Letters | Hong Kong’s poverty problem needs targeted solutions

Readers discuss the way forward for the city on poverty alleviation, how capitalism in the rich world is failing, and 20 more years of prosperity

Reading Time:3 minutes

A recycler collects cardboard in the streets in Wong Tai Sin in 2020. In alleviating poverty in Hong Kong, it may be useful to identify the neediest groups, such as subdivided flat residents, single-parent families, the elderly and even women and ethnic minorities. Photo: Felix Wong

Published: 11:30am, 28 Apr 2023

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When the current government took office, its main focus was tackling the pandemic. Now that the pandemic is under control and life has returned to normal, the government should shift its attention to more deep-seated social issues, including poverty alleviation.

There is an urgent need to do so because if we allow poverty to worsen, it could easily lead to social unrest and affect Hong Kong’s international image. Additionally, with the problem of an ageing population being exacerbated by a declining labour force, the poverty situation in Hong Kong has changed.

As a non-official member of the Commission on Poverty, I believe we need to make some fundamental changes to poverty alleviation. First, it is problematic to use the poverty line as a framework for analysing the problem and helping people.

Hong Kong’s poverty problem is complex, with different vulnerable groups facing different problems. A simple quantitative approach, like the poverty line, does not work. We need a more accurate strategy targeting the neediest groups.

In addition, we should also stop making a distinction between pre-intervention and post-intervention to measure the government’s performance in poverty alleviation. As the government will not ignore poverty issues, the pre-intervention figure has no practical meaning.