Financial Secretary Chen Maobo will announce the new year's "Budget" on February 22. The Legislative Council Sports, Performing Arts, Culture and Publishing Councilor Huo Qigang submitted his budget expectations to him yesterday (February 1), which suggested that the government should: Including the rehabilitated youth who were imprisoned in the anti-amendment law storm to strengthen vocational training and provide subsidies to employers who hired them so that they can rehabilitate and reintegrate into society, "to prevent them from committing other crimes in the future because they cannot make a living."
Financial Secretary Chen Maobo will announce the new year's "Budget" on February 22. Legislative Council Sports, Performing Arts, Culture and Publishing Member Fok Qigang submitted his budget expectations to him yesterday (February 1).
(Fok Qigang Facebook)
Huo Qigang, who has just changed from a "Hong Kong National Committee member" to a "Hong Kong National People's Congress representative", is also the vice chairman of the All-China Youth Federation and was the chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Youth.
The "Budget 2023/24" proposal he submitted to Chen Maobo covers four major directions: youth, people's livelihood, innovation and technology, and development.
In terms of youth, besides hoping that the government will increase funding for the "School and Art Group Partnership Program", promote international youth exchange activities, provide opportunities for advanced technology training for young people with potential, and regularize the "Greater Bay Area Youth Employment Program", Huo Qigang It also proposed to strengthen support for rehabilitated youth.
According to the data submitted by Secretary for Security Tang Bingqiang to the Legislative Council earlier, there are currently 1,315 people involved in the 2019 anti-extradition law turmoil who have been admitted to correctional institutions, of which 345 are youths under the age of 21; and Huo Qigang believes that " These young people may have been incited to commit crimes during the incident, and they should be given the opportunity to rehabilitate to prevent them from committing other crimes in the future because they cannot earn a living." He suggested that the government provide vocational training for ex-offenders, and even provide employment opportunities for them. Their employers provide financial support so that they can reintegrate and contribute to society.
In terms of people's livelihood, Huo Qigang believes that improving the quality of life of the citizens is the top priority of the SAR government. At present, the Hong Kong economy has not yet fully recovered. The authorities should expand the tax base with the least impact on society. The committee's initiative is to substantially increase tobacco tax and formulate a long-term tax increase mechanism, so as to break the deadlock of tobacco tax freeze and encourage smokers to quit smoking completely.
At the same time, he also suggested that the government provide a "progressive child allowance" and launch a "child development mutual savings plan" to encourage childbearing.
In addition, he also hopes that the government will distribute 5,000 yuan of electronic consumer coupons again, increase the funding limit of the "Continuing Education Fund", inject funds into the Children's Development Fund, and provide support from various aspects.
As for innovation and technology, Huo Qigang suggested that more efforts should be made to support the popularization of electric vehicles and encourage smart travel, and promote the "Environmentally Controlled Hydroponics Research and Development Center" established by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department and the Vegetable Marketing Office in 2013 to teach ordinary families to practice hydroponics Planting and building Hong Kong to become the world's first green bond financial center, adding 5G equipment to the park to develop digital sports, strengthening the application of non-homogeneous tokens (NFT), and accelerating research on the application of digital Hong Kong dollars, etc.
Regarding development, Huo Qigang believes that at the critical stage of recovery after the epidemic, Hong Kong should seize the opportunity to enhance its own competitiveness and actively increase its development momentum.
In this regard, he proposed a number of proposals to promote the development of the local cultural and sports performance industry, including promoting paid training for cultural, sports and arts practitioners, promoting the industry to participate in paid training for disabled athletes, optimizing the employment and continuing education programs for retired athletes, reviewing the effectiveness of the "Revitalization of Historic Buildings Partnership Program", Set up a pilot art therapy program for caregivers, set up a Hong Kong Literature Museum, support the upgrading of sports venues under the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, support the long-term development of small and medium art groups and art graduates, etc.
In addition, he also pays attention to the development of local tourism and hopes to promote urban sports.