Hong Kong leader CY Leung faces Legco grilling over unfulfilled election pledges
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying was grilled by lawmakers from both sides of Hong Kong’s political divide this morning on how he would honour his election pledges on labour and business policies in the remainder of his term.
The lawmakers criticised Leung for trying to “delay” and said election promises, including a revamp of the controversial offset mechanism for the city’s retirement savings system, standard working hours, and measures to improve the business environment for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), were long overdue.
“I am determined to implement all the pledges in my election manifesto step by step,” Leung said at the question-and-answer session in the Legislative Council. “But whether they can be achieved in the end will depend on the attitudes of both the employee side and the employer side. I hope they can think from each other’s perspective.”
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Leung proposed in his election manifesto that he would review the contentious Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) offset mechanism, which allows employers to use their portion of contributions to offset severance and long-service payments for employees. Employees want to scrap the system but businesses oppose the move, saying it would drastically raise their costs.
Federation of Trade Unions lawmaker Wong Kwok-hing asked Leung whether the government would set a good example for employers and cancel the system for its own staff.
Leung replied: “At this stage I won’t explicitly or implicitly make any promise. We are considering all possible options and I hope society can make more proposals.”
As Leung emphasised there was enough time to deliver a solution, the Labour Party’s Lee Cheuk-yan jumped on his remark.
“I’m scared. We have less than two years only. Are you trying to delay these policies in order to seek another term?” Lee asked.
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Wong’s FTU colleague Wong Kwok-kin said after the session that Leung was “shirking his responsibilities” by asking employees and employers to settle their disputes first.
The chief executive also faced demands from the business sector, as the Liberal Party’s Felix Chung Kwok-pan said he wanted to “claim debts for the SMEs”. Chung asked when Leung would launch the measures he promised to improve the business environment, such as provision of more exhibition venues and review of unfavourable regulations.
Chung added he opposed scrapping the MPF offset system.
Leung replied he would take charge of the work for SMEs himself and he highly valued SMEs’ contribution to the economy.
