Latest news with #PaulChanMo-po
South China Morning Post
04-05-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
682,000 mainland tourists in Hong Kong from May 1 to 3, up 23% year on year
More than 682,000 mainland Chinese visitors entered Hong Kong during the first three days of the Labour Day 'golden week' holiday, with arrivals on the second day setting a new post-Covid single-day record, the finance chief has revealed, as he pledged to strengthen infrastructure to make every part of the city a tourist destination. Advertisement A total of 682,114 mainland visitors entered Hong Kong between May 1 and 3, marking a 22.83 per cent year-on-year increase from 2024, official statistics showed on Sunday. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po also pledged in his weekly blog to strengthen tourism infrastructure to make every part of the city a tourism destination, echoing remarks previously made by Beijing's point man on Hong Kong affairs. For the first three days of the golden week holiday, Hong Kong welcomed a total of 803,612 visitors, 26.2 per cent more than during the same period last year. Chan said the second day of the holiday alone saw 267,000 mainland arrivals, setting a new single-day record since the end of the pandemic. Advertisement To accommodate the rise in arrivals, Chan said the government would expand the city's infrastructure and pay attention to improving visitors' travel experiences.
South China Morning Post
04-05-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Over 682,000 mainland tourists in Hong Kong from May 1 to 3, up 23% year on year
More than 682,000 mainland Chinese tourists entered Hong Kong during the first three days of the Labour Day 'golden week' holiday, with arrivals on the second day setting a new post-Covid single-day record, the financial chief has revealed, as he pledged to strengthen infrastructure to make every part of the city a tourist destination. Advertisement A total of 682,114 mainland Chinese visitors entered Hong Kong between May 1 and 3 of the five-day holiday, marking a 22.83 per cent year-on-year increase from 2024, official statistics showed on Sunday. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po also pledged in his weekly blog to strengthen tourism infrastructure to make every part of the city a tourism destination, echoing remarks previously made by Beijing's point man on Hong Kong affairs. For the first three days of the golden week holiday, Hong Kong welcomed a total of 803,612 visitors, 26.2 per cent more than during the same period last year. Chan said the second day of the holiday alone saw 267,000 mainland arrivals, setting a new single-day record since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. Advertisement To accommodate the rise in tourism arrivals, Chan said the government would expand the city's infrastructure and pay attention to improving visitors' travel experiences.
South China Morning Post
30-04-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong finance chief revises 2024-25 deficit to HK$80.3 billion, down 8%
Hong Kong's finance chief has revised the city's deficit for the previous financial year to HK$80.3 billion (US$10.4 billion), 8 per cent lower than his original estimate, attributing the change to increased stamp duty income on stock trading and lower-than-expected departmental expenditure. Advertisement Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po on Wednesday also revealed that the government would take 'careful consideration' before deciding on the launch of the proposed boundary facilities fee imposed on cross-border private cars amid criticisms from lawmakers, as they gave the green light to his belt-tightening 2025-26 budget. His latest budget blueprint, unveiled in February, contained a string of measures to tap new sources of revenue and ease a HK$87.2 billion deficit, starting with a pay freeze for all public servants, a downsizing of the civil service and a cut in education spending. Addressing lawmakers before the vote on Wednesday, Chan said the deficit for the 2024-25 financial year had been revised to HK$80.3 billion, HK$6.9 billion less than the original estimate. 'It was mainly due to the rise in stamp duty revenue on stock trading and the lower-than-expected departmental expenditure,' he explained. Advertisement He added that fiscal reserves remained at a level equivalent to eight months of government expenditure and that the city's economy had achieved 'steady growth' for the first quarter of this year. But Chan stopped short of offering further details.
South China Morning Post
21-04-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Legco patriots' budget criticism a warning that must be heard
It looks like things are changing at Tamar. The heat has definitely been turned up in the Legislative Council . Harsh words flew during last week's two-day budget debate for the second reading of the Appropriation Bill 2025. Advertisement The budget unveiled by Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po in late February was the hardest one to stomach. It was also one of the most challenging, given the need to take away budget 'sweeteners' and cut costs, and was never likely to go down well. So the fact the budget attracted significant criticism wasn't unexpected. What was perhaps unexpected was how little the government has applied austerity measures to itself. Executive Council convenor Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee has already called out Chan on the numbers game he tried to play in the budget when it came to cutting the civil service headcount by 10,000 across two years. Research by the Legislative Council secretariat suggests that at least 10,000 civil service posts have been vacant for six consecutive years, so we need only do the maths to see how meaningful the proposed cutbacks are in reality. Junius Ho Kwan-yiu has already said he will not vote in favour of the budget. Openly defying the government and vowing to vote against it might seem unbecoming by members the new and improved Legco, but other lawmakers felt emboldened to criticise the government during the debate. Advertisement The issues animating lawmakers the most appear to be government officials' failure to reduce their own pay while cutting the budgets of programmes that help the people, leaving Hong Kong's underprivileged, elderly and middle class to bear the brunt of these hard times.
South China Morning Post
20-04-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Decoupling may offer silver lining for IPOs in Hong Kong
As their trade war heats up, experts and industry insiders are fretting how China and the United States may escalate beyond tit-for-tat tariffs. A full-blown decoupling may be extreme, but is not beyond the realm of possibility. Advertisement One worsening sign is that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned that the option of delisting US-traded Chinese companies is now back on the table. Should that happen, it would indeed become a major disassociation between the equities markets of the world's two biggest economies. Ironically, Hong Kong's capital market may benefit in such an outcome. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po has already instructed the Securities and Futures Commission and the local stock exchange to prepare the best conditions for such a 'homecoming'. Advertisement An estimated US$1.1 trillion in the market capitalisation of nearly 300 Chinese companies, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and NYSE American, would all be exposed, according to the congressional US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Things can get worse from here.
