Hong Kong’s budget to see HK$20b in sweeteners for the public

Hong Kong people will get HK$20b worth of sweeteners

Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah uses his budget later this month to put cash into people's pockets and stimulate consumption to counter global economic uncertainty. One-off measures will again include a salaries tax rebate, capped at about HK$10,000, and a waiver on property rates, people familiar with the situation said. Permanent measures will include increasing the tax allowance for parents from HK$70,000 to HK$80,000 per child - the second increase in three years.

The giveaways come a year after Tsang cut sweeteners and warned of further belt-tightening amid projections from a committee of experts that pressure from the city's ageing population would turn healthy government surpluses into a structural deficit in as little as seven years (Source: SCMP). 

Alibaba Group announced it would set up a HK$1 billion fund to support young Hong Kong entrepreneurs

Alibaba announced that it has created a $129 million non-profit organization to help young entrepreneurs in Hong Kong looking to start up on the e-commerce giant’s online marketplaces. The Alibaba Hong Kong Young Entrepreneurs Foundation is likely to benefit benefit Alibaba in two ways. For one, it can get more sellers onto Taobao Marketplace and Tmall, its main shopping sites.

The Foundation could also potentially boost Alibaba’s reputation in Hong Kong, where students and young talents have been frustrated by economic policies that believed to only have mainland Chinese tourists and investors in mind. This frustration, coupled with the ever soaring real estate prices and thinning of local job opportunities, indeed fuelled last fall’s Occupy Central movement calling for a more democratic composition of the political structure and in turn better government.

However, this may indeed be the caveat that comes with receiving support from the Foundation.

Jack Ma Yun, founder of the online giant, when prompted by the fact that some young Occupy protesters had had their travel documents to the mainland revoked by the authorities, noted that, "When I was young, my dad cancelled many of my activities and didn't give me pocket money. Some discipline is needed, I'm sorry," he said, adding that young people should "believe in our country". Despite expressing this view, he also reassured that the Foundation does not carry out assessment of potential beneficiaries in this regard.

Karolinska Institute to set up first overseas research centre in Hong Kong

Karolinska Institute is a world renowned medical university in Sweden and it is responsible for awarding the Nobel Prize in the fields of both medicine and physiology. Recently the university is looking towards establishing its first overseas research centre in Hong Kong. The president of the university, Professor Anders Hamsten, explained that Hong Kong has a strong reputation for its medical excellence and would like to attract more international scientists to help with their current research. This project would not have been materialized without the aid of Hong Kong businessman Lau Ming-wai, who generously donated HK$40 million towards the cause.

The university is one of the leading institutes that specailises in stem-cell research and regenerative medicine. Professor Hamsten plans to use the new centre to conduct stem-cell research in order to tackle three major diseases, namely, heart failure, liver diseases and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease. The new centre is expected to start its research programmes within the next half a year and it aims to recruit 30 scientists in its first year of operation.

China executes mining tycoon for crimes

A Chinese mining tycoon linked to former security tsar Zhou Yongkang has been executed, according to Chinese media.  Liu Han, 48, was found guilty of 13 charges – including murder, organising casinos, running a mafia-style gang and illegally selling firearms – and sentenced to death in late May this year. 

According to the SCMP, he was executed on Monday morning together with his younger brother Liu Wei and three associates, Tang Xianbing, Zhang Donghua and Tian Xianwei, Xianning city intermediate court in Hubei province said. 

The court organised meetings between the criminals and their families prior to the executions, Xinhua reported. He spoke calmly to his family as they visited him  before his execution.

He told them to accept his fate, and not to seek redress for any injustice, according to a source close to the family. His final words quoted the adage attributed to Abraham Lincoln: “You can fool some of the people all the time, and all the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”.

Liu Han’s Hanlong Group – a conglomerate founded in 1997 with interests ranging from energy to real estate – was fined 300 million yuan (HK$377 million) for crimes including the use of fraudulent information to obtain bank loans.

HK employer not charged for maid abuse

An employer who was trailed for maid abuse was acquitted of charges yesterday. 

Employer Ngan Suk-wai said: "Hong Kong employers should do their part. Do not harm others just because you think [foreign domestic workers] come from a poorer background and that they come here to work."

The 40-year-old was cleared of one count of wounding Indonesian maid Anis Andriyani with intent. The court previously heard that on the morning of February 24, a furious Ngan dragged Anis into the kitchen after the helper waved a broomstick to scare off her employer's barking dog. The employer then allegedly held Anis' left hand on a chopping board and cut her finger.

Beijing faces clean air problem

Major obstacles remain if Beijing is to bring air pollution under control, its mayor has warned, while admitting the city fell short of last year's target.

Speaking at the opening of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress on Friday, Wang Anshun said pollution and a growing population were among the most pressing problems to be solved - exactly what he said at the same meeting last year.

The average concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) - the pollutants considered the most dangerous to health - fell by 4 per cent last year, short of the 5 per cent reduction target, he said.

The city's gross regional product (GRP) grew 7.3 per cent last year compared with 2013. The per capita income of urban and rural residents increased in real terms by 7.2 per cent and 8.6 per cent. The capital's target for GRP growth this year is 7 per cent.

Slowing of China's GDP growth

Chinese economic growth has slowed to its lowest level in 24 years – at 7.4% growth, it is considerably lower than previous peaks of double-digit growth rates. However, its economy has still boomed by more than US$700 billion in just last year alone. It still remains the world’s fastest-growing major economy, topping the US, EU and Japan. By some measures, it is already the world’s largest economy.

Although there is some concern in international media over this slowing down, Chinese media outlets are quick to insist that slower growth is the “new normal”, and that the economy is still resilient. In light of the improvement in the regulatory environment, and more emphasis on high-quality, sustainable growth, perhaps “gloom-mongering” is unwarranted. Although the World Bank has forecasted that India will surpass China in GDP growth in the years to come, it does not seem that China is slowing down.

In 2013, Premier Li Keqiang stated that 7.2% growth is the minimum required to ensure that enough new jobs will be created and that unemployment rates can be kept down. This number is already attractive – especially for sluggish Western economies.