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Opinion | Coronavirus threatens Hong Kong’s very future if it cannot protect livelihoods along with lives
- Compared to the US, Britain and Singapore, Hong Kong’s stimulus package is relatively small, at 5 per cent of GDP. The government must do more to protects jobs
- Hong Kong faces a deeper downturn that other global cities as its economy has already been battered by months of protests
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Around 30 per cent of the world’s population is now in lockdown as governments implement unprecedented and wide-reaching policies aimed at slowing the spread of Covid-19. Even considering the latest controls by the Hong Kong government, which limit public gatherings to a maximum of four people, restrictions in Europe and North America are more severe than those in Hong Kong.
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Lives are important, but so too are livelihoods. While the Hong Kong government has been relatively quick to place restrictions on immigration and people flows in the city to enhance the safety of its citizens from a health perspective, its response to bolster the economy has been much less decisive.
The overall economic impact of Covid-19 is anyone’s guess and will depend on the length and duration of the crisis. However, the impact on some of Hong Kong’s most important sectors is real and immediate. Retail sales figures for February declined 44 per cent year on year, the biggest drop on record.
Globally the picture is also bleak, with Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development data suggesting that tourism will suffer losses of between 45 per cent and 70 per cent globally in 2020, placing up to 50 million jobs at risk.
In light of these challenges, the governments of the United States, Britain and Singapore have been quick to roll-out unprecedented programmes of support to protect businesses, small and medium-sized enterprises and vulnerable workers.
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