HONG KONG - Hong Kong restaurants will offer discounts from July to encourage residents to spend their HK$10,000 government cash handouts to revive the city’s depressed economy.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po revealed on Thursday that the catering sector will introduce an “unprecedented” promotional campaign which thousands of restaurants will offer a 30 percent discount in July and a 20 percent one in August to coincide with the distribution of the one-off cash payments.

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Catering sector lawmaker Tommy Cheung Yu-yan said the discount will only apply to dinners at participating restaurants from 6 pm all week. 

Cheung said they are now in talks with restaurants and making a list of participants. The list of restaurants will be publicized on July 8 and the promotional campaign will start from July 15.

Chan has urged restaurants to come up with their own offers and called for shopping centers to join these campaigns as well to boost spending. Chan said special deals from retailers and travel industry would be announced in the coming days.

Cheung said the food and beverage sector in Hong Kong was still facing serious difficulties because of a lack of tourists. But if the situation improves, he believes business will recover in the next few months and unemployment could stabilize or even fall.

Hong Kong’s jobless rate surged to 5.9 percent during the March-May period — the highest in 15 years, surpassing the peak of 5.5 percent in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, according to Census and Statistics Department figures released on Tuesday.

Unemployment in the consumption and tourism-related sectors rose to 10.6 percent — the highest since August-October 2003 after the onslaught of SARS.

The city’s permanent residents can submit applications for the HK$10,000 cash payments from Sunday. Registration, which runs until the end of next year, can be done online or by filling out paper forms. Those who submit electronic applications between June 21 and June 30 will all receive the cash from July 8. 

Financial Secretary Paul Chan said special deals from retailers and travel industry would be announced in the coming days

The financial secretary said that since this it is not being done on a first-come-first-served basis, there is no need for residents to register as early as possible on Sunday.

Payment processing will take about a week for electronic applications from July 1 while paper applications will take about two weeks to process.

All bank accounts registered must be in local Hong Kong dollar savings or current bank accounts in the applicant’s name. To avoid disputes and prevent fraudulent acts, joint accounts cannot be used for registrations and for receiving payments. 

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Chan said the SAR government would keep an open mind to see whether or not another round of cash handouts would be needed. He said they are monitoring the situation closely. But a combination of measures is needed to deal with the city’s economic challenges and to relieve pressure of people. Therefore, the government will not rely solely on cash handouts.