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Letters | Save costly Lantau artificial islands plan for a better tomorrow

  • With the government’s reserves depleted, shelving the costly Lantau Tomorrow Vision plan could help sustain thousands of struggling Hong Kong firms and employees

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Shuttered shops in Wan Chai in August. The Covid-19 outbreak, following months of civil unrest, has hammered businesses in Hong Kong and sent the jobless rate to a 15-year high. Photo: Sam Tsang
Letters

With the outbreak of Covid-19, the global economy is now facing a dismal future while restrictive measures are here to stay as the uphill battle against the virus continues.

Though several vaccines have entered the third stage of clinical testing, it will be several months yet before the world’s public can undergo any coronavirus vaccination. This also means any real revival for local and global economies is still out of reach.

Hong Kong is facing many perils, with a faltering economy that has suffered greatly during months of social unrest and then the pandemic. Employees across all sectors – if they have been lucky enough to avoid being laid off – still face the possibility of being forced to take long periods of unpaid leave.

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Jobless struggle to make ends meet in Hong Kong as city battles coronavirus and recession

Jobless struggle to make ends meet in Hong Kong as city battles coronavirus and recession
Businesses, on the other hand, have been floundering. Many small and medium-sized enterprises recently said they might not survive another six months without more support. However, the Hong Kong government has indicated it will not extend the Employment Support Scheme. That would be a fresh blow as more businesses might fold, costing yet more jobs.
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With the government’s reserves severely depleted and the dire economic situation expected to continue, it might not be feasible for the government to continue spending money to help businesses survive and keep employees from being laid off.

One trade-off could be dropping the controversial HK$624 billion (US$80.5 billion) Lantau Tomorrow Vision artificial islands project, which has been likened to pouring the city’s money into the sea (“Hong Kong’s Lantau land-reclamation scheme could wipe out city’s reserves: economist”, September 15).
The engineering, planning and financial assessments alone are expected to cost more than HK$550 million. Shelving the project would be a justified move to help sustain the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands.
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