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Written by: Tao Jiaxin
2020-04-09 01:11
Date of last update: 2020-04-09 01:54The Chief Executive, Lin Zhengyue, announced on Wednesday (8th) the second round of anti-epidemic and anti-epidemic funds, with a total value of 137.5 billion yuan, of which 80 billion yuan is the "employment protection" plan, providing eligible employers with wage subsidies "substituting food" to provide monthly salary 50%, with an upper limit of 9,000 yuan. A number of industries that have been closed or restricted by the "restriction order", including restaurants, karaoke, and fitness rooms, also benefited.
The following are the key measures and the full text of the speeches by Lin Zhengyue and Chen Maobo.
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The Chief Executive, Lin Zheng Yuee, announced the launch of a $ 80 billion "employment protection" plan:
➡️ The government will provide wage subsidies to qualified employers to retain its employees, but the employer must promise not to lay off employees. All employers who make MPF contributions for employees are eligible.
The salary subsidy provided by the government is calculated on the basis of 50% of the salary. The upper limit of the salary is 18,000 yuan per month (or 9,000 yuan if the upper limit is calculated) for a period of 6 months. The employer is paid in 兩 installments, the first installment 不 is issued later than June 2020, and is expected to cover 1.5 million employees.
➡️ A one-off grant to self-employed MPF contributors (about 215,000 people).
➡️ Provide support to three employers of catering, construction and transportation (mainly taxis and red minibus drivers) that are not fully covered by the MPF Program (involving approximately 800,000 people)
➡️ Temporarily relax the asset ceiling for applying for CSSA to support the unemployed for a period of six months.
➡️ In the next two years, invest 6 billion yuan to create about 30,000 time-limited (not more than 12 months) jobs in public and private institutions.
The government announced rent reductions, fee waivers and loans to reduce financial burdens. Some measures include:
➡️ From July 1, 2020, the MTR fare will be reduced by 20% for a period of 6 months. In addition, from July 2020, the subsidy threshold for the public transportation fee subsidy program will be reduced from 400 yuan to 200 yuan.
➡️ Increase the government rent concessions for tenants and renters of government premises from April to September 2020, from 50% to 75%
➡️ Measures to reduce 75% of water charges and sewage charges for non-residential accounts are extended for another 4 months until November 2020.
➡️ Waiver of registration / registration fees for 125,000 healthcare professionals for a period of 3 years.
➡️ Provide interest-free extended repayment period for self-financing post-secondary colleges and non-profit-making international schools for a period of two years. In addition, all student loan repayers (except those who owe repayment) are automatically provided with interest-free extension of the repayment period for two years.
➡️ For taxpayers who should pay personal income tax, personal income tax and profits tax from April to June this year, a three-month extension is automatically provided.
▼ Limited polymerization will extend the upgrade ▼
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The government announced that the second 輪 Epidemic Prevention and Anti-epidemic Foundation will provide 16 support projects, and it is expected to spend 21 billion yuan to benefit multiple industries. Some measures include:
➡️ A one-off grant of 40,000 yuan was issued to the tutoring school. In addition, provide one-off subsidies to service providers and suppliers of schools and post-secondary institutions, including 10,000 yuan subsidies to school bus drivers, school private minibus drivers and nanny.
➡️ Provide a monthly allowance of RMB 6,000 to each eligible regular taxi and red bus driver for 6 months.
➡️ Provide subsidies to movie theaters with commercial operations in March. The subsidy amount is 100,000 yuan per screen, and each theater line can receive up to 3 million yuan.
➡️ Distribute cash to licensed travel agents, ranging from 20,000 to 200,000 yuan.
➡️ Provide a monthly allowance of RMB 5,000 to each travel agent employee and main business for the free operation of the tour guides and tour guides and tour guides for six months.
➡️ Provide 300,000 yuan / 400,000 yuan cash assistance to each licensed hotel.
➡️ A one-off grant of 7,500 yuan is given to qualified construction workers.
➡️ Provide 1 million yuan subsidy for large aircraft registered in Hong Kong, 200,000 yuan subsidy for each small aircraft registered in Hong Kong, is expected to involve about 270 aircraft.
➡️ Depending on the number of employees, each aviation support service and cargo facility operator can receive a maximum of 3 million yuan / 1 million yuan subsidy.
➡️ Provide one-off subsidy to catering premises, ranging from 250,000 yuan to 2.2 million yuan according to the size of the premises. At least 80% of the subsidy amount is used to pay employees' salaries (you cannot apply for subsidized employment insurance program)
➡️ According to government instructions, all eligible catering premises (including karaoke, bars / pubs, and nightclubs) that are closed 🚷 the entire licensed premises can be granted an additional subsidy of over 50,000 yuan.
➡️ Tenants of cooked food / refreshment stalls in public markets managed by FEHD will receive a one-off grant of over 50,000 yuan.
➡️ Provide a one-off subsidy to industries that have been ordered to close or take specified preventive measures due to the Prevention and Control of Diseases (Regulations and Instructions) (Business and Premises) Regulations (Chapter 599F).
▼ Official briefing materials of the Epidemic Prevention and Anti-epidemic Fund ▼
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The government will provide a one-off subsidy to industries ordered to close or take specified preventive measures:
➡️ Game console center: 100,000 yuan
➡️ Commercial bathroom: 100,000 yuan
➡️ Fitness center: 100,000 yuan
➡️ Playground (snooker place, public bowling alley and public ice rink): 100,000 yuan
➡️ Public entertainment venue license holder (non-theatre premises): 100,000 yuan
➡️ Temporary public entertainment venue license holder: 20,000 yuan
➡️ Mahjong / Tianjiu Playground: 100,000 yuan
➡️ Holder of meeting site qualification certificate: 100,000 yuan
➡️ Beauty salon: According to the size of the premises, 30,000 to 100,000 yuan will be issued, and the chain of beauty salons can receive up to 3 million yuan
➡️ Massage parlor: According to the size of the premises, 30,000 to 100,000 yuan will be distributed, and the chain massage parlor can receive up to 3 million yuan
➡️ Operators of recreation and sports facilities operated by non-governmental organizations on government land: 100,000 yuan
▼ Official supplementary information of the epidemic prevention and epidemic prevention fund ▼
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[The full text of the speech by Chief Executive Lin Zhengyue]
Today, together with several directors and directors, I introduced this set of measures to "work together to fight against the epidemic". Earlier today, the Executive Council held a special meeting to fully support the SAR Government to implement this set of relief measures as soon as possible.
Simply put, this new coronavirus poses an unprecedented challenge to Hong Kong. A wide range of economic activities have been severely disrupted. Some of them can be said to have completely stopped. They are also industries that we have been hit hard, such as aviation and tourism . In addition, because we want to fight against the epidemic, we have strengthened a lot of measures to maintain social distance, and businesses in all walks of life have plummeted. Third, I am afraid that many companies will gradually face bankruptcy, and large-scale layoffs are expected, causing many families and individuals to fall into trouble. In this regard, I particularly want to say that this is an expectation, because our latest unemployment rate is 3.7%, and we have repeatedly predicted that the unemployment rate will continue to rise, so this time we must do our best to prevent such expectations. Business failures and mass layoffs.
