Hong Kong 'future fund' could protect city from cost of ageing population
Government's fiscal advisers say proposed fund could help meet costs arising from ageing population - possibly including pensions for all
Hong Kong's proposed future fund should cover expenses arising from the city's rapidly ageing population and perhaps provide pensions for all, the government advisers behind the idea say.
The fund, made up of government land revenue and surpluses, was suggested by the working group on long-term fiscal planning last year. But in a revised proposal to Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah last month, the group suggested that as well as going on strategic infrastructure, the fund could help cope with the financial impact of a greying population.
Tsang's spokesman said details of the new report would be announced in next month's budget.
"The fund should be used to tackle problems of ageing, which can include health-care expenses," said Marcellus Wong Yui-keung, a member of the working group. "It can also be used to support infrastructure development during big economic downturns."
Wong said the group did not rule out the possibility that the fund could help pay for a universal pension - as some lawmakers suggested when fund was first mooted. A plan to provide pensions, paid for largely from taxes, was floated last year in a report for the Commission on Poverty.
The advisers also proposed a change in the trigger point for spending future fund money, according to a source close to the financial secretary's office.