Opinion | Does Hong Kong need a ‘silver economic system’ or to ship seniors to the mainland? – Cyber Tech
October 28, 2024
Regardless of Chief Govt John Lee Ka-chiu’s repeated requires change, the federal government has but to indicate indicators it’s strolling its personal discuss. Probably the most evident instance is how it’s coping with Hong Kong’s quickly ageing society. And no, it didn’t simply daybreak on our bureaucrats that we have now an ageing inhabitants. Now we have been encouraging senior residents to retire throughout the border for a decade.
The message has mainly been: why not go the place there’s more room, many leisure choices and decrease residing prices? In fact, that’s all with out making an allowance for the familial help seniors would possibly want. The subtext of this message is evident: Hong Kong is brief on house so, having contributed to town’s growth, make room for individuals who will be extra productive.
These days, it’s not simply seniors supposedly having fun with more room, higher service and decrease prices throughout the border. The weekend exodus of Hongkongers to the mainland has turn into a given. It’s unrealistic and inappropriate to attempt to stop Hongkongers from spending their money in mainland China, the chief government stated after his newest coverage deal with.
Simply final yr, Lee had stated that those that go away town to spend on the mainland solely accounted for a small share of the entire inhabitants so we shouldn’t take into account this development to be “exporting consumption”. Lee now appears to have modified his tune. So far as the federal government is worried, shoppers have altered their behaviour and it’s as much as native companies to reinvent themselves.
And since so many locals journey to the mainland to buy now, they will go to aged residents throughout their journeys, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Solar Yuk-han stated final week. Solar known as the federal government’s push for the aged to hunt greener pastures up north a “win-win” state of affairs. It’s certainly a win-win state of affairs when it comes to exporting consumption and senior residents.
But, within the newest coverage deal with, we discover that the federal government is making an attempt to develop the “silver economic system”, one thing the chief government has talked about earlier than. Final yr, the Lee administration appeared to have lastly discovered the silver lining within the ageing “drawback”.