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Hong Kong Budget 2021 Reactions: Praise for coupon stimulus plan but calls for more help for the unemployed
Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan announced the budget for 2021-22 on Wednesday. The city’s economy has been hit hard by the pandemic, recording a deficit of HK$257.6 billion in the current fiscal year, with the economy shrinking by 6.1 per cent. In addition to a series of tax deductions and subsidies to businesses and individuals, the government plans to distribute HK$5,000 electronic spending coupons to all adult residents, and offer government-guaranteed loans to the unemployed in hopes of reviving the economy. HKFP rounds up the reaction as Hong Kong records its biggest economic decl...
Hong Kong Free Press
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Hong Kong Budget 2021: Gov’t to inject HK$500m to attract overseas STEM scholars
Hong Kong will spend HK$500 million to attract overseas scholars specialising in innovation and technology to teach and conduct research in the city, Financial Secretary Paul Chan announced Wednesday as he presented the 2021-22 budget. Chan said the sum would be used to support the launch of a Global STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) Professorship Scheme announced by Chief Executive Carrie Lam in her policy address last November. The funding is intending to help finance 100 world-renowned scholars and their research teams in taking part in STEM teaching and research in t...
Hong Kong Free Press
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Hong Kong’s first Covid-19 lockdown after Lunar New Year yields no new infections
Hong Kong authorities enforced an overnight lockdown to conduct compulsory Covid-19 tests among residents of two buildings in San Po Kong on Tuesday evening. The first “ambush-style” lockdown post-Lunar New Year yielded no new infections as of 2am on Wednesday after around 520 people were tested. The surprise testing operation, which began at 8:30pm on Tuesday ended at 7am Wednesday morning. Residents who had been tested and can show an SMS or wristband were allowed to leave the area. Authorities visited 256 flats, of which 56 did not answer the door. The government said they are investigating...
Hong Kong Free Press
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Covid-19: Hong Kong to relax gathering limit to 4 people from midnight as online vaccine registration ‘fully booked’
Hong Kong’s social gathering limits will be relaxed from two to four people on Wednesday as the city’s fourth wave of Covid-19 infections eases. The new rules will take effect at midnight. “Taking into account… the need for society as a whole to resume social and economic activities, we announced earlier to continue to relax social distancing measures in a gradual and orderly manner,” a spokesperson for the Food and Health Bureau said. The news came as online bookings for Hong Kong’s city-wide vaccination scheme began on Tuesday. The quota for the first two weeks of the programme was “fully bo...
Hong Kong Free Press
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Hong Kong’s Lam says China’s patriots-only rule is not meant to exclude democrats from politics
Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam has rejected claims that major political changes planned by Beijing are intended to suppress pro-democracy politicians after a senior Chinese official declared that only “patriots” should hold power in the city. Lam told reporters on Monday that the policy of “patriots ruling Hong Kong” was not new, was “only to be expected” and was a necessary condition for implementing One Country, Two Systems. Lam said such a requirement was “not a very high standard” and should cover all groups listed under the SAR’s political structure in Article 4 of the Basic Law. ...
Hong Kong Free Press
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Lam confirms Hong Kong considering law against insulting officials and police, says free speech must be ‘balanced’
Chief Executive Carrie Lam confirmed on Tuesday that the Hong Kong government is considering a law against insulting police and other public officers, but said it has no firm plans as yet. Any legislation would need a “delicate” balance between protecting freedom of speech and protecting public officers, she said. Lam made the comments in her weekly press briefing before her Executive Council meeting. She said the legislation is not a government priority during the current term of the Legislative Council (LegCo). “First of all, we are not in a so-called very mature stage of considering legisla...
Hong Kong Free Press
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Top Hong Kong officials receive China’s Covid-19 vaccine as Chief Exec. Carrie Lam seeks to reassure public
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam and 13 other government bureau and department chiefs have become the first Hongkongers to receive the mainland-developed and manufactured Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine. Lam, alongside top secretaries – including Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung and Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan – received their vaccination Monday afternoon at the community vaccination centre which has been set up in the Central Library’s exhibition hall in Tin Hau. Three government secretaries were absent, including Secretary for Finance Paul Chan, Secretary for Commerce and Economic D...
Hong Kong Free Press
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Covid-19: Expert says gov’t relaxed social distancing ‘too soon’ out of concern for economy, as Hong Kong records 20 new cases
A leading Hong Kong medical expert said on Monday that the government relaxed Covid-19 social distancing rules too soon and the community still had a certain level of transmission risk. The comments came after Hong Kong recorded 20 new coronavirus infections on Sunday, with 19 locally transmitted cases – six cases had unknown origins. Leading Hong Kong University microbiologist Ho Pak-leung told RTHK radio that the current case numbers may not reflect the actual situation as testing slowed down during the Lunar New Year holidays. “The cases are dispersed across different districts – every dist...
Hong Kong Free Press
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Covid-19: Gov’t expresses ‘anger’ over medical union’s call to boycott tracing app amid privacy concerns
The government has expressed “anger” over what it calls the spreading of “false information” relating to its Covid-19 tracing app after the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance (HAEA) called on the public to boycott the app over privacy concerns. The “LeaveHomeSafe” was made mandatory for dine-in services in the city’s eateries as pandemic restrictions were eased to allow operations until 10pm and up to four diners per table on Thursday. Diners are still able to leave their contact details without the app, but restaurateurs face a fine and jail time if they do not display a “check in” QR code...
Hong Kong Free Press
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A Hong Kong law against fake news begs the question: who gets to decide what is false?
The new-look legislature, without opposition, without pan-Democrats and without the limited democratic legitimacy which surrounded its predecessor, is now with us, and will remain with us until September at the earliest. Further postponements of the elections cannot be ruled out. Our Imperial Big Brother does not love elections. The Chief Executive Carrie Lam, timed her expression of joy that the council had returned to “normal” nicely. It arrived just before the Economist Intelligence Unit decided that we should be moved from the Flawed Democracy category to the Hybrid one, which I think is t...
Hong Kong Free Press
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