Appropriation Bill 2017 (2017/04/13)

 

 

MR YIU SI-WING (in Cantonese): President,the Budget this year is the first Budget prepared by Mr Paul CHAN since heassumed the position of the Financial Secretary. It is characterized by adetailed explanation of the Government's philosophy of public financemanagement and a clear description of its objectives and directions. Indovetailing with the measures contained in the Policy Address, the Budget hasallocated corresponding resources in education, social welfare, health care andinfrastructure. It has also provided additional resources for industries withoperational difficulties and for the disadvantaged groups. Thus, it can be saidthat the Budget is rather comprehensive. 

The accumulated fiscal reserves of HongKong reached its historical high of $936 billion in March 2017, which isequivalent to the amount of government expenditures for 24 months. Among the 35places listed by the International Monetary Fund ("IMF") as developedeconomies, Hong Kong is the only place which has recorded fiscal surplus forthe past 10 consecutive years. This certainly reflects a booming economy and asubstantial amount of government revenue, but IMF has expressed concern aboutthe economic implications of the "conservative forecasts","over-achievement of revenues" and "under-achievement ofexpenditures" of the SAR Government in its most recent report. Sincecurrently the Government has an abundant supply of fiscal resources, I think itshould suitably increase the funding for promoting economic development andimproving people's livelihood. It is actually not desirable to accumulate aslarge an amount of fiscal reserves as possible; the Government should carefullyconsider how to make the best use of our fiscal resources under the principleof prudent financial management. 

President, the tourism industry in generalsuffered a downturn last year. In terms of inbound tourism, there was acontinued decline in visitor arrivals. Overall visitor arrivals fell by 4.5%last year and in particular, arrivals of Mainland visitors dropped by almost7%. The decline in visitor arrivals to Hong Kong has affected the relatedconsumer industries. The room occupancy rate and revenue of hotels dropped, andthe value of total retail sales continued to fall for 24 consecutive months. Interms of outbound tourism, online sale and direct sale by product suppliershave dealt a direct blow to the conventional tourism industry and causedbusiness to shrink. In response to the hardship faced by the relevant trades,the Government has accepted their suggestion to waive licence fees for travelagents, hotels, guesthouses, restaurants and hawkers for one year. Although themoney involved is not great, it shows that the Government cares about thehardship of these businesses and I therefore welcome the relevant measure. 

The Budget mentions that the tourismindustry makes up 5% of our GDP and employs about 270 000 people. I want tostress that these figures are derived from the most conservative estimates of theindustry's direct contributions. The value chain of the tourism industry isvery long. It promotes tourist attractions and trades such as hotels, transportand entertainment, as well as affects trades such as retail, catering,logistics and transport, advertising and publishing and infrastructures.According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, Hong Kong's tourism industryindirectly accounted for as high as 16.8% of our GDP and employed 559 000people, representing 14.7% of the total workforce. From a global perspective,one tenth of all jobs are created by the tourism industry. Since the impact isextensive, when the unemployment rate of Hong Kong rises, economists willregard the downturn of the tourism industry a major factor affecting the employmentrate. This runs contrary to the remarks made by some Members that it will beinconsequential to sacrifice the tourism industry as it makes up only 5% of ourGDP. I hope that the Government will continue to show its concern for thetourism industry and continue to implement the supportive measures.

President, over the past year, politicaltension in Hong Kong has eased; there has been less negative news aboutincidents directed against Mainland visitors and the situation of coercedshopping and ripping visitors off has alleviated. Recently, an employee of apharmacy who deceived a Mainland visitor by changing the pricing unit fromcatty to mace was sentenced to six months' imprisonment, the heaviest sentencein cases of the type. According to the court, in order to protect the public,visitors and Hong Kong's reputation as a shoppers' paradise, it was necessaryto impose a deterrent sentence. Imposing severe punishment on acts of deceivingvisitors and restoring Hong Kong's hospitable image are conducive to building agood reputation for the tourism industry of Hong Kong. With the concertedefforts of various sectors, the number of overall visitor arrivals hasincreased by 1.4% in the first two months of this year. In particular,non-Mainland visitors have risen by 2.8%, while Mainland visitors haveincreased by 1%; and the overall visitor arrivals in the first half of Marchhas even increased up to 5.5%. If this upward trend continues and not affectedby negative news and unforeseen incidents, the tourism industry may expect arebound. I believe the additional allocation of $243 million mentioned in thisBudget to support the development of the tourism industry will be welcomed bythe industry and the public because it will help to speed up the recovery of theindustry. 

Although there is hope of a cyclicalrecovery for the tourism industry, some long-term and fundamental problemsstill exist. The Government should take the opportunity and utilize theresources to foster the sustainable and healthy development of the tourismindustry. In this funding application, an additional $17 million is beingsought for promoting the diversification of tourism products, including thePilot scheme to promote tourism projects with local characteristics and thePilot scheme to promote green tourism. Although the funding involved is nothuge, the Government has at least responded to the demands of the public, thetourism industry and Members. In Hong Kong, there are many scenic country parksand hiking trails and there is also a unique world geopark. To promote greentourism, the Government cannot rely solely on increasing funding to strengthenpublicity. More importantly, it should make better use of our precious tourismresources and encourage more visitors to experience the value of these places. 

