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To make every effort in each step

The second batch of about 800 000 eligible citizens have received the first voucher under the Consumption Voucher Scheme on 1 September, that is a total of some 6.3 million people have already received their voucher under the Scheme so far. Compared with the total number of 6.9 million registrations received, one may think that 600 000 registrations among which have not been further processed. Yet the fact is, for these 600 000 registrations, 100 000 were from ineligible applicants and 200 000 were duplicated registrations.

For the remaining some 300 000 registrations, the information provided is either incomplete or incorrect. For example, some were submitted without the Hong Kong identity card (HKID card) copy and hence the identity of the registrants cannot be authenticated, some did not indicate their compliance with the residing in Hong Kong requirement, and some provided incorrect information on HKID card or stored value facility account number. Among them, applicants of over 280 000 registrations had actually supplemented or corrected their registration within the registration period of the Scheme. As a result, the number of registrations which could not be processed as at 14 August, i.e. when the registration period ended, was about 19 000.

Taking into account that some citizens might not be able to supplement or correct their registration before the registration deadline, we announced on 15 August the provision of a two-week (until August 31) resubmission period. In particular, we arranged staff to receive and process the paper registration forms submitted during the period, with a view to ensuring that the details provided are correct and complete. More than 5 000 resubmissions were received in this period.

Some citizens only realised that their registrations were unsuccessful when the second batch of consumption vouchers were disbursed on 1 September. In order that these citizens could have a chance to correct and complete their registrations, we have further provided two more weeks for resubmission, so that they may resubmit their registrations on or before 15 September in person or through a trusted person.

In the middle of last week, the waiting time at the Secretariat in Pioneer Centre in Mong Kok had been long owing to the sudden influx of visitors, and we saw some elderly travelling a long way to Mong Kok to make the resubmissions. This is a situation we deeply regret. This reflects that there was deficiency on our implementation and preparation work and improvement should be made. We have taken immediate remediation, including to increase manpower substantially and make available additional service hours on Saturday in the resubmission period. Over the past three days, the number of daily cases handled by the Secretariat has dropped from more than 2 000 in the first two days to about 1 000 yesterday. By and large, no more queuing is required for resubmission of registration forms at the Secretariat in the Pioneer Centre.

Currently, our estimation is that there are still about 10 000 registrations that cannot be further processed due to inaccurate or incomplete information. In order to facilitate this group of people to resubmit their registrations, starting from tomorrow (6 September) we will operate three additional service centres in the General Post Office in Central, Wan Tau Tong Neighbourhood Community Centre in Tai Po and Leung King Community Centre in Tuen Mun to accept resubmission of registrations. These centres will operate on Monday to Saturday, from 9 am to 6 pm, until 15 September. Together with the existing Secretariat at Pioneer Centre in Mong Kok, there will be a total of four service centres to accept resubmissions. I would like to express my gratitude to colleagues in various departments for their assistance in such a short notice, so that we can operate these centres to better serve the public.

Through these service centres on the Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories, we hope that it may facilitate people living in different districts to resubmit the registrations. Since the registration forms are not required to submit in person, elderly may consider asking a trusted relative or friend to resubmit on their behalf.

The Consumption Voucher Scheme has a clear policy objective and purpose, i.e. to benefit the citizens directly, boost the recovery of Hong Kong's economy, and promote the wider use of electronic payments by citizens and small merchants. 6.3 million of people have already received the first voucher. It has effectively stimulated the market and significantly boosted the business of merchants, which fully reflects the effectiveness of the Scheme. When the first batch of registrants receive the second voucher on 1 October, we expect it will give another round of boost to the consumption sentiment.

Nonetheless, as this is the first time to implement such a scheme, different challenges and problems may arise, including how to help the elderly to connect with the different digital channels, so that they could be more adapted to the use of electronic means. This is a topic that we must address. When facing with challenges, we should not escape or else the society will not improve. Only by addressing the problems with effort, could we help our society to progress and provide better service to our citizens. The implementation of the Consumption Voucher Scheme also needs to be reviewed and adjusted from time to time, so as to better achieve its original goal, and benefit the citizens and the society as a whole.

Septembe 5, 2021