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With full resumption of normal travel, let’s grasp the opportunities and stabilise the economic recovery momentum
After three years of difficult times from the epidemic, Hong Kong has been progressively resuming quarantine-free travel with the international community since the end of last year. Starting tomorrow, normal travel with the Mainland will also fully resume. All boundary control points between Hong Kong and the Mainland will be opened with no quotas and no pre-booking required, and the requirement for pre-entry and pre-departure nucleic acid testing will be lifted (Note). Further, the rapid antigen test requirement for all inbound persons from Macao will also be lifted. After these adjustments, quarantine-free travel is essentially resumed for Hong Kong-based travellers to the Mainland, Macao or other overseas destinations. It is also great news for business travellers or tourists visiting Hong Kong, and for travellers entering the Mainland or heading to other destinations through Hong Kong.
It is anticipated that official events as well as business, tourism and other economic activities will recover fast, and cross-boundary people and goods movements increase steadily. This is expected to boost Hong Kong’s exports, transportation and logistics, tourism, retail and catering sectors, and contribute to a more optimistic sentiment and outlook for Hong Kong’s economy as a whole.
Nonetheless, recent economic data have reminded us that we should remain vigilant. The value of Hong Kong’s merchandise exports plunged by 28.9% year-on-year in December last year, the steepest single-month decline in 68 years and the eighth consecutive month of decline. For 2022 as a whole, the value of merchandise exports dropped by 8.6%. While the value of retail sales reverted to an increase of 1.1% in December last year, it still fell by 0.9% for the year as a whole. It is worth noting that although the overall figures were not satisfactory, the value of retail sales in respect of online sales alone reached $34.6 billion last year, an increase of 21% over the preceding year, with its share in total sales rising to 10%, a further increase of around 2 percentage points over that in the preceding year. So long as we work hard and carefully look for new opportunities amid changes, we can still capitalise on the present and open up the future. The Government’s disbursement of consumption vouchers in the past two years not only stabilised consumer and business confidence under the epidemic, but also stabilised the local economy and employment; while at the same time promoting the development of e-payment and e-commerce, and opening up new growth opportunities for businesses for enterprises in the face of adversity.
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Looking ahead to 2023, while Hong Kong’s economy will certainly be better than that of last year, the external environment will still be full of challenges and uncertainties. Economic recovery will take a process, whether it be the resumption of flights, return of tourists, or increase in investments – it may take some time for the economy to gather momentum. After enduring the downward pressure in the past few years, the financial status of enterprises as well as our residents and workers will also take time to recover. As such, we need to work hard to strengthen the hard-earned positive momentum, be vigilant about risks, and go forward steadily. Only by creating a stable and favourable environment for economic development, and by adopting business-friendly policies and measures, can Hong Kong’s economy best recover.
In the short term, different sectors are striving to enhance their business handling capacities, including speeding up restocking, stepping up recruitment, strengthening training, etc., with a view to catering for the rise in business and transactions upon the start of recovery and revival of the market. In the meantime, the Task Force on Promoting and Branding Hong Kong led by myself has commenced work; and the Government also launched a large-scale global promotional campaign "Hello Hong Kong" last week. With all these efforts to enhance the promotion of Hong Kong to the world at a time when the city returns to normalcy, we hope that our Mainland and overseas friends would appreciate the city’s new bright economic prospects, new cultural vision, and have new experience of our tourism and mega events when they visit Hong Kong again.
The series of promotional activities under the “Hello Hong Kong” campaign includes the give-away of over 700,000 free air tickets and “Hong Kong Goodies” welcoming offers from some 16,000 retail and dining outlets and attractions. Together, they aim to enrich visitors’ travel experience and highlight Hong Kong’s friendliness and hospitality as visitors enjoy our delicacies and beautiful scenery. This year, there will be more than 300 large-scale events, trade shows and international events in Hong Kong, such as the upcoming Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon, Hong Kong Sevens, Clockenflap Music Festival and Art Basel; as well as the Hong Kong Wine & Dine Festival and the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit to be held near the end of this year. By joining these events, friends from all over the world will be able to appreciate the unique advantages, opportunities and charm of Hong Kong.
While we are striving to consolidate and promote Hong Kong’s economic recovery, and as we reopen and rejoice the recovery alongside various mega events, let us not forget our fellow residents who are living in hardship, and the need to help them improve their living conditions and quality of life. The current-term Government adopts a governance model that better integrates a proactive and capable government and an efficient market so as to promote Hong Kong’s faster and better development through measures in the short, medium and long term. We are trying our best to address people’s concerns and difficulties in their daily lives.
On land and housing, the Government is making every effort to increase the supply of land and housing by enhancing speed, quantity, efficiency and quality. Nevertheless, land creation and housing construction take time. The building of Light Public Housing (LPH) proposed by the current-term Government is intended to provide those residing in poor living environments the hope of options which can improve their living conditions in a relatively short period of time. This is particularly the case when the forecast production of public housing in the next ten years will be back-loaded, which means that there would be an obvious gap in housing production in the first five years despite the fact that the estimated production target would exceed the demand. LPH serves to fill part of this gap and is not a long-term measure. Viewed from this perspective, it is important to implement the scheme as soon as possible. The society has expressed different concerns about the scheme and we are responding proactively. Communication is a continuous process. I hope that all sectors of the society, while raising their views and concerns, will also adopt the spirit of neighbourliness and mutual care; and allow the scheme to commence early, thereby improving the living environment of those who are inadequately housed as early as possible. I believe that with the advice and monitoring of various parties, different considerations and concerns will be properly addressed in the future operation of the scheme.
February 5, 2023
