Source:
https://scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3046151/why-must-hong-kong-sink-billions-ocean-park-when-millions-live Letters
Why must Hong Kong sink billions into Ocean Park, when millions live in poverty ?
Ocean Park has seen a drop in visitor numbers, which it blames on the civil unrest in Hong Kong. Photo: Sam Tsang
I am outraged that the Hong Kong government is likely to confirm a HK$10.6 billion (US$1.4 billion) plan to bail out Ocean Park yet again.
This 43-year-old attraction is well past its sell-by date and this latest proposal is unlikely to restore it to profitability nor satisfy the changing needs of tourists and visitors. The theme park is already unable to repay its current loans and this latest “transformation” will not even come to fruition until 2027.
This is, sadly, yet another example of a government which clearly has absolutely no idea about the needs and priorities of the people of Hong Kong. Only recently was I reading that the number of poor people had reached a 10-year high, at around 1.4 million, or 20.4 per cent of the population, according to the government’s own Poverty Situation report.
Invest in Ocean Park or try to start reducing poverty? The answer, to most people, is obvious.
Debbie McGowan, Quarry Bay
Park gets a lifeline while small businesses drown
I read with horror your January 14 report on the HK$10.6 billion bailout of Ocean Park (“Ocean Park bailout will do more than ‘stop the bleeding’: tourism chief”).
Ocean Park has been unable to even pay past loans and clearly as a business is not viable. It never ceases to amaze me how the government continues to throw good money after bad on projects like Ocean Park in the interest of “Hong Kong tourism” or fictitious jobs of the future (low-paying, of course, except for the beneficiaries at the top).
We should expect Disneyland to follow suit and we can add that to the long and growing list, like the doomed cruise terminal, Cyberport and the mega-bridge to Macau, with little traffic to justify the billions in expenses.
In the meantime, the small businesses that are truly suffering from the unrest can continue to get empty assurances and peanuts, as they have no powerful organised lobbies to go after the taxpayer money being thrown around.
Samir Kumar, Causeway Bay