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Message from Legislative Councillor Functional Constituency Representative for Wholesale & Retail

立法會議員之話 批發及零售界功能組別代表

Hon. Vincent Fang, SBS, JP

方剛先生

沸沸騰騰的第4屆行政長官選舉已經結束，儘管 選舉結果與大部分批發零售界選舉委員的取向不 符，但本人深信，無論誰當選，新任行政長官在 7月1日就職之後，一定會摒棄選舉時的各方矛 盾，努力協調香港商界和社會各個層面的關注和 利益，以推動香港持續發展為目標。

選舉期間，本人和批發零售界選舉委員，曾分別 與候任行政長官梁振英先生，和另一位侯選人唐 英年先生見面，聽取他們的政綱和就大家關注的 事宜進行交流。雖然許多評語都說梁先生傾向基 層，商界憂慮難以合作云云；但事實上，在該次 的交流會上，梁先生認為經濟發展非常重要，亦 明白商界的關注，並希望提高香港的競爭力，與 周邊國家和地區的驕人經濟表現看齊。

以已經開始熱身的議題“就標準工時進行立法＂ 為例，梁先生認為“現時本港仍未是適合時間 訂立標準工時，這議題要經過深入諮詢才可進 行＂。並且，他不會令香港變成福利主義社會， 惟經濟發展是需要社會各階層分享成果的。不 過，他明顯是支持男士待產假，指以現時香港每 年有四萬名嬰兒出生率計算，受惠者佔勞動人口 的比例仍是少數，對一般僱主的影響應該不大。

至於對零售行業影響至深的“銷售稅＂，梁先生 的回應是“反對商品銷售稅，因為這稅項會對1 萬元以下收入人士影響很大＂。

對於香港現時出現的“請人難＂現象，梁先生表 示如果香港真的出現勞工短缺，他個人是不反對 輸入外勞；但認同要勸服各界及議員同意輸入外 勞是比較困難，因此需要有一個好的包裝。

The cur tain was down for the event ful HKSAR Chief Executive election. Although the outcome of the election was not to the liking of most people in the Wholesale & Retail sector, I am quite confident that whoever gets elected, the new Chief Executive will put aside all the differences when he commences his new term of office on 1 July and will try his utmost to address the concerns of all facets of the community including those in the business sector with the aim of sustaining the development of Hong Kong.

During the election, I myself and voters of the Wholesale & Retail sector met with both candidates, Mr. Henry Tang and Mr. CY Leung to better understand their election pledges and to exchange views on various issues. There were many commentaries which described Mr. Leung as more sympathetic with the grassroots of the community and it was difficult for the private sector to work with him. However, Mr. Leung made a point during our meetings with him that economic development in Hong Kong was crucial and that he understood the concerns of the business sector and hoped to improve Hong Kong’s competitiveness matching us with the performances of our neighbouring economies.

For example, Mr. Leung said he believed “it was not the right time to implement the standard working hours system in Hong Kong and that it was an issue that required in-depth public consultation”. Moreover, Mr. Leung said he would not turn Hong Kong into a socialist economy although he stressed that the economic fruits should be shared by various sectors of the community. He was however supportive of paternity leave for fathers-to-be. His view was that the birth rate in Hong Kong was relatively low with only 40,000 new births a year and this would be translated into a very small number in the work force hence the impact on the employers would be insignificant.

Regarding sales tax, Mr. Leung’s position was that he stood “against the introduction of sales tax because this would have a major impact on low income individuals earning less than $10,000 a month.”

Mr. Leung believed if Hong Kong were faced with the problem of labour shortage, he would not oppose to the import of labour but he acknowledged that it was not easy to convince legislators to accept this and hence one needed to find a convincing way to package this.

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