Since we are facing unprecedented challenges, the SAR Government also has to make an unprecedented response. Our response objectives are several: first, to help companies continue to operate; second, to keep employees in employment; third, to reduce the financial burden of enterprises and citizens; fourth, we hope that our economy can recover as soon as possible after the epidemic is controlled .
The measures announced today are our relief measures with a total value of HK $ 120 billion in the 2020-2021 Budget announced by the Financial Secretary on February 26, And further measures beyond the first phase of the 30 billion yuan "Epidemic and Anti-epidemic Fund" approved by the Legislative Council on February 21. I also hope that when you look at today's measures, you will notice at the same time that we have implemented this relief measure for the third time in a very short time.
In designing today ’s set of measures, we remind ourselves that when Hong Kong reaches this stage, we need to respond decisively and quickly, and these measures must also meet the following conditions: first, it is simple and easy to understand; second, it is easy Application, in other words, we generally do not require the enterprises or individuals who submitted the application to go through some very complicated review; third, because it has the function of "timely rain", so the allowance needs to be quickly paid to the needy People; fourth, because I said just now that all walks of life are basically hit, so we hope to cover a wide range, not just select some industries to provide assistance, but at the same time, we must provide additional for the industries that are hit hard. Assistance; in the end, we hope that all our measures can pave the way for future economic recovery.
The measures introduced to you today are divided into four major components: first, and most importantly, to secure employment, create jobs, and enhance work efficiency; second, provide assistance to certain industries; third, the government will reduce Rent, waiver of fees, providing loans or postponing the repayment of some loans to help individuals or businesses reduce the financial burden; fourth, other assistance facilitated by the government.
Let me first talk about the first part, which is about protecting the employment of employees. The SAR government will launch a "employment protection" program worth 80 billion yuan. This can be said to be unprecedented. The government will provide wage subsidies to qualified employers so that these employers can retain his employees, but the employer must promise not to lay off employees during the period of receiving wage subsidies. All employers who make MPF contributions for employees are eligible, but there are only some exempt employers. Simply put, these exempt employers have not been affected by the epidemic, or directly, many of them are It is the SAR Government that "grows grain", including employees of the Hong Kong SAR Government, many statutory agencies, and government-funded organizations. The calculation method of the wage subsidy provided by the government is 50% of the wage, and this wage is capped. The median wage in Hong Kong in the second quarter of 2019 is 18,000 yuan, which is the highest The wage subsidy is 50% of 18,000 yuan, and the subsidy period is six months. Or I will explain here again that the salary cap of 18,000 yuan does not mean that an employee earning more than 18,000 yuan will not receive a subsidy at all, but that his subsidy will be capped at 18,000 yuan and multiplied by 50%.
In order to make it easier to pay these subsidies, we suggest that although the coverage period is six months, it will be paid to employers in two installments so that employers can pay their employees. We will do our best; because this design is relatively simple, we It is hoped that the first phase will not be issued later than June 2002, but of course employers are required to apply in due course. We expect that 1.5 million employees with MPF contribution accounts will benefit under this plan. We have noticed that there are actually a relatively small percentage of workers in several industries that provide MPF-in fact, there are some industries in the MPF scheme that are handled specially-we see that in these industries It is really impossible for so few people to work because their MPF accounts are relatively small. The three industries are catering, construction, and transportation. Transportation mainly refers to taxis and red minibus drivers. If you are an employee of a bus company, I believe there must be MPF, so the transportation industry we designed is Refers to taxi and red minibus drivers. Since workers in these three industries are not enough to have a coverage or representativeness in the MPF, we suggest using another method to provide them with a wage subsidy of a similar nature, which will involve about 800,000 people.
Third, everyone knows that self-employed people can choose to provide MPF funds. Therefore, we will provide support for self-employed people who are currently providing MPF funds. They will be funded in a lump sum, which is about 215,000 people. Because everyone knows that since he has no employer, it is difficult to decide exactly how his subsidy should be calculated. Everyone will ask, these are people who are still working, because he has an employer, an MPF or a self-employed person, what about the unemployed? In fact, it is difficult, so when many trade unions and lawmakers proposed a short-term unemployment assistance, we have seriously considered it, but in fact it is very difficult. At present, we have decided to relax the upper limit of assets applied by the unemployed under the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance Scheme. The relaxation rate will be roughly doubled. The assets will be doubled today to allow more unemployed to apply for a period of six months. If you are interested, Secretary Luo Zhiguang can talk about it later. Since you are receiving CSSA when you are unemployed, your self-occupied property is not calculated for the first 12 months. Therefore, as a temporary relief for temporary unemployment, it is actually an acceptable plan. .
In addition to the large-scale employment protection plan I just mentioned, in this part, we have two jobs. First, create jobs. In the next two years, the SAR Government will create 30,000 time-limited jobs in the public and private sectors, about 12 months, with a total value of about 6 billion yuan. In addition, as the largest employer, although the economy is so difficult today, we will still recruit. We now expect to recruit about 10,000 civil servant positions and create 5,000 young people in 2020/21 Intern positions, but the time limit for these young intern positions is relatively short. Everyone will ask, this year's budget is still under review, and there are only 6,000 new posts. Why should we invite so many people? It is because some people will retire, and our civil servant team has entered the retirement peak, so with retired colleagues, we believe that at least 10,000 civil servants should be recruited. In the third aspect, I said just now that I hope this measure will pave the way for future economic recovery, so we will provide 800 million yuan for some work improvement projects. We will see the information later. At present, we have selected six projects, generally used to apply some new skills, so that companies can use some new technology. One of the examples is closely related to what happened recently: because of the epidemic situation, the court began to use video to review the case. One of our projects is to fund lawyers in Hong Kong, especially small and medium-sized law firms, to arrange these videos Facilities, and allow lawyers to receive some training.
The second part is that there has been a lot of discussions in recent days. In the first round of the "Epidemic and Anti-epidemic Fund" industries that have not benefited, and many industries that we have even closed due to the introduction of measures to maintain social distance. In the first round of 24 measures, we spent 30 billion yuan to be supervised by the Chief Secretary for Administration. On the whole, the work was smooth, and we were able to approve these payments as soon as possible according to our original promise. The second round of "Epidemic Prevention and Anti-epidemic Fund" will provide 16 support projects, with an estimated expenditure of 21 billion yuan, benefiting so many industries below, I will not explain them one by one, we will give you the documents later, everyone can see each Projects, such as this time we support tutoring societies, how much allowance each tutoring society receives. In terms of finance, we will support participants of some small and medium-sized exchanges and licensees of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. You can also see the amount. In particular, I would like to mention that there are three projects. Everyone sees that there is a star attached to it—that is, the passenger transportation industry, construction-related enterprises, and restaurants—these three projects include the employee salary subsidy I just mentioned. Because in the MPF, our "employment protection" plan is difficult to fully cover, we will protect the employment and wages of employees in these three industries in these three projects. The information you will receive later, you will find that the funds used by these three industries are very large, and these industries are processed with over 100 million yuan.
