Coronavirus Hong Kong: government to spend additional HK$12 billion on revamped wage subsidy scheme
- New round of Employment Support Scheme has undergone major changes to expand eligibility
- ‘We call this the ultimate version, because we can say that we have concretely accepted all comments and proposed improvements,’ city leader Carrie Lam says
Hong Kong’s leader has announced the government will spend an additional HK$12 billion (US$1.5 billion) on a heavily revised wage subsidy scheme aimed at helping pandemic-battered employers cover more workers’ salaries from May to July.
At her regular Covid-19 press briefing, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said on Thursday her administration would ask the Legislative Council’s Finance Committee to approve a total of HK$43 billion in funding for the relaunched Employment Support Scheme (ESS). The initiative targets businesses struggling amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Health authorities confirmed 2,644 Covid-19 infections on Thursday, the second day the number of fresh cases dipped below 3,000, while 97 Covid-related deaths were reported. The city’s overall tally stood at 1,183,235 cases, with 8,557 fatalities.
“We call this the ultimate version [of the ESS], because we can say that we have concretely accepted all the comments and proposed improvements,” Lam said.
“We have summarised the main opinions received into six major aspects, so this improved version will propose optimised measures for those opinions.”
Lam said the changes would increase the number of workers covered under the scheme from 1.3 million to 1.74 million, hence the jump in cost from HK$31 billion to HK$43 billion.
