Although the total sales value of retail trade grew in March after a downturn for
24 months, the retail sector and tourism have not recovered yet. Both of them
are in turn driving many other industries like wholesales, catering, transportation
and advertising, etc. Under the knock-on effect, many of frontline staff are
suffering from salary drop, let alone any promotion opportunities.
In view of the above, I have been urging the government to increase the “external
and internal demands” for Hong Kong. The former “external” means to push
forward our tourism and attract more tourists. Especially when the new ancillary
facilities such as shopping centres near the boundary are made available and the
flow of tourists is improved, the government can consider widening the scope
of the Individual Visit Scheme to cover more Mainland cities, and reviewing the
measure of “one trip per week”.
As for the latter, that is to say, increasing internal demand, I opine that the
government should return wealth to people, say, by raising tax rebate and rates
concession. With more cash in hand, people can increase their spending that
will help stimulate our local economy.
As regards economic development, it is disappointing that some of the
government policies have brought unnecessary constraints and burden to the
business sector, rather than removing barriers and excessive regulations. For
example, the government is carrying out a “HK Code” in the middle of this year
that requests the trades including infant milk producers and retailers not to
advertise or make sales promotion on milk products formulated for baby under
36 months old, with an aim to advocate breast-feeding.
However, as there are probably quite a lot of factors - such as concerns over
her health and working conditions - for a mother to consider whether to go on
beast-feeding her baby, it is not reasonable to put the blame on the advertising
activities and impose a harsher restriction on the trades.
Many developed economies such as the EU, Singapore, Australia and New
Zealand regulate only the milk products formulated for baby under 12 months old.
It is not convincing for Hong Kong to follow the practice of those developing
counties like Ghana, Guinea Peso, Nigeria, Lebanon, Brazil and Philippines to
regulate those for baby aged under 36 months. It does not make sense indeed.
Therefore, even though financial support is important to Hong Kong economic
development, a change of our government’s mindset in policy making is even
more inevitable.
雖然零售業總銷貨值連跌
24
個月之後，
三月份終於出現增長，但零售業和旅遊業
始終未復舊觀。這兩者又帶動著批發、飲
食、運輸、廣告等多個行業，所以在連鎖
影響下，很多前線員工的薪金不增反減，
更不用說有甚麼晉升機會。
因此我一直催促政府要想方設法，去增加
外需與內需，使市道早日回暖。前者指
的，是要著力促進旅遊業，吸引更多遊
客，尤其當邊境構物城等旅遊配套設施稍
後陸續啟用，遊客有較好分流之後，那是
時候可考慮增加自由行城市和檢討一周一
行措施。至於後者，即是增加內需，就是
要求政府還富於民，例如提高退稅和差餉
寬免等，讓市民手頭鬆動可增加消費，從
而帶動經濟。
談到經濟發展，令人失望的是政府有部分
政策，莫說沒為工商業「拆牆鬆綁」，
反而增添不必要束縛，加重業界的經營負
擔。例如當局計劃在年中推行一套《香港
守則》，要求嬰兒奶粉的生產商、零售商
等業界不可為
36
個月以下嬰兒奶粉作任何
宣傳活動，即使減價促銷也不行，藉此鼓
勵母乳餵哺。
但問題是，母親是否選擇以母乳餵哺嬰
兒，實受身體狀況、工作需要等多重因素
影響，當局沒理由歸咎於奶粉宣傳，要施
加苛刻管制。其他先進地區如歐盟、新加
坡、澳洲、新西蘭等只規管最多零至
12
個月嬰兒奶粉宣傳，香港反而偏偏跟隨發
展中國家，如加納、幾內亞比索、尼日利
亞、黎巴嫩、巴西、菲律賓等去規管
36
個
月嬰兒奶粉，根本言不成理。
由此看來，政府若要致力發展經濟，財政
支援固然重要，惟改變政策思維更是必不
可少。
6
