Because of its currency peg to the US dollar, Hong Kong does not have an independent monetary policy, which also means that we cannot sustain the current budget deficit in the long run. Article 107 of the Basic Law also stipulates the adherence to “fiscal balance” as a norm. Last year, the Hong Kong government spent over HK$300 billion on Covid-19 relief measures. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po has predicted that Hong Kong will be in the red for the next few years. Recurrent expenditure is growing at an accelerating pace. It will only be a matter of time before Hong Kong runs a structural deficit. Short-termism is a disease that feeds on others peoples’ money. As there is an overwhelming cry for instant help, our society has overlooked the need for long-term sustainable growth. And there is a difference between squandering reserves and directing resources to generate growth. Mr Chan, I humbly ask you to review the current funding programmes to end any rent-seeking behaviour in Hong Kong. These corporate welfare programmes only bring minimal, if any, long-term economic benefits. A glaring example is opportunists taking advantage of taxpayers in industrial estates. According to media reports, a cryptocurrency firm recently held promotional events at ATV’s premises at the Tai Po Industrial Estate, and seems to be based there. Meanwhile, Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate houses around half of the data centre capacity in Hong Kong. In the form of government funding, taxpayers are giving away tens of billions of dollars in potential revenue as land premium subsidies to multinational corporations to run their data centre businesses and earn huge profits. Being subsidised are the already sizeable multinational information technology companies, not local start-ups that actually need government subsidies or support. It has also been reported that the industrial estates’ host and regulator, Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, monitors tenants intensively by having regular inspections into the data centres’ configuration and set up. This has led to concerns about data security being compromised within the park area, not exactly what a potential tenant would want to hear. Not to mention that these foreign multinational-run data centres do not generate many jobs, and the subsidies do not translate into a cheaper fee for end users. In a word, corporate welfare does not help Hong Kong transform into a hi-tech economy by twisting the time-honoured tradition of fair play. Edwin Lam, Tseung Kwan O