Wealthy Hong Kong can well afford to spend HK$36.7 billion more to narrow worsening inequality. Oxfam asks why it hasn’t

Money could be spent over three years to increase old age living allowances, boost nursing home places, offer more subsidised childcare and help ethnic minority students learn Chinese, aid agency says

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Kalina Tsang (left) with Oxfam colleague Wong Shek-hung. Photo: Naomi Ng

Published: 9:51pm, 25 Sep 2018Updated: 4:16pm, 26 Sep 2018

An extra HK$36.7 billion (US$4.7 billion) should be set aside in next year’s budget to ease worsening inequality in Hong Kong, as that will also prevent more people from falling into poverty, aid agency Oxfam recommended on Tuesday.

The money could be spent over three years to increase old age living allowances, boost nursing home places, offer more subsidised childcare and help ethnic minority students learn Chinese. The government should also review the hourly minimum wage, now at HK$34.50, annually instead of every two years.

Oxfam gave its wish list in its Hong Kong Inequality Report, two weeks ahead of Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s policy address, saying these initiatives would address the city’s widening wealth gap.

It would take the poor in Hong Kong three years and eight months to scrape together what the richest households made in a month. Photo: Reuters

Hong Kong’s Gini coefficient – an index from 0 to 1 that measures the wealth gap – is at its highest since the city began keeping records on income equality 45 years ago.

“The Hong Kong government is not spending enough. It’s not only about poverty eradication, but they also need to think of it as an investment as well as to prevent poverty from happening,” said Kalina Tsang Ka-wai, head of Oxfam’s Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan Programme.