The third part is the fee and rent that the government can reduce, and we will try our best to do it this time. First, in terms of loans, because many companies are currently facing a shortage of money and cash flow difficulties, we will optimize the "SME Financing Guarantee Scheme" to increase the maximum loan amount of each company. Today's guarantee plan is divided into 80% credit, 90% credit and 100% credit guarantee. The increase is written here-80% credit is increased from 15 million to 18 million yuan; 90% credit guarantee is increased from 6 million yuan To 8 million yuan, and the latest 100% credit guarantee, which will be launched later this month, will increase from 2 million yuan to 4 million yuan. In addition, today only 100% of the credit guarantee is entitled to preferential interest. At present, we recommend that in the next year, even if borrowers borrow 80% or 90% of the guaranteed loan, we will provide him with a preferential interest, not exceeding three. In addition, under this plan, we will extend the application period and relax the period of time to allow listed companies to meet the eligibility requirements. Since this 100% credit plan is very popular in the industry, we have received many responses even though it has not been officially launched. They feel that this plan can provide timely help. We will apply to the Legislative Council to increase the commitment of this plan from the already approved 20 billion yuan to 50 billion yuan to meet the large demand of these enterprises. Overall, the total government credit commitment of the three loan guarantee schemes is 183 billion yuan. Of course, many of them have been approved and launched before, but I let everyone have a reference. In fact, it is a lot of money. We are willing to Lend to businesses in need.
In addition, there are quite a few concessions. I will tell you as soon as possible. First, we will reduce the rent reduction by 50% and 75% previously introduced in the Financial Secretary ’s relief measures. In addition, some land leased from the Lands Department for short-term use, such as short-term leases or waivers, has also increased in the next four months to 75%, and the scope of the two types of reductions has also expanded. What was not included in the past is now almost all included in this reduction.
Fifth, the water and sewage charges have been reduced for eight months. This applies to non-residential accounts. We will extend it for four months until November this year. In other words, all non-residential accounts will be entitled to 12 consecutive months of relief.
Sixth, in order to express our recognition and gratitude to the medical staff, we will waive the registration and registration fees of 125,000 medical professionals in the next three years.
Seventh, when the social economy is recovering, I believe many people will take public transportation again. We suggest that the MTR Corporation should reduce fees. From July 1, this year, for a period of six months, the subway fare will be reduced by 20%, and half of the loss will be paid by the government.
The eighth item is our own public transportation fee subsidy program. We recommend that the subsidy threshold be reduced from 400 yuan to 200 yuan, starting in July this year.
In the past, in order to support the development of self-financing post-secondary institutions and international schools in Hong Kong, the SAR Government approved some loans with the approval of the Legislative Council. Now we recommend that their interest-free repayment period can be extended by two years.
The tenth is for all student loan repayers, there are about 200,000 student loan repayers. In addition to the arrears, we will automatically provide interest-free extension of the repayment period, for a period of two years, this does not need to apply.
There is no need to apply for the eleventh, as taxpayers who should pay salaries tax, personal income tax and profits tax in April, May and June this year, I believe that more than 1 million people will automatically provide three The extension of the month.
The fourth part is other aids facilitated by the government. As I said just now, the aviation industry is the industry that is hitting hardest this time. Therefore, in addition to the relief measures provided by the government and enterprises in the aviation industry can also apply for the “employment protection” subsidy program, the Airport Authority also agreed to provide Directly supported operators provide additional relief measures worth 2 billion yuan.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has also recently "made a lot of money". By adjusting the regulatory standards, banks have increased their ability to borrow loans. After several rounds of work, a total of one trillion yuan of loan space has been released and customers have been provided. Some arrangements that they would like to see, I believe banks are very happy to do it-the arrangement of "repaying interest but not paying back", and also made some measures for some specific industries. The main purpose is to hope that these industries can obtain They urgently need liquidity.
Similarly, the Insurance Regulatory Authority is also assisting major insurance companies to provide their clients with a limited time limit, so that some individuals who have purchased life, critical illness and medical insurance do not need to pay premiums for a specified period, but they are not "Break the supply", otherwise it will affect their life insurance, critical illness and medical insurance.
The government has many contracts, and there is often a deadline in these contracts or fund allocations-when we complete the project, we will pay. Due to the problem of social distance, many normal work cannot be carried forward, so we will issue a notice requesting all government bureaux and departments to extend the completion period of these projects, or relax the payment time of government engineering and non-engineering contracts, and extend the land lease The Building Covenant is limited to a maximum of six months.
▼ Questions and answers for the employment protection plan ▼
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Finally, let me talk about the overall financial impact. The total expenditure for the whole set of measures is HK $ 137.5 billion, including the need to inject an additional 109.5 billion yuan into the "Epidemic and Anti-epidemic Fund"; 11.7 billion yuan into the credit guarantee program; and 3.2 billion yuan in additional expenditure on the CSSA, plus a certain amount Contingency, or contingency, totaled 135.7 billion yuan, and the remaining 1.8 billion yuan was underreceived income. Because we reduced rent, waived fees, provided loans, or delayed repayments, we lost 1.8 billion here. The total amount is 137.5 billion yuan. In addition, what we have not included in the 137.5 billion yuan is an additional 30 billion yuan commitment to seek approval to increase the percentage of special guarantee products. Together with the 30 billion yuan of the first round of the "Epic and Anti-epidemic Fund" and the 120 billion yuan involved in the "Budget Budget" measures, the overall SAR government's financial commitment for the relief of the public and enterprises for just over a few months, The total amount is 287.5 billion yuan, accounting for about 10% of GDP.
Assuming that the expenditures for this additional measure are all paid in 2020-2021, this set of measures will increase the budget deficit for this fiscal year from the original Financial Secretary ’s estimate of $ 139.1 billion to $ 276.6 billion, which is It is said to increase from 4.8% of GDP to 9.5%. This 9.5 percent GDP deficit will be cause for concern, but given the near-catastrophic impact of today ’s epidemic on Hong Kong ’s economy, I think the Government must use Hong Kong ’s accumulated fiscal reserves for many years, Assist enterprises and citizens. This is also because we are confident that we have been able to make some money this time by spending this money. Because Hong Kong ’s solid foundation and the Hong Kong people ’s strong anti-epidemic ability, we are confident that we can overcome this difficulty. What is needed now is that we work together and fight the epidemic together, and Hong Kong will definitely be able to start again and move forward.
In order to show that we are willing and need to share the difficulties with the public, I myself and the principal officials, including the Chief Secretary for Administration, the Financial Secretary, the Secretary of Justice and the 13 Secretaries, as well as the Chief Executive ’s Office in the next 12 months Will be reduced by 10%.
Thank you all.
On April 8, Chen Maobo met with reporters. (Photo by Yu Junliang)
[The Financial Secretary ’s Anti-epidemic Press Conference Opening Statement]
Hello Hong Kong citizens and media friends. The impact of the New Coronavirus epidemic on the global economy and the Hong Kong economy is greater than the global financial tsunami in 2008. Extensive local economic activities have been severely disrupted, the economic climate has been sluggish, and the unemployment rate has risen to a high level in the past few years. Due to the global epidemic, the global economy has fallen into a deep recession, and there is great uncertainty about how long it will last.
