Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor visited Beijing last week for talks on the proposed content of her Policy Address, which was postponed to later this month to allow time for these Beijing consultations. Let us hope that wide-ranging improvements can be included, for the betterment of the lives of Hong Kong residents. Several suggestions along those lines are made here.
Governments around the world are these days struggling to devise lines of action, and budgets, to counter the severe threat to health, life and their economies posed by the relentless spread of COVID-19. They all try to introduce various strategies to halt this deadly pandemic and to improve the lives of their long-suffering citizens. Hong Kong is sitting on gigantic financial reserves, more than many sovereign countries have, built up over decades of prosperity to meet any “rainy day” need in the future. Our “rainy day” has arrived, and the time has come to carry through many long-awaited social improvements.
Doubtless, the measures to be announced in the Policy Address will include actions to tackle the health crisis, and to address the resulting economic challenges. It could also be a good moment to lay out a wish list of welcome measures to improve the lives of its residents. Setting out a package of life-enhancing measures, as suggested here, would represent a “new deal” to upgrade the lives of its 7.5 million residents of this famously wealthy city — equally famous for its grossly unequal distribution of wealth.
For years, there has been much debate about the manifestly inadequate Mandatory Provident Fund pension system. Now would be a good time to overhaul it, so that it can really provide a proper pension, enough for our retired citizens to live on comfortably. All the present monthly contributions to it, for those in employment, come only from the employer and employee. But this is not producing enough funds at retirement to live on. So a third, matching contribution should be introduced to the monthly investments, with the cash coming from government-held funds.
Let us not forget that helping all our citizens live a more decent life can also generate significant economic returns. A happier citizenry makes for a more productive workforce, and most certainly a more law-abiding citizenry. In any case, our vast financial reserves ultimately belong to the public
The MPF system also needs to be converted into one that pays out a monthly pension upon retirement, rather than just returning the invested cash to the employee upon reaching retirement age. Many citizens (the vast majority, in fact) whose working life started too early, or whose retirement came too soon for them to benefit from a normal lifetime’s MPF contributions, need to receive booster funds into their MPF accounts to cover the shortfall. Many elderly people, who helped build Hong Kong into the acknowledged international success it is today, are now in their twilight years and not receiving an adequate pension that they richly deserve.
On a related issue, providing free public transport for this city’s elderly and disabled citizens would be quite reasonable considering they are generally at the bottom of the economic ladder of this otherwise fabulously wealthy city.
It is no longer in dispute that foreign domestic workers have played a pivotal role in the economic success of Hong Kong by freeing many parents from child-caring and home-management duties, thereby allowing them to devote themselves fully to their careers. In view of their enormous contributions, it is only fair that they should become eligible for permanent residence in Hong Kong after serving seven years here, the same as professionals coming from overseas to work in Hong Kong. It is common knowledge that many of them are ripped off by unscrupulous overseas employment agencies, which grossly overcharge them as they help them to land a job here. Sterner measures are clearly needed here to better protect them, in conjunction with stricter enforcement action by their home country governments in supervising these agencies.
The ongoing shortage of trained caregivers for our homes for the elderly could be addressed by encouraging more mainland workers to come here to take up such roles, which very few Hong Kong residents are attracted to. They also offer the advantage of sharing the same culture of their clients. And to encourage better provision of adequate staff numbers in these homes, the government should lay down a requirement on a minimum staff-to-resident ratio.
The need for better, and more, public housing is a perennial issue, which every Policy Address and Budget speech must confront. In particular, it is not economically impossible, longer-term, to eliminate the need for those ghastly cage homes, by providing much better housing for those stuck at the bottom of our socioeconomic ladder. Many of our old industrial buildings can be converted for this purpose by cutting the current red tape that restricts their use. It is doable. What is lacking at present is the political will.
More generous maternity and paternity leave, greater support for child care services, and priority access to suitable affordable housing are all measures that would encourage our young people to alleviate Hong Kong’s ever-declining birthrate, by choosing to have children.
The minimum wage should be raised substantially to ensure that every resident who is working is able to receive an income that is adequate to provide a decent lifestyle for them and for their families.
All the measures proposed above will cost money to implement but they are well within Hong Kong’s capacity to implement. Let us not forget that helping all our citizens live a more decent life can also generate significant economic returns. A happier citizenry makes for a more productive workforce, and most certainly a more law-abiding citizenry. In any case, our vast financial reserves ultimately belong to the public. Our leaders should have the pragmatism, political will and long-term vision to use them to uplift the lives of those less well-off among us. This would lead to a more harmonious society, as such measures would mean giving less cause to incite anti-government unrest, which we would never want to experience again having gone through it last year!
The author is a commentator on Hong Kong social issues.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
