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Developing the Economy |
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Trading and Logistics Industry
- Designate 12 hectares of land at Tuen Mun West and Tsing Yi for developing logistics facilities to provide a floor area of more than 300 000 square metres and create 7 500 new jobs
Tourism
- Offer a $2.3 billion loan to Ocean Park to build an all-weather water world
- Hong Kong Disneyland to launch a night-time parade and put in place a themed area featuring “Marvel heroes”
Financial Services Industry
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Expand the size of the Government Bond Programme from $100 billion to $200 billion
- Issue iBond worth not more than $10 billion
- Allow private equity funds to enjoy the same tax exemption as offshore funds
- Reduce profits tax on the offshore insurance business of captive insurance companies to attract more enterprises to form captive insurance companies in Hong Kong
Emerging Industries - Provide each of the 6 universities with a subvention of up to $12 million for a period of 3 years to support their technology transfer work
- Allocate $50 million to acquire local visual artists’ outstanding artworks
- Convert the club house of the former Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club in Oil Street, North Point, into a visual arts exhibition and activity centre
- Set up a working group to study the strategy for promoting intellectual property trading
Small and Medium Enterprises
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Waive business registration fees for 2013-14
- Reduce profits tax for 2012-13 by 75 per cent, subject to a ceiling of $10,000
- Extend the application period for the special concessionary measures under the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Financing Guarantee Scheme for 1 year
- Increase the cumulative amount of the grant under the SME Export Marketing Fund from $150,000 to $200,000
- Introduce a small business policy scheme to be run by the Hong Kong Export Credit Insurance Corporation
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"The ultimate objective of economic policies is not about chasing statistics. It is about expanding Hong Kong’s overall economic scale and promoting holistic development of our society, and creating more business and job opportunities so that our people can realise their aspirations and improve their living standards." |
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Easing Pressure
Tax concessions and one-off measures:
- Increase the basic and additional child allowances from the current $63,000 to $70,000 for each child
- Reduce salaries tax and tax under personal assessment for 2012-13 by 75 per cent, subject to a ceiling of $10,000
- Grant each residential electricity account a subsidy of $1,800
- Waive rates for the whole year, subject to a ceiling of $1,500 per quarter
- Provide extra allowance to recipients of CSSA, Old Age Allowance, Old Age Living Allowance and Disability Allowance, equal to 1 month of the allowances
- Pay 2 months’ rent for public housing tenants
- Allocate another $100 million to extend short-term food assistance services when necessary
- Raise the deduction ceiling for self-education expenses to $80,000
- Give all student loan borrowers who complete their studies in 2013 the option to start repaying their student loans 1 year after completion of studies
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"The one-off measures can help ease the community’s burden and are countercyclical from a macro perspective to cope with short-term economic fluctuations, maintain spending power and support the employment market." |
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Challenges Ahead |
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- In 10 years’ time, economic growth will continue to taper off and the growth rate will be much lower than the trend growth rate of 4.5 per cent over the past 10 years
- In 20 years’ time, the current elderly dependency ratio of 5 persons of working age supporting 1 dependent elderly person will drop to 2 persons supporting 1 dependent elderly person
- Government revenue will drop substantially as a result of the reduction in the number of taxpayers and decelerated economic growth. The Government may not be able to make ends meet
- We will set up a working group to explore ways to make more comprehensive planning for our public finances in the long run
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"With an increase in the number of the elderly, a shrinking working population, reduction in the number of taxpayers and decelerated economic growth, I expect that the growth of government revenue will drop substantially if our tax regime remains unchanged. Meanwhile, expenditure on welfare and healthcare will soar. We may not be able to make ends meet." |
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