In the face of severe challenges, large-scale unemployment must be avoided, otherwise the demand will be further weakened and the economy and employment will experience a "spiral" decline. Therefore, the government must decisively introduce effective measures to "support enterprises, secure employment, and relieve people's hardship."
The measures announced today, together with the previous "epidemic prevention and anti-epidemic fund" and budget measures, involve a total amount of nearly 290 billion yuan, which is equivalent to 9% of the GDP in 2019, close to 10%. This range is very close to the scale of financial measures recently introduced by some advanced economies in response to the epidemic situation and the rapid economic downturn.
This round of measures is estimated to have a buffer effect of about two percentage points on our GDP. We estimate that the four rounds of measures launched since August last year, the first round of measures of the "Epidemic and Anti-epidemic Fund" in February this year, the measures of this year's Budget, and the current round of measures of the "Epidemic and Anti-epidemic Fund" A total of nearly 320 billion yuan will provide a buffer of about 5% of our GDP.
You may be concerned about how high this year's fiscal deficit is? The Chief Executive also mentioned just now that I estimate in the Budget that the fiscal deficit will be about 139.1 billion yuan this year, together with 133.7 billion yuan in the second round of the "Epidemiological and Anti-epidemic Fund", and this year's economic contraction will seem to be worse than we expected. This will affect land sales revenue and tax this year, and this year's fiscal deficit will increase further.
Although the amount of fiscal deficit is huge, under the special environment that has not been seen before, the government must decisively invest enough resources to prevent epidemic, fight against epidemic, maintain employment and stabilize the economy. Our fiscal reserves are approximately more than RMB 1.1 trillion. Although this year's deficit will reduce reserves to 8,000 to 900 billion yuan, our public finances are still healthy.
In fact, in the past, we gradually built up reserves when the economy was good, just to let it play its role when we encountered difficulties, so that we were able to launch large-scale counter-cyclical support measures when the environment is difficult, to alleviate the economic downturn to the public. The impact of employment and life.
On April 8, Lin Zhengyue met a reporter. (Photo by Yu Junliang)
[Full text of Chinese Q & A at the press conference]
Reporter: Mrs. Lin, hello, first of all, I would like to ask about the measures not to directly support employees but to the employers. I would like to ask whether it is difficult to give them directly to employees? If so, will there be opportunities for some loopholes, for example, the employer may actually close the business after taking the money, that is, leave after taking the money? This is the first question. The second question is that after seeing a salary cut for a period of one year, I would like to ask whether it was actually considered after a big objection in the society? Why have foreign countries actually reduced their salaries, and the government has only come up with it now. In fact, is the government lagging behind in epidemic prevention work and in assessing the political situation? The third aspect is to ask just now that the registration fees for medical staff will be waived for three years. In fact, medical staff did not propose to reduce money and spend less. In fact, they hope that the government may be more aggressive in epidemic prevention. Can they promise them directly? Wouldn't the strikers "account after the fall"? Thank you.
Chief Executive: Thank you, three questions. First, when designing "employment protection" and other measures, protecting employees is the top priority. In fact, this time more than 130 billion yuan, I roughly calculated that at least 70% or more is placed on employees. Some are in 80 billion, and the vast majority of the 80 billion is placed on employees, but some I just said that in the three industry projects, many of them are to protect the wages of employees. There is no doubt that the job of the SAR Government is to put “employment protection” first, but everyone also remembers that I said yesterday that in the past week, I met with many people, including trade unions, chambers of commerce, and representatives of industry employees. There are representatives of employers in the industry, and everyone unanimously said that employees must be guaranteed to be employed now, otherwise he will be dismissed and laid off. A large number of dismissals and severances are known to cause great shock to society, so from this starting point, because it is the employer who really has a relationship with the employee, we give the employer the wage subsidy to the employee and then restrict it. One of the most direct methods is also the fastest one; you can ask whether it is difficult or not, if you want to find these millions of employees to give them one by one, it is really difficult.
Now you also see that we have to look at the employer ’s MPF contribution as a basis to calculate the wage subsidy to the employer, but during the period when the employer wants to receive the wage subsidy, first of all, he must promise not to lay off ---- I I hope that the employer will not lay off employees from today, and do not wait until the day when the application is filed. If we find that he has laid off employees, we will recover the money, and may even have to pay additional fees. This will be written in the rules in the future. The second aspect is that he also wants to put all the wage subsidies given to him by the government into the employees ’remuneration, that is, he cannot use them to pay rent, which also protects the employees. The entire plan is very transparent. We will release the information of employers applying for the "employment protection" program to let employees know that their employer has applied to the government for "employment protection" wage subsidies to help them keep their jobs. If employees are not granted, I believe that employees should take action. There are also some very active trade unions in Hong Kong. I believe that trade unions will also "take the lead" on behalf of these employees, so I am not very worried about employers in this difficult time. Then abuse wage subsidies. The government will strictly audit and follow up, but we must first give money so that employees can get these "timely rains" and stay in his positions.
The second question is about salary cuts. Everyone can understand that such a complex and comprehensive plan is unlikely to be done in the two or three days because the Budget Committee of the Legislative Council started to consider the budget, and seeing that the budget of the Chief Executive ’s Office caused such discussions caused some discussion. . It can be said to everyone that this decision to reduce pay already appeared when we entered into the discussion of this plan, and it was not an item that was added afterwards, because we want to show that we are going through hardships with the public. Just like why this "employment protection" plan, I want to exempt all organizations that "give food" by the government? Because they actually increase the workload of course, this is undeniable, especially among colleagues who fight against the epidemic, but after all, our work is stable and our wages are guaranteed. In this case, we said that the situation is so severe. As a governance team of the SAR, I need to show that we have to bear the burden of hardships with the public. Therefore, the project was proposed not because of the political situation or because anybody suggested And respond.
Third, more than 100,000 medical staff waive their registration fees, the amount is not too much, I believe it may be hundreds of thousands to thousands of professional registration fees per year, I hope for the hard work of medical staff during this time, said Our recognition and affirmation. You made another request. I heard that Dr. Gao was promoted in the Special Finance Committee of the Legislative Council today. This is a question of the HA as an employer and its employees. It does not involve the SAR Government because I am not Employers of HA employees. I also heard that Dr. Gao said that he would take appropriate actions in accordance with the law and in accordance with their own human resources management codes.
Reporter: Hello, I would like to ask after the introduction of these measures, the fiscal deficit will go to 9.5 percent of GDP. Will you worry that it will affect the rating? Will the reserve level actually fall to the equivalent of how many months of government expenditure? Some Members suggested that the Government should actually take advantage of the rainy day, such as issuing bonds, is this actually feasible? Secondly, I would like to ask whether the measures to secure employment will worry that some companies will lay off their workers before applying. In fact, the utility may be reduced in disguise? Third, I would like to ask about the reduction of officials' labor. Will the guilds follow the same rate of salary reduction? And how to determine 10% and one year? Thank you.
