The budget 2002-03 was passed in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Legislative Council Wednesday, said a press release from the SAR government.
Financial Secretary Antony Leung reiterates the HKSAR government's role proposed in the new budget as "Proactive Market Enabler" at a stand-up media briefing at the Legislative Council, it said.
Leung said what he has proposed in the budget is to reorganize, re-engineer and re-prioritize the government, and to work together with the private sector to provide better service to the community as well as provide a lot more operating room in the private sector.
He said, "I am trying to reduce the role of the government in the economy by giving it a lot more room and reducing the size of the government from 23 percent to 20 percent of the GDP."
"In the period when we are running the record budget deficit, I choose not to increase tax but rather to cut expenditure so that we can maintain a low tax and a simple tax regime. All of these would illustrate that I am a believer of the market," added the financial secretary.
Leung also noted, "However, since the world is changing so fast, the government does have a role in enabling the market and I mention a few examples."
He pointed out that in the establishment of a common data sharing standard in the logistics area, unless the government would proactively work with the private sector to establish the standard, the market will not develop by itself because there will be a lot of conflicting interests.
He also said that the government's effort in getting the Central Government to allow more tourists to come to Hong Kong is again another proactive enabling measure.
The new budget was submitted to the Legislative Council by Financial Secretary Antony Leung on March 6 this year.
( April 18, 2002)
