Bilingual Editorial: The new budget: palliative measures
雙語社評:預算案治標求止痛 瓶頸處處突破乏力
文章日期:2019年3月29日

雙語社評齊齊聽

[英語 (足本收聽)] Presented by Mr TANG, Calvin Yiu-san, Lecturer of Hong Kong Community College, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

[普通話 (足本收聽)] Presented by Dr CHOI, Wai-yuk, Lecturer of Hong Kong Community College, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

The new Budget, which has just been released, cannot be said to have many wow factors. It was prepared with the guiding principles being "supporting enterprises, safeguarding jobs, stabilising the economy, strengthening livelihoods". However, the budget seems to be primarily focused on addressing acute problems and boosting innovation and technology. Many current livelihood issues of Hong Kong, such as healthcare and elderly services, are affected by the shortage of land and manpower. They cannot be solved immediately just by spending money. The new budget is inclined to tackle the symptoms rather than the root causes. To what extent the short-term palliative measures will be effective depends on whether government departments and the Hospital Authority can make the best use of resources.

[ENG audio 1]

In Hong Kong, people's livelihood and economic development have hit all sorts of bottlenecks. Even though these issues are mentioned in the new budget, no major breakthrough is in sight. Take the housing problem. The government has set aside $2 billion to support non-governmental organisations to build transitional housing to ease the problem of shortage of public housing. However, a few thousand units are but a mere drop in the ocean. In terms of innovation and technology, one important measure put forward in the budget is setting aside $16 billion for local universities to enhance or refurbish campus facilities, especially to purchase R&D equipment. Hong Kong has to enhance the training of R&D talent. Inadequate infrastructure and ancillary facilities are a bottleneck that hinders the effort in promoting R&D. It is great to see the government allocating more resources for this purpose, but the average amount of about $2 billion shared by each university can hardly be described as adequate.

[ENG audio 2]

In Hong Kong, whether it is housing, healthcare or elderly services, the biggest problem lies in the shortage of land and manpower. Training of talent and the creation of land cannot be achieved overnight. What the budget offers are merely palliative measures, one example being the building of transitional housing. The other example is the allocation of $20 billion for the purchase of premises to provide welfare facilities. Even though it is not unprecedented for the government to buy premises, there are doubts about how it actually works. The government is expected to provide an explanation. Nevertheless, extraordinary measures have to be adopted in times of emergency. All options should be considered to tackle welfare service needs. With regard to the problem of Hong Kong's public healthcare system, it is after all a question of "shortage of manpower and land". Seeing no way out of the problem, the government can only increase its recurrent expenditures by improving the remuneration of frontline workers and setting aside over $10 billion for the Hospital Authority to purchase equipment and to cope with unexpected circumstances. However, if the Hospital Authority fails to sort out its management problem and make the best use of resources, the plight of the frontline workers will not necessarily be alleviated significantly.

[ENG audio 3]

Since the financial position of the Housing Authority is sound, the government plans to bring back the multi-billion-dollar housing reserve to the fiscal reserve. It is worth noting that the budget is actually in deficit if the amount of over $20 billion recovered from the housing reserve is not taken into consideration. Since the external circumstances are not too bad and the government holds fiscal reserves of $1,100 billion, it is not a problem for the budget to show a slight deficit. At this point there is no need for the government to reduce the scale of its expenditure. Instead the government should make the best use of resources by meeting Hong Kong's long-term development needs. However, one cannot deny that the government's recurrent expenditure has continued to grow. More attention should be paid to the status of recurrent expenditure in the long run.

[ENG audio 4]

預算案治標求止痛 瓶頸處處突破乏力

新一份財政預算案出爐,談不上令人眼前一亮。預算案以「撐企業、保就業、穩經濟、利民生」作為籌備大方向,不過治痛點、催谷創科似乎才是預算案最突出的重點。當前本港很多民生問題,諸如醫療和安老服務,受制於土地荒和人手荒,非投入金錢就能立即解決,新一份預算案傾向治標多於治本,短期止痛效用多寡,還看政府部門和醫管局能否善用資源。

[PTH audio 1]

本港民生經濟發展瓶頸處處,新一份預算案雖有着墨,惟未見重大突破。以房屋問題為例,政府撥出20億元,支持非政府機構興建過渡房屋,紓緩公屋短缺,然而區區數千單位未免杯水車薪。創科方面,預算案重要措施之一是預留160億元,供本地大學增建或翻新設施,尤其是添置科研設備。本港需要增加培訓科研人才,大學硬件配套不足,是妨礙推動研發工作的瓶頸,政府增加投入是好事,惟每間大學分攤得到的資源,平均不過20億元左右,難言足夠。

[PTH audio 2]

由房屋、醫療到安老服務,當前本港最大問題,在於缺土地缺人手,無論是培訓人才還是造地,均非一蹴而就。現時預算案能做的就是治標「止痛」,興建過渡房屋是一例,撥款200億元購買物業營辦社福設施是另一例子。購入物業的做法雖非沒有先例,惟實際操作存在一些疑問,有待政府澄清,不過事急馬行田,為了應付社福服務需要,任何方案都應考慮。本港公營醫療系統問題,說到底亦是「無人無地」。當局無計可施,唯有透過增加經常開支,改善前線人員薪津,以及為醫管局預留百多億元,以便添置設備和應付突發需要,可是如果醫管局未能理順管理問題、妥善運用資源,前線人員困境不一定能得到顯著改善。

[PTH audio 3]

房委會財政充裕,政府將數百億元房屋儲備金重新撥歸財政儲備。值得留意的是,若不計算即時從房屋儲備金回撥的200多億元,今次預算案其實是一份赤字預算。鑑於外圍形勢未算太差,政府又坐擁1.1萬億元財政儲備,出現輕微赤字不是問題。現階段政府沒有必要縮減開支規模,反而應該善用資源,滿足長遠發展需要,不過近年政府的經常開支持續增加,亦是不爭事實,長遠情况需要多加留意。

[PTH audio 4]

明報社評2019.02.28