Chief Executive: I will answer the last two questions first. First, the principal officials who proposed to ride out the difficulties with the public this time are the principal officials I mentioned. We cannot impose them on the Executive Council. Even if we donated a month ’s salary for charity last time, it was our decision and implementation; the non-official members of the guild would discuss it by themselves and then announce it to everyone. I don't know if the non-official members of the guild will make announcements later today. Secondly, in the "employment protection" plan, we see that there will not be too many incentives for companies to lay off employees first and then apply for subsidies; things should be reversed, and employers should increase the manpower to make the amount of subsidies more calculated, because we are Calculated based on its overall wage at a certain time, as long as the wage does not exceed 50% of the upper limit of 18,000 yuan, it will become the government ’s subsidy to the employer ’s overall wage, which will be paid to the employees, so we will not see what you will see. Said the problem. You said that a certain company is already in April. If it is affected by the epidemic and it has already laid off employees in the early stage, there will be a difficulty and there is no way to restore it. But I hope that this amount of wage subsidy will enable the employer to recruit employees. This is a phenomenon that everyone and society enjoy.
I ask the Financial Secretary to answer questions such as fiscal deficits and debt issuance.
Financial Secretary: Thank you Chief Executive. The second round of "Epidemic and Anti-epidemic Fund" measures launched this time, together with the "Budget" and the measures of the first round of anti-epidemic and anti-epidemic funds, amounted to nearly 290 billion yuan, equivalent to 9% of GDP Five, close to ten percent. This range is similar to some advanced economies in the world, such as the United States, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Malaysia is also very close to us. From this perspective, everyone in the world has seen that in this unprecedented situation, it is necessary to respond vigorously and quickly. This is the first point.
Secondly, I have recently met with rating agencies. They learned from the newspaper that we are preparing for the "Epidemic and Anti-epidemic Fund". They also saw the "Budget" and the first round of anti-epidemic and anti-epidemic measures, and asked if I would launch it again. Measures. In fact, they all agree that in the current environment, what we have to do is to avoid a "spiral" economic downturn and large-scale unemployment in the job market.
As for the issue of whether we will issue bonds just now, you may remember that the SAR Government has always had its policy objectives in issuing bonds. Some are used for market development, such as silver bonds and green bonds. On the other hand, they also support public works. Therefore, if we want to issue bonds, we need to make the market understand clearly why we issue bonds. Although the deficit this year will be relatively large, we estimate that the fiscal reserves after deducting the deficit will still be between 800 and 900 billion yuan, which is equivalent to about 14 to 5 months of government expenditure, so our public finances are stable. If debt is issued under such circumstances, for example, to raise funds for anti-epidemic and anti-epidemic work through debt issuance, others may misunderstand why the government has sufficient funds to still issue bonds, and whether fiscal discipline will relax from then on. So for now, we think it is not the right time to change the usual practice. Looking into the future, if there are good infrastructure projects and good infrastructure investment in the future, I think that the issuance of bonds can be studied when promoting these projects. In fact, in the Budget, green bonds have been mentioned that tens of billions of yuan will be issued this year and the next four years. This is the case.
(The Chief Executive and the Secretary for Transport and Housing answer an English question in English.)
Chief Executive: Director Chen Fan said about the AA's approach. I may add one or two sentences here. The AA will use its own resources. In order to make the local airlines have more cash in such a difficult time, they will first purchase promissory notes-500,000 "fare tickets"-to promote Hong Kong in the future. ready. This is also in line with the principle I just said. This time, we not only provide immediate or short-term assistance, but also hope to pave the way for Hong Kong's economic recovery. There is another project, although the amount involved is not too much, about 40 million yuan, but it will make Hong Kong's publishing industry hopeful. We hope to resume the book fair this year-because it is usually in July or August, but I am not bold enough to say that we will have a book fair-but if we hold the book fair, we will use 40 million Yuan, so that most exhibiting publishers can participate for free, this is also the opinion of the publishing industry in the past week. These are what I said we hope to get out of this epidemic as soon as possible, and everyone can start again; if every industry can do something in advance now, we are happy to help together.
Reporter: I want to ask the "employment protection" plan. You said that you would require companies to promise not to lay off staff at that time, but during the period when the plan was not launched, they only advised them not to lay off staff, but if they really lay off or close jobs at this time, does the government Method to follow up or pursue? And many enterprises are losing money when they realize it. If they do n’t use the money to lay off employees, they will take the money but close the business. If it uses the money as severance payment, is there any way for the government to pursue or regulate it? The second question is to ask the question of salary reduction, because you will increase the salary by 10% in the budget. I want to ask you whether you want to reduce the salary by 10%, or reduce the salary by 10%. ? And see that in fact, some senior executives of private companies have reduced their salaries by 20% to 30%, so I would like to ask whether you are enough to ride out the hardships with the public? Would you suggest that all members of the Legislative Council respond to your request for a 10% salary reduction? Thanks a lot.
Chief Executive: I will answer the second question first, and then ask Secretary Luo to answer, because he is the Secretary of the Labour and Welfare Bureau, and he is familiar with such issues as severance. First, I must also clarify again that the 2002/21 Budget is an appropriation, an appropriation for each department or policy bureau, and the head of expenditure to the Chief Executive Office-in fact, in each The Secretary ’s heads of expenditure are the same because of this arrangement-that is to put the salary we need in the 12 months of this year into the appropriation, it does not mean that in the 2021/21 Budget Applying for or raising a salary is not the case at all. Earlier, the Legislative Council had passed a mechanism for adjusting politically-appointed officials based on inflation adjustment, which takes effect on July 1 of each year. Now the salary you see is adjusted according to this inflation mechanism on July 1 last year, with the CPI-C; it is not a 10% increase-I think it is increased because I really do n’t know-but It's probably only about 2%. If it's CPI (C), I think it's only about 2%. You can easily calculate it. If I had a salary of about 420,000, I would increase it by more than 40,000 yuan a month. I have no such increase. Everyone is very interested in the issue of officials' salaries, but they all need to present facts and reason.
As for the Legislative Council, it is also the same mechanism, the Executive Council is also the same mechanism, and the district board members are all the same mechanism, all of which are approved by the Legislative Council, that is, they do not need to be submitted to the Legislative Council for approval every time as a civil service salary increase There is an automatic inflation adjustment mechanism. It does not matter whether it is the CPI, C, C, or CPI. If I remember correctly, the adjustment mechanism for the members of the Legislative Council is the upcoming October 1 or October 1 last year, which means that after we adjust on July 1, they will also adjust on October 1. I believe The increase is also close. Members of the Legislative Council or Members of the Executive Council, under the circumstance that we all have to overcome difficulties today, what decision do we want to make? I respect their own autonomy.
Please Director Luo.
Secretary for Labour and Welfare: Simply put, the purpose of the entire project ("employment protection" scheme) is designed to give employers no incentives to reduce pay or layoffs. This is because employers who receive pay cuts or layoffs will receive less wage subsidies; or if they layoffs or pay cuts later, they will also receive fewer payouts in the future. However, some questions mentioned earlier, what will happen if the employer has laid off employees and reduced the pay today? The amount currently designed will actually encourage employers to re-employ employees, and may even increase salaries, because we will look at the figures when we review them in the future. Therefore, the current design is conducive to employers not to lay off staff, not reduce wages, or even re-appoint, or even increase salaries.
