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Exclusive | Commerce chief pleads with Hong Kong lawmakers to back HK$5.4 billion rescue of Ocean Park
- Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau says failure to approve cash injection will condemn park to closure
- Amusement venue owes billions in loan repayments and had been struggling before coronavirus hit city
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Hong Kong’s commerce minister has pleaded with lawmakers to save the city’s Ocean Park amusement resort by approving a HK$5.4 billion (US$687 million) rescue package.
Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau Tang-wah, who spoke exclusively to the South China Morning Post on Thursday at its China Conference, warned of the instant demise of the park should legislators throw out the emergency plan at a Finance Committee meeting on Friday.
“We will lose the park if lawmakers vote it down tomorrow,” he said. “We do not want our own park – a home-grown, international Ocean Park – to be the first victim of Covid-19.”
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The economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic was the last straw for the cash-strapped resort, which is a statutory not-for-profit body owned by the Hong Kong government. It was forced to close its doors temporarily on January 26 as the city battled the contagion’s spread.
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As a result of the pandemic, the city has largely been in lockdown for the past few months. Its tourism industry has been hit hard, with arrivals down almost 99 per cent year on year to 82,000 in March.
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