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Written by: Commentary Editing Room
2020-07-29 07:00
Last update date: 2020-07-29 07:00The number of confirmed cases of new coronary pneumonia in Hong Kong exceeded one hundred in a day. The Chief Secretary for Administration, Zhang Jianzong, announced on Monday (27th) that from early Wednesday morning, restaurants will ban dine-in meals throughout the day to reduce crowd gathering. Although the ban on dine-in is a necessary evil when the epidemic is out of control, because the catering industry employs a large number of people, the Hong Kong government must also increase the scope and amount of funding for the "epidemic prevention and anti-epidemic fund" before the expansion of restaurant closures, and consider Provide rent relief to tenants who rent FEHD shops to alleviate the impact of the ban on the economy and people's livelihood.
Since July 29, all restaurants will suspend dine-in food for seven days. It is expected that more people will buy food in supermarkets. (Photo by Zheng Zifeng)
After the government imposed restrictions on dine-in food in restaurants on Monday, many representatives of the catering industry felt helpless. The Legislative Council Member of the Catering Industry Zhang Yuren not only expressed frustration, but also pointed out that after the government introduced the ban on catering in the evening market, there have been no new cases of group infection in restaurants in Hong Kong and believes that the catering industry has been stigmatized; Huang Jiaheze, President of the Federation of Catering Industries Said that although the industry had expected the government to tighten measures last week, the ban on dine-in food has been lengthened again and again. It is roughly estimated that more than a thousand restaurants have suspended operations or closed their doors early. The future business situation of the industry will be affected, and it is inevitable that there will be a wave of bankruptcy. Even though the two have different opinions on the new measures, they also hope that the government can help the industry to tide over the difficulties as soon as possible.
On the life level, the ban on dine-in will undoubtedly greatly reduce the dining choices of the public. But more importantly, at the employment level, the number of employees in the catering industry in Hong Kong is so large that the economic risks cannot be ignored. According to statistics from the Census and Statistics Department, as of March this year, the catering service industry has employed more than 220,000 people, accounting for 6% of the total employed population in Hong Kong. This shows that the industry not only provides a large number of employment opportunities for the labor market. However, according to government employment statistics from April to June, the catering industry was the hardest hit area of the epidemic, with an unemployment rate of over 14% and an underemployment rate of 8.2%, far beyond the cold winter of the 2008 financial tsunami. If the epidemic did not increase with the anti-epidemic measures, but fell back in a short period of time, the current rapid shrinking of the food and beverage industry will definitely affect the transportation, food processing and other related industries, which will hit Hong Kong's economy more severely.
Can spread to other industries
The ban on dine-in is a necessary evil to reduce the social contacts of the public, but the SAR government will also increase subsidies to the catering industry to reduce the impact of the new measures on the economy. For example, in the "Food Industry Subsidy Scheme" established by the Hong Kong Government in the first round of the "Epidemic Prevention and Anti-epidemic Fund", there are also 200,000 or 80,000 yuan subsidies for eight types of food industry licensees; or The "Food and Beverage Premises (Social Distance) Subsidy Scheme" launched in the second round of the "Anti-epidemic and Anti-epidemic Fund" provides emergency assistance ranging from RMB 250,000 to RMB 2.2 million for catering premises that provide dine-in but whose business is affected. Although the two plans may not bring the catering industry back to life, they can also be regarded as a solution to urgent needs. Therefore, in addition to increasing and early disbursement of the second round of subsidies, the government may also consider setting up additional subsidies for "dining-in takeaway shops" in the third round of subsidies. This can not only guarantee employment, but also stabilize the takeaway supply.
However, since rent accounts for a high proportion of the operating costs of restaurants, government subsidies can only relieve the pressure on the industry, and the survival of each restaurant will ultimately depend on the direction of rent. Although the Hong Kong government cannot and is unable to violate market principles and order landlords to reduce rents, the government can not only persuade landlords to reduce rents, but also take the lead in providing rent relief in public markets, cooked food centers and cooked food markets under the FEHD Exempt. Although the FEHD manages only more than 100 venues, which account for a fraction of the total number of commercial properties in Hong Kong, this move can not only release the epidemic prevention period to the citizens of Hong Kong, but also explain the leadership thinking of the overall situation to the owners. The industry is intertwined, the truth is that the lips are dead and the teeth are cold.
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