Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said that the fifth round of the "Anti-epidemic Fund" will be launched, and the fourth round of funds will be used as a blueprint.
The newly launched "High Seas Tour" under the epidemic was suspended last week, but cruise companies have not been subsidized. Yao Bailiang, a member of the Legislative Council of the tourism industry, said that the government should consider supporting cruise companies, pointing out that there are more than 1,000 staff on board, and during the closure period There are certain expenses.
He hopes that the government will increase its support for the tourism industry, saying that a lot of preparations for customs clearance have been made, but all of them are now in vain.
▼1.5 Cruise Spectrum of the Seas returned to the cruise terminal one day earlier▼
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The last anti-epidemic fund 4.0 was approved on December 21 of the previous year. After more than a year, many emerging industries in Hong Kong have popped up, but they have not benefited from the fund.
Carrie Lam said this morning that the fifth round of foundations will target industries directly affected by the tightened epidemic prevention measures, as well as industries that have been in a frozen state, and will use the previous round as a blueprint, but the funding amount will be different.
The "High Seas Cruise", which made its maiden voyage at the end of July last year, was called off last week, but Dream Cruises confirmed that the cruise company was not a travel agency or a cross-border ferry, and had not been subsidized by the government in the past.
Yao Boliang said that the two cruise lines have received 150,000 passengers in total for six months after the launch of high seas cruises. After the government stopped last week, many voyages were cancelled. There are many staff members, and there are expenses. I hope the government can provide support.
He pointed out that the tourism industry has been frozen for a long time. The last support was in August last year, and the local tour and the high sea tour "did the salt water to no effect". After the suspension, "the business was completely cleared." It was clear that the customs could be cleared, and the industry was ready to meet it, but "a plate of cold water was poured down".
He hopes that the government will increase its support, use the 1 billion anti-epidemic fund to support the tourism industry, and update the eligibility requirements. He does not continue to use the definition two years ago. unreasonable.
▼1.7 The first night of the ban on dine-in, citizens buy takeaways▼
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Restaurants have also been greatly affected by the current epidemic. Xu Wenwei, chairman of the Rice Seedling Society, said that as the Lunar New Year is approaching, many restaurants in the catering industry have to pay their employees in advance and pay bonuses. Waiting for expensive ingredients and preparing to make reservations for the Spring Festival, but at present, "there is no way to return, even if (the ingredients) can be kept for a year, there is no reason to keep it for a year." Even if the night market can be reopened after the epidemic is under control for two weeks, it is expected that customers may have doubts. patronize.
He believes that the government can use the anti-epidemic anti-epidemic fund to provide the basis for the catering industry, first use one-off cash support as "life-saving money", and increase the limit of "100% guaranteed concessional loan" from 6 million yuan to 1,200 yuan 10,000 yuan, and extended the effective date to allow the industry to survive the epidemic.
Epidemic Prevention and Anti-epidemic Fund 5.0︱Lam Cheng: Covering the closure of premises, restaurants, travel agencies announced on Friday the details of the epidemic prevention measures 6 key points Will cancel the loss of more than 200 million yuan in hopes of receiving funding to ban dine-in | 1.7 restaurants will be closed for dine-in after 6 o'clock for two weeks, and then theme park bars will be closed for karaoke