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Following is the speech by the Financial Secretary, Mr John C Tsang, at the opening ceremony of the Hospital Authority Convention 2012 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre today (May 7):
Anthony (Wu), Director-General Zhang (Zongjiu), York (Chow), Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good Morning.
First of all, congratulations on organising this year's Hospital Authority (HA) Convention. Also, I would like to extend a very warm welcome to all our guests coming from the Mainland as well as from overseas.
Since 1993, the HA Convention has brought together the leading lights from the healthcare industry. This year is no exception, and I note that you will be covering a wide range of subjects over the next couple of days.
We will be looking to you, the experts, to help us identify new areas and new trends that will affect our healthcare priorities in the short, medium as well as long term, and to advise us on how to optimise spending to meet the healthcare needs of our community.
Over the years, Hong Kong has developed a highly efficient and effective healthcare system. For more than two decades, the HA has been instrumental in raising the quality as well as the availability of affordable healthcare to the entire community.
Fortunately for us, despite the recent global economic downturn, Hong Kong and much of Asia is in fairly good financial health.
The Hong Kong Government has made it a priority to boost healthcare spending and introduce new initiatives to tackle the challenges that we can foresee for the next decade and beyond.
In this year's Budget, I set aside close to HK$45 billion for healthcare spending in the 2012-13 financial year. This represents an increase of over 40 per cent compared to six years ago. Recurrent funding allocated to the HA has also increased by around 40 per cent over the same period to HK$40 billion.
This year we have allocated HK$2.2 billion for expenditure on hospital projects, and another HK$500 million to acquire and upgrade medical equipment for public hospitals.
A number of public hospital development projects are underway to help improve healthcare services across Hong Kong. Projects to be completed in the next few years include a new hospital in North Lantau, three redevelopment projects involving Yan Chai, Caritas Medical Centre and Tseung Kwan O Hospitals. We have also reserved funding to re-develop United Christian, Queen Mary and Kwong Wah Hospitals.
These and other projects represent a significant financial commitment to the healthcare of Hong Kong people in the future.
As the cost of healthcare increases, we have also provided HK$10 billion to our Samaritan Fund to help ease the financial burden on patients by providing subsidies for essential self-financed drugs and medical items.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have just mentioned some of the ways the Government is mobilising its financial resources to help meet anticipated healthcare challenges of the future. We also know that money alone is not enough to overcome the hurdles facing long-term healthcare provision for the community. This will require a team effort from all stakeholders, many of whom are represented here at this Convention, and your ideas and experience will benefit not only Hong Kong, but also communities around the world which face many of the same challenges and share very much the same goal of enhancing healthcare.
I wish you all a fruitful HA Convention and our visitors a memorable stay here in Hong Kong.
Thank you very much.
Ends/Monday, May 7, 2012
Issued at HKT 11:38
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