*******************************************************
The Chief Executive, Mr Donald Tsang, has today (October 13) in his annual Policy Address laid out strategies to stabilise the property market, support low income families and strengthen links with the Mainland.
Mr Tsang said that Hong Kong's economy has "progressively stepped out of the shadow of the global financial crisis" and on track to achieve GDP growth of between 5% and 6% this year.
But he warned of increasing risks of asset-price bubbles in Asia due to the fragile recovery in the US and the on-going sovereign debt crisis in Europe.
In his Policy Address entitled "Sharing Prosperity for a Caring Society", Mr Tsang singled out Hong Kong's volatile property market as the city's most immediate and pressing challenge, and announced new measures to boost the supply of flats and help potential homebuyers enter the housing market.
"To ensure a healthy and stable property market, in the next 10 years, on average land needs to be made available annually for some 20,000 private residential flats," Mr Tsang said.
"Our aim is to build up a sufficiently large land reserve over a period of time to ensure stable land supply for the residential property market."
The Chief Executive unveiled plans to launch a new type of subsidised housing to be known as the My Home Purchase Plan, to assist the sandwich class to buy small to medium flats.
The Plan will provide 5,000 flats for first-time buyers, who would be allowed to rent the flat for up to five years at a fixed rent, and receive a subsidy equivalent to half of the total rent for use as part of a down payment to buy a flat if they so wished.
"Within a specified timeframe, tenants of the Plan may purchase the flat they rent or another flat under the Plan at prevailing market price, or a flat in the private market," he said.
"The plan reflects Hong Kong people's spirit of self-reliance by enabling them to make their home purchase wish come true in a practical and step-by-step manner."
Other housing initiatives include temporarily removing real estate from the investment asset classes under the Capital Investment Entrant Scheme, tightening gross floor area concessions when approving building plans, enhanced support for old buildings, and the setting up of a $500 million Urban Renewal Trust Fund to support revitalisation and preservation projects.
Another priority for the Chief Executive is to ease the plight of low-income families.
He pledged to more than double the flat-rate grant under the School Textbook Assistance Scheme to $1,000 for full-grant students compared to the current $408.
He also announced the launch of a Work Incentive Transport Subsidy Scheme with a monthly allowance of $600 for eligible employees.
In addition, a Community Care Fund will be set up with the Government and business sector each contributing $5 billion to the initiative, to support people in need in areas not covered by the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance Scheme.
"Actively engaging the community and the business sector in poverty alleviation will not only demonstrate tripartite collaboration and a readiness to share responsibility, but also bring in new ideas to make our measures more flexible and effective," Mr Tsang said.
Mr Tsang unveiled a series of measures to boost elderly welfare, including relaxing the limit of absence from Hong Kong for the Old Age Allowance and Disability Allowance to 305 days, a study on a proposed maintenance allowance for senior citizens who retire in the Mainland, and more resources for residential care homes and nursing homes.
On the environment, the Chief Executive announced measures to reduce emissions from franchised buses.
This includes Government funding to retrofit Euro II and Euro III buses to meet Euro IV emission standards and financial support for franchised bus companies wishing to test green transport options such as hybrid buses.
He said pilot low-emission zones would be set up in busy districts such as Mong Kok, Causeway Bay and Central and that additional green provisions would be included when the bus franchises came up for renewal.
"We will increase as far as possible the ratio of low-emission franchised buses running in these zones from next year, with the target of having only low-emission buses in these zones by 2015," Mr Tsang said.
"The ultimate policy objective of the Government is to have zero emission buses running across the territory."
Mr Tsang said the Government planned to set up a $300 million Pilot Green Transport Fund in the current financial year for application by the transport trade to test out more environmentally-friendly technologies.
He said Hong Kong would continue to strengthen links with the Mainland to ensure a sound foundation for the city's sustainable economic growth.
"To ensure that Hong Kong can better leverage its unique advantages and functions during the National 12th Five-Year Plan period, we will strive to enhance Hong Kong's status as an international centre for financial services, trade, shipping and logistics, and to develop the six industries where Hong Kong enjoys clear advantages," Mr Tsang said.
The six industries are medical services, education services, environmental industries, testing and certification services, innovation and technology and cultural and creative industries.
On constitutional development, Mr Tsang said the passage in June this year of draft amendments to the methods for selecting the Chief Executive and for forming the Legislative Council in 2012 was a critical step forward.
"The task before us is to enact local legislation on the two electoral methods," Mr Tsang said.
"We plan to put forward proposals later this month and consult this Council (Legislative Council). We hope that the bills will be passed in a few months to allow political parties and prospective candidates to make early preparations."
He stressed the importance of nurturing political talent and for all sectors of the community to set aside their differences and work towards the common goal of achieving universal suffrage.
Mr Tsang said enacting legislation to implement Article 23 of the Basic Law (BL23) would not be carried out during the current term of the Hong Kong SAR Government.
"The majority view is that the current-term Government should, in the remaining one year or so of its term, focus its efforts on promoting economic development, improving people's livelihood and maintaining the prosperity, stability and development of our society, and that legislative work for implementing BL23 could be deferred," Mr Tsang said, adding that it remained a constitutional duty of Hong Kong to enact legislation under the Article.
To promote national education, Mr Tsang said all Hong Kong students would have the chance to visit the Mainland to learn more about the country and develop a stronger sense of national identity.
"Our target is to subsidise every primary and secondary school student to join at least one Mainland exchange programme," Mr Tsang said.
He added that Hong Kong would provide volunteer services for the Asian Games in Guangzhou this year and the Universiade in Shenzhen next year.
"Hong Kong must ride on the opportunities brought about by the rise of our country, and make giant strides in our political, social, economic and cultural development in the coming decade," Mr Tsang said.
Ends/Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Issued at HKT 12:56
NNNN
