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Opinion | Hong Kong budget: handouts vital to tide over workers without income
- With the unemployment rate rising and labour unions reporting a critical need to support out-of-work Hongkongers, the government must respond with empathy
- It’s also a good time to steer local business towards good corporate governance, thereby protecting labour and environmental standards
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Hong Kong’s latest budget will be unveiled next week. Despite calls for cash handouts and relief measures from both the pro-democracy and pro-establishment camps, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po has signalled that they are not likely to happen. He has also warned that the city is facing a record deficit of more than HK$300 billion (US$38.7 billion). In order words, the government is reluctant to help Hongkongers through the difficult times.
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More outrageously, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong rejected the idea of a temporary fund for the unemployed, even after he warned that the jobless rate could exceed 7 per cent after the Lunar New Year.
Even though fitness centres, cinemas and beauty parlours resumed business on Thursday, others like bars, nightclubs and karaoke venues have yet to reopen, leaving tens of thousands of people still without an income.
In the face of such hardship, Law’s response was that anyone in need of financial support can apply for the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA). Such a cold-hearted response has enraged the two largest trade unions in Hong Kong.
Law said last December the government’s priority is to create job opportunities, and noted that it has pledged to add 30,000 jobs. However, the new openings are mostly temporary roles; it is not a long-term solution to the high unemployment rate.
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