Containing pandemic key to reviving HK economy, financial secretary says

Financial Secretary Paul Chan said on Sunday that Hong Kong's economic revival from its deep recession will be possible only after bringing the coronavirus pandemic under control.

He said that the first priority was "to bring daily new infection cases down to zero" so that life can return to normal, leading to an expected increase in production and spending that can help drive economic growth.

The other priority, he said, is to put in place the "tourism bubble" arrangement after bringing the pandemic under control to facilitate travel for business or pleasure between Hong Kong, Macao and the Chinese mainland to ensure a speedy recovery of commercial activity. The expected increase in tourist arrivals from the mainland and Macao can benefit the tourism, retail and catering industries and raise the income of those industries' workers.

Chan said Hong Kong's GDP contracted by 9.1 percent and 9 percent in this year's first and second quarters respectively. Of the three growth engines, consumer spending fell 14.5 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, or 3.9 percentage points steeper than in the first quarter.

Fixed asset formation, which tracks domestic investments, plunged 20.6 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, while exports contracted 2.1 percent. Hard hit by the pandemic, tourism ground to a halt, leading to a 46.6 percent fall in exports of services in the period from April through June.

To contain the coronavirus outbreak, Hong Kong is making great efforts to increase its testing capability in the shortest possible time. Such efforts in identifying carriers of the virus, combined with effective social distancing measures, are most effective in fighting the pandemic, Chan said.

While expressing gratitude to the central government for sending timely assistance to Hong Kong in terms of building makeshift hospitals and expanding virus testing capacity, the financial chief stressed economic revival can be achieved only when public health is well protected so that life can return to normal.