New government benefits for the poor in Hong Kong

Hong Kong's wealth cap continues to spread even after the global recession. To combat the gap, Hong Kong Chief Executive David Tsang has announced some new government benefits for the poor.

From Bloomberg, writer Frederik Balfour details the announcement.

Responding to the widening wealth gap in Hong Kong, the government will provide transport subsidies for commuters, expanded medical services for the elderly, and will make housing ownership more affordable, Tsang said in his annual policy address broadcast live on local television.

“Social tension in Hong Kong stems partly from the wealth gap,” Tsang said. “The wages of some low-educated and low- skilled workers have continued to lag behind economic growth.”

The number of people living in poverty rose to a record 1.26 million, or about 18.1 percent of the total population, in the first half of 2010 from 1.2 million last year, the Hong Kong Council of Social Service said in an Oct. 3 report.

Inequality is rising even as the city with a population of 7.15 million recovers from its deepest recession in more than a decade. Hong Kong’s gross domestic product climbed 6.5 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier. The wealth divide is the most pressing social problem in Hong Kong, a July survey of 894 residents by the Chinese University of Hong Kong found.

Clinton Global Initiative heads to Hong Kong

There's a meeting here, a meeting there. We tell you about quite a few meetings on the News Blog.

But most of these meetings are a lot of talk and no action. Sometimes there is a pledge for action, but no one is held to their pledge. We are seeing that all too clearly now.

Former US President Bill Clinton had that same frustration while he served as President. That's why with his Clinton Global Initiative the meetings go a step further.


Clinton insists that no one attend the meetings unless they pledge to aid the poor. If that promise isn't kept, they cant come back for the next meeting.

After years of holding Global Initiative talks in New York, they now expand to Asia. Reuters Michelle Nichols details a press conference that the former President held to announce the Hong Kong meeting.

Bill Clinton says the global financial crisis likely will hurt fundraising at his first philanthropic summit in Asia, but the former U.S. president still hopes to encourage a culture of giving in the region.

His Clinton Global Initiative is a summit that gathers heads of state, celebrities, business leaders and humanitarians in a bid to tackle issues of poverty, energy and climate change, healthcare and education.

Four annual meetings have been held so far in New York where nearly 1,200 pledges have been made to take action worth $46 billion aimed at improving more than 200 million lives in 150 countries.

While continuing to hold annual meetings in New York, the initiative is also branching out to Asia and will hold a summit in Hong Kong on December 2-3 to address the region's problems in education, energy and climate change and public health.

"Yes there will be some problems with the economy probably, but I hope that the exercise will serve to swell the ranks of nongovernmental action throughout Asia," Clinton told a news teleconference.

"It may cut down on how much money we can raise but I'm not so concerned about that right now," he said. "The main thing I am trying to do is increase this feeling of civil society."

One-fifth of Hong Kong people live in poverty despite boom

from Earth Times

Hong Kong - It is one of the world's wealthiest cities, but more than one in five Hong Kong people live in poverty as the rich-poor gulf widens, according to a report published Monday. Despite its booming economy, more than 20 per cent of Hong Kong families - 1.33 million people - now live on monthly incomes of less than 900 US dollars for a two-person household and 1,500 US dollars for a four-person household, researchers found.

The number of people living in what welfare pressure group the Hong Kong Council of Social Services termed as poverty in its study has more than doubled from 630,000 in 1986 despite a population growth of only 25 per cent over that period.

Even though Hong Kong's economy is thriving with an 11 per cent rise in average earnings over the past five years, poor families with three or fewer members saw their income fall over the same period by between 6.4 and 8.5 per cent.

An increasing number of unskilled middle aged people have fallen below the poverty line along with 70 per cent of elderly people who live alone, council spokesman Chua Hoi-wai told the Hong Kong Standard newspaper which carried the survey findings Monday.

Welfare and labour groups in Hong Kong have for long campaigned for increased workers' rights and a minimum wage to protect the low-paid in the city of 6.9 million.

However, the government has repeatedly resisted the demands, saying that a minimum wage would lead to redundancies and adversely affect small companies in the business-oriented former British colony.

Narrow the "digital divide" to fight poverty, Hong Kong urges

from Yahoo News via AFP

HONG KONG (AFP) - Government regulators worldwide must close the "digital divide" that bars poor communities from benefiting from the hi-tech revolution, Hong Kong's financial chief has urged.

Speaking at the opening day of the International Telecom Union's (ITU) three-yearly trade show, Telecom World, financial secretary Henry Tang said information and communication technology were key to lifting communities out of poverty.

"One of the questions is how can we ensure that the digital world is open to all?" he asked delegates to the world's largest telecom expo.

"There are many people throughout this world who may be deprived of the opportunity to access information digitally and process that into knowledge," he said.

"In my view it is squarely governments' responsibilties to reduce this digital divide in a modern and progressive society."

Tang's comments are likely to spark debate in Hong Kong over the government's role in the economy at a time when critics say the China-backed administration is moving the city away from its traditional laissez faire policies.

This year's trade show, the first time it has been held outside of the ITU's Geneva home, will emphasise the role technology can play in alleviating poverty.

At the opening ceremony Sunday, Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus whose Grameen microcredit bank has brought business opportunities to millions of poor women in his native Bangladesh, said private enterprise had the answer.

He announced a tie-in with major telecom firms to bring IT centres and Internet connections to poor villages.

"(Technology) has become a fast track for getting out of poverty," Yunus said.