than four e-payment providers and offering help to businesses that only take cash

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A sign at a fish vendor in Hong Kong’s Po Tat Market informs shoppers that payment can be made through Alipay, in November 2017. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 9:30am, 14 Apr 2021Updated: 9:30am, 14 Apr 2021

I am dismayed by the government’s plans to distribute the digital vouchers (“Hong Kong’s HK$5,000 voucher scheme set for summer launch as providers chosen”, April 11).

According to the plan, the HK$5,000 (US$640) vouchers, intended to boost local consumption, are to be distributed to each adult Hong Kong resident through just four electronic payment platforms, namely AlipayHK, Octopus, Tap & Go and WeChat Pay HK.

Although Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po claimed that the four operators cover up to 100,000 merchants in the retail, food and drink, and service sectors, I suspect many of these are part of the large-scale restaurant and shopping chains dominant in the domestic market.

Some neighbourhood businesses I am familiar with accept electronic payments through other widely used platforms, such as HSBC’s PayMe. These are not included in the voucher handout despite their popularity among local merchants and consumers.

Confining the voucher distribution to just four operators is unfair to the smaller businesses not affiliated with any of the platforms, not to mention those that only accept cash payment. It would be preposterous to only aid large brands while leaving others behind, given the government’s intention to boost local consumption.

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Therefore, the voucher scheme must be fairly implemented so all local businesses, regardless of scale, benefit equally from the stimulus. I urge the government to include other popular electronic payment platforms in the scheme, and to offer more help to those businesses unreached by electronic payment.