Hong Kong Exco convenor Regina Ip appeals for retail rent cuts to help businesses
- Regina Ip says she and New People’s Party colleagues found 104 vacant stores and stalls in two shopping centres and market in Southern district
Ip, the convenor of the government’s key decision-making Executive Council, made the call after she and colleagues from the New People’s Party found more than 100 empty shops and stalls in two shopping centres and a market in Southern district.
Forty vacant stores were found at the Chi Fu Landmark, 35 in Marina Square’s east and west centres as well as 29 in Aberdeen Market.
The bleak scenes at the three sites were in stark contrast to the newly opened shopping centre The Southside in Wong Chuk Hang, which Ip said was crowded, with queues outside some restaurants.
Ip said the new shopping centre boasted a variety of stores, which would attract not only local people, but shoppers from further afield.
“Hong Kong’s economy is in a period of transformation, and the market is inevitably quiet,” she said on her social media page. “The shopping malls in Southern district are undergoing a ‘major reshuffle’ to eliminate the weak and retain the strong.
