Opinion | How can Hong Kong hope to be a smart city when the government can’t even distribute a HK$10,000 handout effectively?

Over a decade, the government still hasn’t managed to figure out how to target only those actually living in Hong Kong for budget handouts

The budget failed to address the city’s long-term needs, such as training both young people and the elderly for future employment or recalibrating our tourism strategy

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Financial Secretary Paul Chan arrives at a press conference after delivering the 2020-21 budget at the government headquarters in Tamar, Admiralty, on February 26. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Published: 6:15am, 4 Mar 2020Updated: 6:54am, 4 Mar 2020

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po proposed a one-off cash handout of HK$10,000 to an estimated 7 million adult permanent residents in his latest budget, an offer that has been well received by the community.

The initiative will cost the government over HK$70 billion and is aimed at stimulating the economy and relieving people’s financial burden. All permanent residents are eligible for the handout, irrespective of whether they currently live in Hong Kong. On Tuesday, the government said the scheme would be extended to some of the hundreds of thousands of Hongkongers who have recently moved to the city.

Going by the numbers of one-way permit holders who have entered Hong Kong over the past six years, around 300,000 new migrants were not originally entitled to the benefit although they have been hit as hard as permanent residents by the coronavirus epidemic and protests.

Domestic helpers who have been working hard throughout the epidemic are also excluded; why can’t they receive this support, too?

Meanwhile, extrapolating from the number of Hong Kong permanent residents who received the handout announced in 2011 although they did not live in Hong Kong, around 600,000 people living outside Hong Kong will receive the HK$10,000, even though they have not been affected by the coronavirus outbreak in the city.

What is the logic? The financial secretary’s explanation is that if the government were to distinguish between those who have left Hong Kong for the long term versus those who are away for an extended holiday or studies, it would delay the process of granting the handout.

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