UNDER SECRETARY FOR COMMERCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (in Cantonese):

President, I thank the 22 Members for their valuable comments and suggestions. I will respond briefly to the areas of the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau ("CEDB") here.

 

As Secretary Edward YAU said in his opening remarks yesterday, in order to address the plight of many industries, we should get to the root of the matter and work together to bring the epidemic under control. Only by increasing the vaccination rate can we provide adequate protection to the community and then be in a position to adjust the social-distancing measures, thus providing better operating environment for all industries, gradually resuming normal activities and giving an impetus to restart the economy.

 

Therefore, first of all, I strongly disagree with Dr CHENG Chung-tai's remarks that "taking a jab is not very relevant and is of no help to economic recovery, resumption of cross-border travel, resumption of cross-border flows of people, getting society back on track, and getting society out of adversity." I do not agree with these illogical and irresponsible remarks.

 

Just now, colleagues from other Policy Bureaux have spoken on the industries under their purview. Regarding the tourism industry, the convention and exhibition industry and small and medium enterprises ("SMEs"), which are of particular concern to CEDB, we have, apart from implementing a number of assistance measures, also maintained close communication with the industry to provide various support and facilitation for the industry to resume business operation.

 

Take the tourism industry as an example. Many Members have said just now that the epidemic has dealt a severe blow to the tourism industry. The Tourism Commission has been maintaining close communication with the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong and members of the trade, and has introduced several rounds of measures to alleviate the pressure on the trade, including four rounds of subsidies through the Anti-epidemic Fund, as well as the Travel Agents Incentive Scheme and the Green Lifestyle Local Tour Incentive Scheme launched earlier. The total commitment of financial support to the industry is close to $2.6 billion. In addition, we have set aside $934 million in 2021-2022 to enhance tourism resources and promote tourism recovery. For example, in enhancing tourism resources, the Tourism Commission will continue to develop local cultural, heritage, creative and green tourism to offer leisure and travel experience with rich historical and cultural elements to both locals and visitors.

 

In addition, in promoting tourism recovery, the Hong Kong Tourism Board ("HKTB") will continue to promote the "Holiday at Home" platform and rebuild the city's ambience and stimulate spending through the Free Tour programme and the "Staycation Delights" campaign.

 

In addition, "cruise-to-nowhere" itineraries are expected to resume at the end of July at the earliest. The SAR Government and the Singaporean government will also review the target date for launching the bilateral air travel bubble in July, and will continue to explore with economies where the epidemic is relatively stable and which have close economic and trade ties with Hong Kong to re-launch or establish travel bubbles, with a view to endeavouring to resume cross-border travel in a gradual and orderly manner while balancing the need to protect public health and prevent imported infections.

 

On the other hand, HKTB is also working on the "Open House Hong Kong" platform, and will deploy targeted promotional strategies to introduce promotional offers to attract visitors when cross-border travel gradually resumes. At the same time, HKTB will continue to promote Hong Kong through various means, such as adopting new formats for organizing mega events, in the hope of maintaining Hong Kong's exposure in the visitor source markets during the epidemic and maintaining the competitiveness of Hong Kong in terms of tourism.

 

Just now I have noted that several Members also mentioned support for the convention and exhibition industry. As Hong Kong is the capital of convention and exhibition, I very much agree with Members that the convention and exhibition industry can facilitate the development of many different industries and support many people working in the industry. In supporting the convention and exhibition industry, as several Members have mentioned, the Government has introduced the two-part Convention and Exhibition Industry Subsidy Scheme under the Anti-epidemic Fund to reinvigorate the reputation of Hong Kong as an international convention and exhibition hub. One part of the scheme subsidizes organizers of exhibitions and international conventions held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre and the AsiaWorld-Expo 100% of the venue rental; and the other part subsidizes all exhibitors of exhibitions organized by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and participants of its major conventions 50% of their participation fees. Despite the epidemic, the scheme has been well received. As of 31 May 2021, the scheme has funded 31 exhibitions which were held successfully. The scheme, which was intended to last for 12 months, has been extended to 30 June 2022 to benefit more convention and exhibition activities and to further boost the confidence of event organizers in organizing convention and exhibition activities in Hong Kong, and provide job opportunities for members of the industry.

 

In addition, many Members also mentioned how to support hard-hit industries. According to many Members, the greatest challenge faced by these hard-hit industries, especially SMEs with limited resources, is their cash flow. In this regard, in order to alleviate the cash flow pressure of SMEs, we launched the Special 100% Guarantee Product under the SME Financing Guarantee Scheme last April to provide credit guarantee for enterprises. The product has been well received by the industry and as of the end of May this year, $56.2 billion of loans have been approved to benefit over 23 000 enterprises involving over 285 000 employees.

 

In order to provide SMEs with practical help, we have introduced two rounds of enhancement measures over the past year to raise the maximum amount of loan per enterprise from the total amount of employee wages and rents for 6 months to that for 18 months, subject to a ceiling of HK$6 million. The application period has been extended to late this year. In addition, in view of the repayment pressure faced by SMEs, we have extended the maximum repayment period and the principal moratorium arrangement to 8 years and 18 months respectively, with a view to alleviating the burden of SMEs.

 

In addition to relieving the liquidity pressure of SMEs, we are also committed to helping SMEs explore business opportunities. Over the past 18 months, we have made two injections totalling $3.5 billion into the Dedicated Fund on Branding, Upgrading and Domestic Sales ("BUD Fund"), tripled the funding ceiling per enterprise to $6 million, and significantly extended the geographical coverage from only the Mainland and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations markets initially to 37 economies with which Hong Kong has signed free trade agreements and/or investment promotion and protection agreements, so that SMEs will have more capital to expand into more overseas markets.

 

As the global epidemic lingers on, overseas markets will take some time to recover; and overseas exhibitions are unlikely to fully resume within a short period of time. Many Members have just mentioned this point. Given that virtual exhibitions have become increasingly popular under the new normal brought about by the epidemic, we have, since April this year, started expanding the funding scope of the SME Export Marketing Fund to cover large-scale exhibitions and virtual exhibitions targeting the "local market" held by organizations with good track record; while relaxing the eligibility criteria from covering SMEs only to non-listed enterprises for a period of two years. In fact, quite a number of organizations have gradually resumed holding exhibition and sales activities. The SME Export Marketing Fund will support enterprises in conducting more "local market" promotion activities and business expansion, so as to alleviate the impact of shrinking business in overseas markets.

 

President, with the easing of the local epidemic, the business sentiment in Hong Kong has recently improved, bringing a ray of hope for the recovery of many sectors. We hope that all sectors of the community will join hands and actively participate in the vaccination programme to create conditions conducive to restoring people's normal life and other cross-border business and tourism activities, so that consumption and other economic activities can be restored to the greatest extent possible and fundamentally help the affected industries to get out of the predicament.

 

President, I so submit.