Reporter: Hello, Mrs. Lin, first of all, I would like to ask the officials about the salary reduction. Although you said that it has been under discussion early in the morning, do you feel that the decision to raise your salary at this time is not politically sensitive? Secondly, why did it decide to maintain this salary reduction for one year, does it mean that after one year, it will actually be increased twice, that is, two years of salary will be added once? The second question is about how to determine whether the subsidy is 50% of labor? In fact, many trade unions have proposed that they can fully subsidize, or 70% to 80%. How is the 50% determined? Is there any scientific basis this time? Third, many self-employed people may be casual workers in the catering industry, or the beauty industry pays in cash or cheques. In fact, have they been missed by the subsidy plan this time and are not covered? Thank you.
Chief Executive: First, the government has not taken the initiative to announce any salary increase. Let me explain again, every year the SAR Government has to submit a "Budget" to apply for 12 months' salary for each policy bureau and department. In the 12-month salary, of course, it depends on the salary of each colleague, including political officials, at that moment, and it takes 12 months to know how much to get. Today ’s remuneration for political officials is based on the inflation adjustment mechanism approved by the Legislative Council on July 1 last year; however, because Legislative Council members, especially some members, come to the Special Finance Committee every year to consider the Budget, As Luo Zhiguang said, he often asked the questions he asked last year. He stored a lot of information on the same topic every year. After checking it, he found that the chief executive seemed to have 120,000 more. I also read the reply, only to know afterwards. This is not a salary increase proposal at this moment, nor is it our decision to announce a salary increase. As I said, the situation in the Legislative Council is exactly the same. The appropriation of the Legislative Council is the calculation of the salary of every member of the Legislative Council after inflation adjustment in October last year. To do this is not an initiative to apply for a salary increase at this moment.
There are two considerations as to why the "employment protection" plan of ESS should be set at 50% of the salary, and the latest national median salary of 18,000 yuan as the upper limit. If it is too small, it will not work at all to ask the employer to retain employees; second, if it is too hard, such as full payment, we cannot afford it. As you can see, this plan is currently set at 50%, 6 months, and the salary cap is 18,000 yuan. 80 billion yuan has been spent. Therefore, when choosing whether to do more or less, we must consider public finances. pressure. Everyone just asked some questions about whether the Financial Secretary can bear it and how the rating agencies will view Hong Kong. I cannot say that it is very scientific, but I have referred to the practices of several governments. I have also compared it with you just now. I think our approach has been more reasonable and more lenient, especially since we have not targeted certain industries. For some industries that have been hit hard, we will have additional subsidies.
Of course, there is no way for any design to be watertight. There are close to more than 3.7 million employed people in Hong Kong. I cannot say that it is watertight, but we have done our best. There are 1.5 million people in the MPF scheme, 200,000 people who are self-employed, and then another method to subsidize 800,000 people in three industries, and then excluding government employees plus 400,000 in statutory agencies, The numbers are large. Of course, some of them are "break up". For example, he is a sports coach who does not provide MPF and free body. He goes to school as a coach and teaches sports after school, such as badminton and table tennis. These are the second round of this time. The "Epidemic Prevention Fund" helps them. If you are interested, you may wish to take a look at this. We have more than one project this time. We integrated it, which is the school-related services. Because the school suspension period is very long this time, and I do n’t know when the school will start, so many people ’s work or income is related to the school, and he will be affected more or less. This time we have looked very closely, that is, what service providers will be affected in the school, so there is such a project in this "Epidemic and Anti-epidemic Fund", that is, the school ’s kiosks, canteens and restaurant operators, we A one-time subsidy of 80,000 yuan, because in universities or schools, they do not need to go to the FEHD to apply for a license, so the last 80,000 and 200,000 really missed them, this time we make up here.
In addition, there are some lunch box suppliers who do not supply all of them to the school, but many of them are supplied to the school. The subsidy we have to pay back is 10,000 yuan. I believe they are now supplying lunch boxes to others, because no one goes to restaurants or restaurants. In addition, as far as the school bus is concerned, we should have already paid a subsidy to the school bus owner, but there are still some drivers and nannies. At present, we will retrieve these school bus drivers and nannies who serve the school on weekdays. Then what I said just now, some of them were "disrupted". When he entered the school as a coach, we gave him 7,500 yuan per person. The same kind is sent to the coach or mentor, as long as he is also an instructor in the interest class in our social service center, or he is a registered sports coach belonging to the National Sports Association (NSA, National Sports Associations), we will all share a 7,500 yuan Make a small allowance.
Reporter: Mrs. Lin, hello. I would like to ask whether the punishment mechanism will be punished, or whether it will be punished if it is "fired" or may be required to take unpaid leave? If yes, in fact, do you provide some allowances to employers after they are paid, or do you give them allowances according to the labor paid beforehand? In addition, you have mentioned some freelancers just now, but not every freelancer is in school or the like. In fact, do these freelancers have other subsidies? For example, will it be over 18 years of age, that is, will the previous budget propose to add 10,000 yuan to increase it? In addition, you just said that it is not possible to directly grant allowances to employees, but in fact, Macao has a practice, such as employees ’income tax. Employees can apply for their own and the government grants subsidies, but why ca n’t the Hong Kong government do it? The last question is, when will the second round of funds you mentioned just now be submitted to the Legislative Council Finance Committee for approval? Thank you.
Chief Executive: I will answer two questions. I would like to ask Secretary Luo or the Financial Secretary to talk about overcharging. First, the second round of "Epidemic Prevention and Anti-epidemic Fund" appropriation is to include the "employment protection" plan, so it is quite a large appropriation; last time it was 30 billion, this time it was over 100 billion. Originally, we wanted to go to the Finance Committee two days later, but because the content is too much and more complicated, the Easter holiday will start the day after tomorrow, so our current plan is to fight for April 17 (Next Friday), the Financial Committee was originally arranged in the morning and afternoon. I believe that at this time, our colleagues have tried to find the Chairman of the Finance Committee, Mr. Chen Jianbo, to solicit his opinion. Can we have a special Finance Committee meeting, as above Handle the project in the first round at a time. Here I sincerely call on the members of the Legislative Council, hoping to pass it as soon as possible, because this money is very important, many companies and many employees hope that we can release these assistance to them as soon as possible.
How to help employees elsewhere, of course, varies from person to person. We all need to know that in our case, the number of employees who have to pay interest and taxes is actually very small, about half. Some places are really better, there are pay-as-you-go, then it depends on which to do; in some places, the employee ’s salary tax is paid by the employer, so we have to see which method we use in our case. Coverage is the largest. It seems that under the current Hong Kong system, MPF is the largest coverage, and it also allows us to distribute the money faster, through the employer-I emphasize only through the employer, but it should be placed on the salary of employees to protect He was able to stay in his job.
Ask the Financial Secretary to talk about the situation of 10,000 yuan, and then ask the Secretary for Labour and Welfare to talk about the punishment mechanism.
