Thank you, President. President, the delivery of the 2024-2025 Budget by Financial Secretary Paul CHAN this year coincided with the conclusion of a seven-day visit to Hong Kong by Mr XIA Baolong, Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council. As Director XIA kindly reminded us the other day, Hong Kong’s economic outlook will become even more uncertain because the geopolitics has become increasingly complex. There is no doubt that the Central Government will always support Hong Kong and provide strong backing for Hong Kong. From Director XIA’s address we know that this is an assurance given to us. Having said that, Hong Kong people still have to strive for continuous improvement in order to cope with a potentially more challenging future. 

Given a deficit exceeding $100 billion in the new financial year, I support the Budget in “handing out fewer candies” this time. There is no bold move to provide rebates and concessions; nor is there cash being given out generously. In return, we are given a more realistic “deficit budget”. To sum up, I wish to make several points as follows. 

First of all, the Financial Secretary has proposed to cancel all “harsh measures” with immediate effect to rescue the property market. For a long time in the past, the Liberal Party and I, as well as the real estate sector, have consistently called on the Government to withdraw the “harsh measures”. We said back then that the immediate withdrawal of all “harsh measures”, coupled with support measures, will send a positive message to the property market and stimulate prospective homebuyers to actively consider entering the market, in which case transactions in the property market will gradually pick up, the real estate agents and related sectors (including the banking sector) will gradually have more business, and the economy as a whole will then prosper and yet, we need not worry about property prices soaring right after the cancellation of the “harsh measures”. We discussed this issue with the Financial Secretary a few months ago. Now that a few months have passed, and there is now proof that a substantial increase in transactions has not caused property prices to rise sharply. I believe that only when there is news about interest rate cuts will the people be optimistic about booming property prices. 

Besides, I also have to thank the Financial Secretary for taking on board the Liberal Party’s proposal of introducing a green shipping policy. In particular, my fellow party member, Mr Frankie YICK, and I pointed out some time ago the huge market potentials of the green transformation of the maritime industry―I am glad to see that the Secretary is in the Chamber now, and we actually already discussed this issue two or three years ago―and we suggested that the Government should develop a green maritime fuel bunkering centre to provide green methanol bunkering for both local and ocean-going vessels.

I am very pleased that the Financial Secretary has accepted this brand new proposal, and after the Policy Address proposed to develop this industry, the Secretary stated that the Transport and Logistics Bureau, in collaboration with the Environment and Ecology Bureau and other relevant departments, will conduct a feasibility study on providing green methanol bunkering for local and ocean-going vessels. However, the Secretary, after much has been said, still maintained that the study can commence only at the end of this year. I think the Government should not commence the study only at the end of the year. By that time, the Government should have finalized the relevant arrangements, rather than just commencing the study, as we are already lagging behind Shanghai and Singapore. Even Korea, though progressing at a slower pace, is already a year ahead of us. If we do not speed up, we will only fall further and further behind. 

In addition, we also think that the Government should be able to promote the retrofitting of installations in vessels in Hong Kong (such as ferries under the Star Ferry and the NWS Holdings Ltd, the Government’s fire boats and police launches), so that even if methanol may not be an option now, at least grey methanol or blue methanol can be adopted first and then followed by green methanol in order to implement a green port policy for our harbour first. I believe that the Secretary should be very interested in this. Even though this is bound to incur some expenditure, I think it will not cost too much and this expenditure is worth it. 

This time, the Financial Secretary has not provided any exemptions or concessionary measures to the catering industry which I represent. I consider this understandable and what is more, I actually did not campaign for any of them because over the years when subsidies were offered to the catering industry, the Government did not only do what it should do but even went the extra mile to deliver more. The industry should stand on its own feet. Under such circumstances, it is, to me, understandable that the Secretary has not provided the industry with particularly generous concessions. In spite of this, I would like to talk about the recent situation of the industry. 

Regarding the shortage of manpower, given the lengthy and complicated application procedures for importation of labour, when the authorities launched the scheme in August or September last year, I repeatedly told Secretary SUN of the Labour and Welfare Bureau that some employers had already placed recruitment advertisements in newspapers in the past four weeks, four months or even four years but when they applied to the Bureau for importing workers, why were they still required to put up recruitment advertisements for another four weeks? Some employers are putting up their recruitment advertisements then and some have already done so. Why does the Bureau still require them to place an advertisement once again and waste another four weeks? Even up till now, the Secretary is still unwilling to revise this arrangement. 

The Bureau initially said in September last year that the workers to be imported could arrive in Hong Kong three months later. While I envisaged difficulties in the process, I did hope that they could arrive in Hong Kong three months later because December, January and February are our peak seasons and a shortage of manpower will take toll on our business. Our business is suffering now. Customers are complaining about the poor service and lack of originality in our dishes. So, today, I hope that the Financial Secretary can discuss with other Policy Bureaux how they can improve the policy to enable all parties to work efficiently and effectively. Unfortunately, employers who have applied for labour importation still have to wait without knowing when their workers will arrive in Hong Kong. 

In respect of revitalizing the tourism industry, the Liberal Party urges the Financial Secretary to continue seeking the support of the Central Authorities to further relax the Individual Visit Scheme (“IVS”) and expand the coverage of the scheme to allow citizens of more Mainland cities to visit Hong Kong under IVS. Meanwhile, it is necessary to abolish the “one trip per week” arrangement and extend the “multiple-entry” arrangement to cover all cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in order to attract more compatriots to come to Hong Kong for spending, food and entertainment. 

Over the years, the Liberal Party has reflected to the SAR Government that the $5,000 tax-free limit for tourists shopping in Hong Kong should be substantially increased. Hainan currently offers a tax-free limit of $100,000. I hope that the Central Authorities can consider allowing Hong Kong to adopt the same arrangement, and I have been fighting for this cause through various channels. The fact is that $5,000 is not even enough to buy a mobile phone nowadays, and tourists basically cannot buy much with this amount of money. Besides, this limit has been in place for a long time and so, I hope that it can be increased. Some friendly political parties have proposed $20,000 or $30,000 which, I think, should be the minimum amount if it is impossible to set the limit at $100,000. I think this can certainly attract our compatriots from the Mainland to come to Hong Kong for spending.

Moreover, the Hong Kong Tourism Board has received additional funding to launch a new courtesy campaign next month. I hope that we can all make contributions to it in order for Hong Kong to become a polite city again. The courtesy campaign should not be confined to the catering and retail sectors. In this connection, Mr Frankie YICK has also contacted the taxi trade to encourage their participation in the campaign. I will later propose to Secretary MAK that the courtesy campaign be extended to all 18 districts in Hong Kong, so that Hong Kong can provide good catering and retail services to enable inbound visitors to experience the city’s hospitality culture. At the end of the year, I will be taking the lead to organize an innovative recipe competition in an effort to consolidate Hong Kong’s reputation as a Food Paradise. 

With these remarks, President, I support the Budget.