Hong Kong civil service needs to be hauled into the 21st century

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po was caught between a rock and a hard place as he drew up the budget for the financial year 2025-26. Ever since he disclosed at a meeting in the Legislative Council last December that the government would run a fiscal deficit for the third consecutive year, and that it would amount to HK$100 billion in 2024-25, pressures have been mounting on him to take decisive measures to bring public finance back into a healthy balance.

In fact, the financial secretary had been a lightning rod since he singled out the popular HK$2 transport fare concession scheme for the elderly and persons with disabilities for review in his budget speech last year. But he had good reason to do this. Expenditure on this concession has ballooned from around HK$230 million in 2012-13 to a projected HK$4.6 billion in 2024-25, and HK$5.6 billion in 2025-26.