There are many natural scenic areas in HongKong which are worth visiting, but the conditions of areas suitable forvisitors vary. I suggest the authorities to first identify routes with betterconditions as pilot points and start enhancing facilities such as toilets,waste collection center, resting places for visitors and visitor informationcentres along the routes to facilitate members of the public and foreignvisitors. In areas with stable electricity supply and telecommunicationcoverage, the Government can provide free Wi-Fi and QR codes along the routesto facilitate visitors reading the relevant information with their mobilephones. The information can be presented as pictures or texts or in the form ofmulti-lingual audio guides to increase the involvement of visitors to achieveeducational and promotional effects. Regarding the geopark and some potentialvisitor attractions which are not easily accessible, the Government canconsider collaborating with the tourism industry and the transportation sectorand providing suitable subsidies to encourage them to provide transportservices along the relevant routes, so as to provide the greatest convenienceto members of the public and visitors. The effectiveness of the measures introducedat the pilot points should be regularly reviewed. After these measures havebeen implemented to a maturity stage, the facilities can be operated by therelevant trades on a self-financing basis. By implementing the measures fromone place to the whole area and from one area to another, our capacity toreceive visitors at green tourism attractions will be gradually increased. 

In terms of attracting high-spendingvisitors, the Budget has earmarked $12 million for implementing a promotionalscheme targeting transit passengers in Hong Kong. Introducing schemes withpromotional offers to transit passengers is nothing new. Singapore started toprovide free tourism services to transit passengers long ago. Transitpassengers who have to stay in Singapore for more than five hours can join freetours to see the city. In 2016, the annual visitor arrivals at the Hong KongInternational Airport ("HKIA") exceeded 70 million, and transitpassengers accounted for one third of the number. If sufficient incentives aregiven to these passengers to go outside HKIA, it will certainly be good; and itwill be even better if they become overnight visitors. As HKIA offers morefrequent flights than other airports in the surrounding area, many passengerschoose to transit through Hong Kong to overseas countries or the Mainland forholidays or visiting relatives. If the Government takes the initiative to workwith airlines, bus companies, hotels, tourist attractions and shopping malls toprovide concessions based on their respective edges to transit passengers,transit passengers will have the incentive to extend their visiting time orstay in Hong Kong or even stay overnight. This will surely benefit our economy. 

The commissioning of the HongKong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge in the future will bring greater convenience totransit passengers travelling between HKIA and the Pearl River Delta Region.The Airport Authority has suggested providing two-way land-to-air shuttle busservice to take these passengers and their luggage direct to the RestrictedArea of HKIA for outbound flights. Similarly, passengers can also be takendirect to the boundary crossing points at Zhuhai and Macao via HKIA. Theseproposed measures will further reinforce the leading status of HKIA. I hope thegovernment departments concerned will step up their efforts to discuss thedetails with the relevant authorities of Guangzhou and Macao. 

Although the aviation industry of Hong Konghas a bright future, there are hidden risks too. At present, HKIA is alreadyoperating to capacity and this has restricted the development of Hong Kong'saviation industry. According to figures provided by the Civil AviationDepartment, in the past three years, the number of rejected applications ofairlines to operate scheduled or chartered flights has greatly increased froman average of 100 flights per day in 2014 to 150 flights per day in 2016,representing an increase of 50%. This shows that it has become increasinglydifficult for airlines to develop their flights. I hope that the Government canproperly process applications of airlines for increasing the number of flightsand, before the completion of the three-runway system, try to avoid airlinesusing other airports as HKIA is operating to capacity. 

President, the Budget has earmarked $5million to support the training of practitioners of the tourism industry(including employees of tourist agencies, tour escorts and tour guides) throughthe Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong to enhance service quality of theindustry. This initiative is worthy of encouragement. In fact, the countryparks of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Geopark, our historic buildings and our cultureand customs are special. If resources can be injected to improve the planningof itineraries, contents of guided tours and skills of tour guides; enhancetraining; raise the quality of guided tours; provide personalized tour servicesto cater for different needs of customers, visitors will find the visitworthwhile and have a unique and impressive travel experience. At present, thereis only one type of recognized tour guide licence in Hong Kong which can hardlysatisfy the diversified needs of inbound visitors. Apart from providing fundingand training support, the authorities should consider enhancing the licensingmechanism of tour guides. Besides issuing the ordinary tour guide license, theauthorities can establish a system for recognizing professional expertise, soas to encourage tour guides to pursue self-improvement and enhance the supportfor strengthening the expertise and competitiveness of the tourism industry ofHong Kong. 

President, the report on the work of theCentral People's Government this year has, for the first time, mentioned theplanning proposal of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area under the frameworkof the Belt and Road Initiative. It is stated in the report that the proposalwill specifically bring the unique advantages of Hong Kong and Macao into fullplay. A plan for deepening the cooperation of the cluster of cities in thePearl River Delta Region should be considered to boost their status andfunctions in the country's economic development and opening-up to the outsideworld. Capitalizing on the opportunities provided by the future commissioningof the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong KongExpress Rail Link and hence the closer proximity of Guangzhou, Hong Kong andMacao, the authorities should plan ahead and utilize the Belt and RoadInitiative and the national development plan of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-MacaoBay Area to create more opportunities for the tourism industry of Hong Kong.

With these remarks, I support theAppropriation Bill 2017.