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"Let's start the big league" is not enough to fire people?

2020-05-13T09:54:48.345Z


The "Hong Kong Restart Grand Alliance" established by the Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Dong Jianhua, and Liang Zhenying recently launched a non-layoff operation, which was reportedly received by more than 4,200 companies (including 200 Hong Kong-funded companies). Hong Kong's first quarter GDP closed annually


01 point of view

Written by: Review Editor

2020-05-13 17:44

Last update date: 2020-05-13 17:44

The "Hong Kong Restart Grand Alliance" established by the Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Dong Jianhua, and Liang Zhenying recently launched a non-layoff operation, which was reportedly received by more than 4,200 companies (including 200 Hong Kong-funded companies). Hong Kong's GDP contracted by 8.9% year-on-year in the first quarter, the worst since its record in 1974, and the unemployment rate rose to 4.2%, a new nine-year high. Under these circumstances, all "employment protection" measures are welcome. However, the true meaning of "restart" should not be limited to non-layoffs. This is only a short-term plan. The long-term plan is to make drastic reforms to address the deep-seated structural problems of Hong Kong. This will inevitably touch the vested interests of large enterprises. Test whether the latter is profoundly meaningful.

As early as the British era, Hong Kong has developed a structure that emphasizes commerce over people. Not only is the government's governance leaning towards the industrial and commercial sectors, but social operations are also highly dependent on business logic. In principle, this structure can be maintained as long as the interests of the business community and the society as a whole are compatible, but if there is a conflict between the two, it will easily lead to social instability. The most obvious example is real estate hegemony. Real estate developers monopolize Hong Kong's land and economic lifeline. As long as you look at how restaurants and tutoring clubs are struggling under the epidemic, you can feel the pressure of rent on real estate hegemony. Chief Executive Lin Zhengyue earlier asked the Major League Union to call the landlord to reduce rents, reflecting that she had noticed the nature of the problem, but she still had no power to "appeal" and did not have the courage to declare war on the vested interests.

The Major League promotes the "not to speculate" movement, no doubt an important step is taken, but is this enough? We can no longer understand "restart" with traditional ideas, thinking that it is enough not to lay off staff, and more importantly, to recognize the necessity of reshaping the business structure. "Hong Kong 01" once called on the government to implement some form of rent management system, designed to help small merchants "light up" after reducing rental costs. In fairness, real estate developers or landlords pay less rent, their profits will inevitably be damaged, but their quality of life may not be significantly reduced. In contrast, small merchants can obtain broad development prospects. Even if they encounter unexpected events such as anti-revision campaigns or epidemic situations in the future, they can at least reduce their impact by virtue of their strong anti-adversity ability, which will not be easy Practise fraud to avoid a large number of people losing their jobs.

For a long time, the government has bound the development of Hong Kong to the industrial and commercial sector, so that the business environment in Hong Kong is very beneficial to large real estate developers, large enterprises and large owners. We do not deny their role in promoting social development, but they must recognize that they are only part of the entire ecology, and their interests are not absolute. After the epidemic, the government must promote drastic reforms and economic transformation. Will the major alliance be willing to encourage owners as vested interests to make appropriate sacrifices for the long-term stability of Hong Kong?

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Source: hk1

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