Policy Address 2010

Mr. Donald Tsang, in his 2^nd term as Chief Executive of HKSAR, presented his sixth Policy Address on 13^th October, 2010. Housing and the wealth gap were the major topics in this year’s annual Policy Address.

With soaring luxury property prices fuelled by hot money from the wealthy overseas investors and Mainlanders, prices in the overall market of Hong Kong have been driven up in recent years. Hong Kong people urged Tsang to implement measures to help those who are unable to buy properties.

The government will introduce a scheme of subsidized housing known as the "My Home Purchase Plan" in a bid to help the sandwich class purchase their own flats.

Under this program, the government will offer 5,000 units for first-time home buyers to rent for as long as five years before purchasing. During the period, tenants will be eligible to use half of the total rent paid toward a down payment to buy a home.

Several political groups comment that this rent-to-buy program is not a better policy than the abandoned “Home Ownership Scheme"(HOS) in response to the demand of buying properties of the public. The chairman of the Democratic Party, Albert Ho, said there was already a clear public consensus that such flats of HOS should be built, yet the Policy Address ignored the calls for resuming the HOS.

Aside from the housing policy, the problem of widening in wealth gap concerns most of the Hong Kong people. Among the world's wealthiest economies, Hong Kong has the biggest gap between rich and poor. The number of people living in poverty in Hong Kong rose to a record 1.26 million, or about 18.1 percent of the total population, in the first half of 2010 from 1.2 million last year, the Hong Kong Council of Social Service said in an Oct. 3 report.

In dealing with this, Tsang has outlined several measures. One of which is the creation of a HK$10-billion Community Care Fund.

Legislators criticized that there were no concrete details provided by the government on the allocation of fund and how the fund will help the poor. It is suggested that the government should set out anti-poverty social policies to tackle the structural problem, and to improve the existing welfare system before implementing any poverty relief policy like the fund.

Following a three-day marathon Legislative Council debate from 27^th to 29^th of October, Legislators have voted down a motion of thanks for the chief executive's policy address. It's indeed the fourth time in six years that Donald Tsang's policy statement has failed to gain the Legislative Council's support.

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