Financial Secretary: Thank you Chief Executive. In response to the question raised by this friend just now, as you may remember in taxation, we have introduced a 100% exemption from salaries tax in the Budget, and the upper limit is 20,000 yuan. Calculated in this way, in fact, there are more than 3 million of our “workers” in Hong Kong, more than 1.9 million have filed tax returns, of which more than 1.2 million are no longer taxed, and most of the other have not paid much, so if Let's increase the tax rebate again. In fact, for some grassroots or middle-income friends, their benefits are not large, and those who benefit more will be high-income people. This is the first point.
The second point, you just asked if the 10,000 yuan cash distribution plan would be "overweight". We must understand that the SAR Government ’s work to relieve public pressure is actually multifaceted. The 10,000 yuan distribution plan involves about 70 billion yuan. What is the consideration behind it? It is hoped that the economy can be stabilized, and at the same time relieve the pressure of the public. The total scale of the measures announced today is more than 130 billion yuan. In fact, the considerations behind them are the same—that is, to support the economy and keep jobs, and to avoid a “spiral” decline in the economy and employment due to a large number of unemployment. When the scale of unemployment is large, everyone's confidence will be affected and they dare not consume, so it will affect the economy, and the impact on the economy will affect employment, so we must prevent this from happening. In fact, behind every job and every job is a family. There are old and young, and they have to live and eat. All these are expenses. Under the current economic environment, many "wage earners" are actually worried about whether their work is "steady." Therefore, I think that whether it is the measures in the Budget or the measures in the "Epidemic and Anti-epidemic Fund", the total is close to 290 billion. The goal is also the same, that is, to stabilize the economy and keep the work of "wage earners". The effect of distributing money is relatively immediate, but if we can keep our job, "there is food", it is more reassuring for everyone, and it will be more pragmatic and stable. Both things are important, so we need to balance.
Secretary for Labour and Welfare: Let me briefly add a few points. First, there are two methods of punishment for the "guaranteed employment" program: one method we call drawback, that is, to recover the salary subsidy, and the second method is that in the next month, the salary subsidy we provide will have a discount. To put it simply, if you (employer) lay off staff, or pay money that is not fully given to employees in accordance with the application conditions of the plan, we will have some provisions that allow us to withhold and recover the money.
In addition, two points are added. Firstly, under our current mandatory provident fund (MPF) system, there are about 215 000 self-employed people making contributions. I believe most of them are commonly known as "scattered". Therefore, as mentioned earlier, these people will have a special arrangement to provide them with a one-off subsidy at an amount similar to that mentioned earlier (other projects), that is, 7,500 yuan.
The third point is a simple addition. We have been talking more about MPF, that is, MPF, in the speech just started by the chief executive. This is a convenient and simple statement, because all MPF schemes are consistent, especially statutory contributions. In terms of, but in fact our plan also includes the commonly known as ORSO Scheme (career retirement plan), so everyone need not worry, these plans (employees) are also included, and they are not omitted.
CHIEF EXECUTIVE: Since the Secretary for Food and Health announced today that there are two other types of premises to be closed through instructions, I believe that many people who have been and have been legally required to close in the past and today are very concerned about this assistance or allowance. In this set of plans, in the second round of "Epidemic and Anti-epidemic Fund", all premises that were ordered to be closed-a total of 11 types, including game center, fitness center and beauty salon and massage parlor announced this morning- Each center is granted a lump sum of 100,000 yuan, but the beauty salon and massage parlor are divided into three levels, because their sizes are very different, so when the fitness center is all 100,000 yuan subsidy, the beauty salon and massage The hospital will be divided into three levels of allowances according to their size-the small one is 30,000; the big one is 100,000; the middle one will be 60,000. In addition, one category that is closed by orders is large, and its operating costs are also high, that is, theaters; so every theater that is ordered to be closed, every screen-because theaters are large and small, some have more screens ──Each screen will have a subsidy of 100,000 yuan, but each theater can only get a maximum of 3 million yuan. This is assistance for industries that have been ordered to close their premises. Thank you.
[Full text of the English Q & A at the press conference]
Reporter: Thank you, Mrs Lam. Firstly, on the 50 per cent level for the salaries, can you explain how you and your team came up with that figure when we're looking at, like the UK and Singapore Maybe maybe offering a slightly higher percentage? Secondly, can you just speak a little bit about what guarantees there are that the money which you are going to be giving to employers will actually trickle down to employees and make sure that they aren't missing out on this relief? And thirdly, rents is a big overhead for companies obviously, obviously that's a bit outside your ambit but will you be making appeals to the private sector to offer relief as well?
Chief Executive: Thank you very much for the three questions. First of all, in designing the Employment Support Scheme, let's call it the ESS, we have to ensure that the money that we are providing is reasonable to enable the employers to keep their employees in the job. If we provide too small an amount, the employer will continue to have difficulty in keeping that employee in the job, but if we provide too large an amount, that is a question of affordability. Now this package at 50 per cent of wage cap of $ 18,000 already costs $ 80 billion, so I will say that 50 per cent is about right percentage. You mentioned the UK and the Singapore schemes; I may as well give you this comparison because in designing the scheme, we have looked at the UK, Singapore, Australia schemes. Yes, the UK scheme seemed to suggest an 80 per cent of wage subsidy, but if you look at the details of the UK scheme, it's only available to what they call furloughed employees-that is employees on leave. In other wo rds, they are more or less being laid off, they are on leave, they are not supposed to come back to work and under those circumstances, then their wages could attract 80 per cent subsidy. In our case, we very much welcome the assisted employees to stay in the job so that they will get not only our subsidy but will continue to get some pay from the employers, and this is also a much more, in my view, a healthier development because we want the staff to be engaged in work so that when the epidemic situation stabilises, then there will be more business. So it's not entirely the same comparison. As far as the Singapore scheme, they actually have a three-tiered subsidy of 25 per cent, 50 per cent and 75 per cent – 25 per cent is made available to all sectors except those who are given 50 and 75 per cent. Fifty per cent is given to the hard-hit sector, I think it's in the catering industry; where 75 per cent are really given to the almost dead sectors, like aviation and tourism. More recen tly Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat has announced, I think, two days ago, that for the month of April, the Singaporean Government will extend a 75 per cent to all sectors because of very aggressive social distancing measures being imposed on almost every sector. I suppose if the situation stabilises, they will still adhere to the 25 per cent, 50 per cent and 75 per cent. But in our case it's across the board-50 per cent-so I will describe that our scheme is broad-based, is quite generous in that respect. Also, to try to differentiate sectors which are more hard hit, less hard hit, is not too easy in the MPF arrangement. What the Hong Kong SAR Government has chosen is for those hard-hit areas, we will provide them additional subsidies under the Anti-epidemic Fund. If you are interested, we can give you an example later on how a travel agency will benefit from both schemes – the ESS scheme and the AEF item.
As far as the assurance, that if wage subsidy will go to the employees, the first thing is 100 per cent of the wage subsidies provided by the Hong Kong SAR Government have to be spent on wages. The employer could not deploy the money for other purposes and we will put in place very robust auditing after the event because I don't want to have detailed vetting before paying out. The employees and employers are now very short of cash. They need money. But we reserve the power to do auditing in order to ensure that the money is spent on wages. Secondly is the employers have to promise that there will be no redundancy. And thirdly, we will operate in a very transparent way. All the employers who have applied and approved to enjoy the ESS , we will tell everybody, particularly the employees, so the employees will know that their employers have received wage subsidies which are supposed to be for them, not for the employer, and if they don't get it, then I am sure they will complain either to us directly or through the trade unions, so there are safeguards all the way to ensure that the money will go to the employees.
