Source:
https://scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1064139/hong-kong-governments-agenda-help-poor-deserves-support
Comment/ Opinion

Hong Kong government's agenda to help the poor deserves support

Bernard Chan welcomes the raft of measures for the grass roots but says the government must also convince people it is being prudent

The chief executive has proposed a new old age allowance of HK$2,200 a month to help the poor elderly. Photo: AFP

Newspapers looking at the first 100 days of the Leung Chun-ying administration focused on controversies. Yet they could have seen a different pattern: the new government announced an imaginative project to improve conditions for elderly and disabled pedestrians, a New Territories development plan to deliver more public housing and a proposal for an old-age living allowance for the elderly poor worth HK$2,200 a month.

They did all attract criticism. But another theme running through them is perhaps more important: all are aimed at improving the lives of the grass roots.