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Hong Kong Budget 2015-2016

Hong Kong Budget 2015-2016
Finance Secretary John Tsang unveils his keenly-awaited budget for 2015, with a raft of sweeteners expected to put cash into Hongkongers' pockets in an effort to boost consumption.
Financial Secretary John Tsang says he is pleased to end six weeks of talks and expects funding for government departments to resume by the middle of next month. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Hong Kong's marathon budget bill crosses the line after six-week long filibuster

The marathon budget debate finally came to a close, clearing the way for a vote on the 2017 political reform package and ending a filibuster that saw government funding to some public bodies suspended.

New | Financial Secretary expects ‘rainy days’ after US Fed cools talk of interest rate hike

Jake's View

Jake’s View | Hong Kong's industry subsidies suppress rather than stimulate entrepreneurship

Hong Kong is stuck with a ruling class of doers and followers

In handling this year's budget, Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah succeeded in lowering and then surpassing all expectations by handing out "sweeteners" amounting to almost 60 per cent of the forecast surplus for the financial year 2014-15. 

The Kai Tak Cruise Terminal will be hard-pressed to deliver the blockbuster results that the government is hoping for. Photo: Sam Tsang

Investment income will cover 10pc of government's expenditure this year: finance secretary

Hong Kong will receive an estimated HK$45 billion of investment income this year - enough to cover 10 per cent of total government expenditure and the most since a record high in 2008, Financial Secretary John Tsang revealed.

Opinion | Inept government ensures Hong Kong gets a poor return on its riches

No apologies for returning to the budget, a microcosm of just how inadequate Hong Kong's top bureaucrats are in devising medium- and longer-term strategies, especially as it coincided with an advisory body's report on the Future Fund.

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Sweet dreams of home ownership can turn into nightmare

Hong Kong parents instil in their children from an early age the virtues of home ownership. A flat, while providing a place to live, is also a sound investment, their logic goes.

John Tsang's message was common sense: if you cannot afford it, do not buy.

My Take | Invest in a bright future for all Hongkongers

What should we make of the government-proposed future fund? Well, it depends on whether you think we should invest for the future or save for the future.

The View

The View | Budgets do little for business or the poor

Lock up Hong Kong future fund for at least 10 years, government advisers say

The "future fund" should be locked up as an investment for at least 10 years and withdrawn only when the fiscal reserves drop to a level equivalent to six months of gross government expenditure.

Men sit on a bench in North Point. The fund will be set up this year to cope with structural deficits likely to emerge within a decade amid an ageing population and a shrinking workforce. Photo: Bloomberg

Hong Kong property cooling measures cloud dreams of young homebuyers

Before tying the knot in 2013, Wong Man-lok had a plan to cut spending to save enough to buy a small property within two years. Now his dream is in tatters.

A man carrying a boy walk outside a property agency featuring posters of the latest high-rise apartment buildings. Photo: Reuters

Hong Kong fund managers urged government to invest new future fund in unconventional assets

The government should consider investing in unconventional and less-liquid assets as part of its strategy so its new future fund can enjoy better returns, fund managers have recommended.

Hong Kong must reconsider a broader tax base for fiscal stability

Among the numbers and spending programmes of many Hong Kong budgets over the past decade and a half has been mention of a need to broaden the government's revenue base, perhaps through a goods and services tax.

My Take | Give more licences to food hawkers rather than allow food trucks

I fell asleep watching the Hollywood movie Chef on HBO. But then, that says nothing about its quality, as I am no middle-class film buff like John Tsang Chun-wah.

Give us our food hawkers, not trucks

Food trucks can add some spice to the Hong Kong food scene

Visitors look at a menu displayed outside a food truck in Hokkaido, Japan. Photo: Bloomberg
John Tsang

Wealthy Hong Kong government's poverty of ideas for the people

Pity Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah, who must be one of the most "jinxed" financial officials in the world. Since he took over the position in 2007, he has been chalking up a fiscal surplus, even when the economy faced the toughest conditions.

In Focus

The people's verdict on Hong Kong's budget

As the ink dries on Hong Kong's giveaway budget chock-a-block with sweeteners aimed at defusing political strife, people are weighing up what they are getting - or not getting.

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Hong Kong housing

New property cooling measures will see higher down payments for Hong Kong buyers

Norman Chan Tak-Lam today announced measures to cool Hong Kong's property market after the city's house prices had reached what he called an historical high.

Property sales agents chat during the roadshow of a residential property development in Hong Kong. Photo: Reuters
Trade

Beijing's new Silk Road may be a break for Hong Kong manufacturers

The national “one-belt-one-road” export policy will offer opportunities for Hong Kong manufacturers in the Pearl River Delta and the city’s financial services sector, industry insiders said.

Middle class reap tax benefits while poor miss out

Middle-income families stand to benefit most from the rise in child tax allowance and the rebate on salaries tax announced in the budget - while low-income families gain nothing at all.

Financial Secretary John Tsang 'must focus on long-term challenges' for Hong Kong

Risks to Hong Kong's long-term economic prospects and competitiveness are ballooning and prompt measures are needed, experts have warned.

Financial Secretary John Tsang said little in the budget to tackle a potential structural deficit within the next decade, academics said. Photo: Sam Tsang
In Focus

John Tsang's budget giveaways fuelled by government's huge surplus

The government's more generous than expected budget sweeteners have cheered the middle class, the poor, small businesses and even property developers.

The budget included handouts for welfare recipients as well as the middle class and small businesses. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Budget tale of how two cities address their problems

Faced with widening income disparities and fast ageing populations, the governments of Hong Kong and Singapore this week adopted two different approaches to solve the problems as they revealed their fiscal plans for the coming year.

SCMP Chronicles

SCMP budget calculator: Work out how the Hong Kong budget affects you

The South China Morning Post, in collaboration with Code4HK, has devised a simple to use calculator that allows you to see how the budget affects you.

Update | Hong Kong urged to draw visitors from India, Southeast Asia after HK$80m tourism boost

Hong Kong should promote itself more in India and Southeast Asia, a tourism veteran suggested, as the city's financial chief pledged HK$80 million for tourism promotions after Occupy protests.

Tourists enjoy the views from The Peak. Over the Lunar New Year holidays, the number of mainland Chinese visitors to Hong Kong dropped 1 per cent year on year to 842,124. Photo: EPA

Invest HK$64 billion budget surplus in youth, pan-democrats urge Tsang

Pan-democrat lawmakers today urged Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah to dip into the city’s HK$63.8 billion budget surplus to invest in the future.

John Tsang took calls from the public about the budget on Thursday. Photo: Edward Wong

Hong Kong hawkers find finance chief’s food truck plan unappetising

Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah’s plan to introduce food trucks to Hong Kong was unappetising, hawkers said, after the idea was wheeled out in the budget speech yesterday.

Video | Occupy protests blamed as Hong Kong misses growth targets

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