Now, rent is a very tricky issue and it is also a very important cost component in doing business in Hong Kong. As far as the Hong Kong SAR Government is concerned, for tenants occupying our premises or our land on a short-term basis, we are now going deeper to provide a 75 per cent rent concession. As you may remember, I have met with REDA (The Real Estate Developers Association of Hong Kong), I have made several public appeals to landlords, particularly big developers to likewise provide rent concessions to their tenants so as to keep their tenants afloat. Otherwise the shopping malls will become vacant pretty soon if all these retail, restaurants have to close down. I understand and I appreciate that some developers have been doing that and doing the rent concessions in a rather generous way, so sitting here now I make this further appeal to developers to do exactly that so that we could together, not only fighting this virus, but also support Hong Kong. Thank you very much.
Reporter: Three questions. First is about the distribution of the wage subsidies. It's going to take another two months for the citizens to receive the money, so my question is, can this be done earlier and do you see that before the employees actually get the money some businesses may have to shut already? The second question is about, some other reporters have asked already, how do you ensure that the money actually gets to the pocket of the workers. For the violators, will there be any consequences, any punishment? The last question is: how do you calculate how much subsidy will the self-employed people be getting? And, just to clarify, am I right that all employees, no matter what businesses they're in, they will qualify for the wage subsidies? You talked about the Singapore model, the three-tier model. Is that something that you would actually consider that the companies that are more hard-hit will be getting a bigger subsidy for the employees and the companies that are less hard-hit will be getting less money for their employees? Thank you.
Chief Executive: Let me answer the second question first. First, I said as a principle, in designing this package, it has to be sufficiently broad-based. Because of the degree of severity, almost every sector is being hit, except those who are on the government payroll, to be very honest. But at the same time, we are recognising sectors which are particularly hard-hit, and these are the aviation – the Hong Kong International Airport is almost closed. I was very sad when I read the figures. Yesterday, at the Hong Kong International Airport, this aviation hub for Asia-Pacific, we have only 367 arrival passengers. Now that is the severity of the situation faced by over 75,000 employees at the Hong Kong International Airport. Apart from giving the employers at the Hong Kong International Airport access to the wage subsidies under the ESS, we have other measures for the aviation sector which we can share with you or you can read it from the detailed notes that we are going to distribute. By the way, Frank is here. Frank could say something about the additional help for the aviation sector.
So we are doing that, but we are doing it in a different way, instead of juggling with the wage subsidies in terms of the industry, because that would make it very complicated to administer. And that complication in administration will directly go against your first question. Your first question asked me to do it earlier, but by making the ESS so complicated, there's no way I can ensure early payment of subsidies to the employees through the employers. I hope I have made myself very clear that in designing the scheme , speed is of the essence. I want to pass the money to the employees to keep them in their jobs through their employers as early as possible. So while I said that we are committing ourselves to no later than June, it doesn't mean that if we could do it earlier we won't. I will look to Dr CK Law and my own team in the Chief Executive's Office to try to speed up the process, to review the design and the processing to see whether there is still scope to do it faster in order t o hand over the cash subsidies to the employees through the employers. I do hope that employers who are now watching this press conference or who will read the newspapers tomorrow will bear in mind that money is coming, so don't rush into laying off your staff and hang on as long as possible because money is coming. We are there to share the burden and try to keep companies afloat. If they really have cash-flow problem, then there is a loan scheme. I hope the loan scheme is also very efficient, that the banks will distribute the loans upon application early enough to tide over individual companies' difficulties in paying for their employees.
I now invite STH to say a few points about the aviation sector.
Secretary for Transport and Housing: In fact, I would say that most sectors, if not all the industries, are actually very seriously impacted by the pandemic. As for the aviation sector, we have to appreciate on normal days in the past, we had 200 000 passengers coming in and flying out every day. For the past week, the number is close to less than 2 000. If you take that as an indicator, the entire airport is down to 1 per cent of its capacity in operation. Therefore, all the airlines, all supporting services companies, (as well as) retail and dining outlets in the airport, are the hardest hit. Of course, we can help them with the employment support scheme by providing salary subsidy through the companies to the working staff. In addition, we are also offering subsidy or assistance of another kind, say for example, the offering to repair and maintenance of the airplanes, say for example, (for) a big jet, we will provide them with a million dollars. While you may think that the amount is huge, but actually a large plane would require roughly about $ 60 million to maintain in a year. That's the thing we are trying to do and help them as much as we can.
And for companies with a hundred people or more, we are going to offer them $ 3 million as assistance; and for companie s with less than a hundred people, we are offering them a million (dollars). After all, all these are very minimal, I would say. We are looking forward to helping them in a more ingenious way. For example, the Airport Authority is planning to purchase 500 000 air tickets with a view to providing cash flow to the airlines during this very difficult time and to save the tickets for the future when Hong Kong is going to re-launch to try to attract travellers coming to Hong Kong, and people going out for trips when the pandemic is over.
We are also offering in an innovative approach to purchase those supporting facilities in the airport, because the supporting services companies in the airport are running out of cash, and the provision of cash flow is very important. Therefore, purchasing those equipment or hardware from these companies and offer them with the cash flow will be very important.
At the same time, these facilities would still be used in the airport if there is a need. By the time when the airport picks up and resumes normal, these companies would have the right to buy it back. The Airport Authority is also offering a rent-free period so that these companies would be relieved for a certain period of time. We are trying to do whatever we can and are trying to help as much as we can. I think we should not just focus on employment support scheme or just wage subsidy, as there are all sorts of ways that we can offer, just like what the Financial Secretary has mentioned about loans and facilities, and all other things.
Reporter:… (inaudible)
Secretary for Labour and Welfare: They will be penalised. Details will be announced later.
Note: The speeches of Lin Zhengyue and Chen Maobo are issued by the Government Information Office. The summary of the measures will be published by the government's official telegram channel.
Anti-epidemic and Anti-epidemic Fund ｜ The press conference opens with Qiu Tenghua “snatching the brakes”, embarrassing U-turn, etc. Lin Zhengyue
Anti-epidemic and Anti-epidemic Fund ｜ Additionally subsidize restaurant and bar halving layoff pressure, zero income is still difficult to pay
Epidemic Prevention and Anti-epidemic Fund ｜ Ordered to be suspended to receive up to 100,000 subsidies
Anti-epidemic and Anti-epidemic Fund ｜ The AA bought 500,000 air tickets for the government 40 million yuan to help publishers participate in the book fair
Anti-epidemic and Anti-epidemic Fund ｜ The article of MTR's price reduction and salaries tax deferral clearly shows the projects benefited by the public
Anti-epidemic and Anti-epidemic Fund ｜ The MTR ’s July price cuts the two-year half-year traffic allowance threshold to 200 yuan
New Crown Pneumonia New Crown Pneumonia Lin Zheng Yue'e