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Hong Kong budget: officials quiet on how HK$8 billion earmarked for national security will be spent
- Financial Secretary Paul Chan declines to answer questions over money that was not included in speech, but was listed in expenditure breakdown
- Chan says information about national security expenditure considered ‘confidential in many places’
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Hong Kong has set aside HK$8 billion for safeguarding national security, but the finance minister has not said how, and on what, the money will be spent.
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Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po only said the allocation of the funding in his budget had been approved by the city’s leader, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.
The item was not mentioned in Chan’s budget speech to lawmakers, but was included in the separate budget documents that listed the estimated revenue and expenditure of various government accounts.
The money was mentioned as a “non-recurrent appropriation to a special fund to meet the expenditure for safeguarding national security”. In a footnote, it cited the national security law and stated that “this HK$8 billion provision is the above-mentioned special fund for meeting the expenditure for safeguarding national security in coming years”.
During a press conference, Chan dodged questions over the funding, only saying: “Regarding the HK$8 billion, it is to be used over the coming several years.”
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What Hong Kong’s 2021-22 budget means for residents of the city
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Chan also declined to explain how the government had arrived at the figure, but said he had discussed it with relevant national security authorities, and the chief executive.
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