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Written by: Commentary Editing Room
2020-10-23 06:45
Last update date: 2020-10-23 06:45
The Innovation Office announced on Wednesday (21st) the second batch of employers under the Employment Guarantee Program, involving 80,000 employers, approved wage subsidies of approximately 10.9 billion yuan, and promised more than 450,000 salaried employees.
In addition to supermarkets such as Baijia and Wellcome, which have received widespread attention earlier, many companies whose businesses have been less affected by the epidemic have also ranked in the top ten positions in the second round of the second-round employment plan.
Although the economic operations are closely linked, it is hard to say that there are companies whose businesses can be completely immune to the impact of the epidemic, but if the tens of billions of public funds are not used properly, the expectations of the public, especially the unemployed, will be undermined.
The government's job-guarantee program also subsidizes supermarkets, which has been widely criticized.
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Limited performance impact and use government funding?
Benefited from the limited gathering of restaurants during the epidemic period and the impact of the home-based fight against the epidemic, the business of the two major supermarkets bucked the trend and the government asked them to provide preferential discounts to the public. Among them, Baijia responded to the government's request with a national lottery.
In addition, even if many other companies apply for employment insurance, their epidemic situation has not been greatly affected by the epidemic.
For example, telecommunications companies and accounting firms, as well as medical institutions and transportation companies, have received large amounts of funding this time. However, the business conditions of some companies are not only unaffected by the epidemic, but even benefited from the epidemic.
The government's granting of subsidies is also well applied.
In addition to the top three dairy companies, ParknShop and Watsons, the fourth-ranked SF Express (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd. also applied for allowances for nearly 2,692 employees, and wage subsidies for the period from September to November. The amount amounts to 69 million.
However, its transportation business has benefited from the online shopping trend and transportation demand during the epidemic, and its business has grown rapidly compared with the same period last year.
According to SF Holdings’ performance in the first half of 2020, the company’s financial report indicated that SF Express’s semi-annual logistics volume reached 3.655 billion, an increase of 81.27% over the same period last year, and its total operating income was 71.129 billion yuan, an increase of 42.05% over the same period last year.
The public money originally intended to protect the employment of the public, but the government handed it over to companies with rapid business growth during the epidemic. The problem is obviously the random investment in the employment protection plan.
SF Express (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd., ranked fourth, also applied for subsidies for nearly 2,692 employees, and the amount of wage subsidies from September to November reached 69 million.
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Unemployment wave did not peak
The two rounds of job protection programs cost tens of billions of public funds. At the same time, the Census and Statistics Department released the latest data on Tuesday (20th). The unemployment rate in Hong Kong increased from 0.3% to 6.4%. On Wednesday (21st) Cathay Pacific announced that With a scale of 5,900 layoffs, Dragonair ceased operations immediately, a large number of citizens were unemployed, and the wave of corporate layoffs may just be the beginning.
Food and beverage supplies that are closely related to aviation may also be implicated, or even domino effects.
Every cent of the government is extremely important at this difficult time.
The second round of the employment guarantee program will end in November, but it is estimated that the unemployment rate is far from being seen, and will even reach 7% next year.
The government should be more astute in granting grants in the future, and accurately provide grants to enterprises in need.
When introducing poverty-stricken measures, for example, companies can be required to submit reports to prove that their business has been hit by the epidemic, and at least companies that have benefited from the epidemic can be excluded from the funding list.
In the past, officials emphasized that the one-size-fits-all funding for the Employment Guarantee Program was to reduce administrative costs, but the hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies were not used properly, which meant that people in need should have received more and could not benefit.
The government's responsibility lies in the allocation of resources, and the allocation of resources is primarily based on fairness and needs. Officials must correct their practices in order to be accountable to the citizens.
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