HONG KONG - Hong Kong’s Legislative Council approved on Saturday a HK$137.5 billion government proposal for a second round of relief measures to offset the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
READ MORE: HK unveils HK$137.5b in relief to help cushion virus impact
Forty-one lawmakers voted in favor of the funding proposal while 22 lawmakers from the opposition camp voted against it, and two others abstained
Forty-one lawmakers voted in favor of the funding proposal, after LegCo’s Finance Committee spent more than 10 hours in meetings to examine it on Friday and Saturday. Twenty-two lawmakers from the opposition camp voted against it, and two others abstained.
The package includes a HK$80 billion job security program, subsidizing wages up to 50 percent of affected workers for six months. It also covers HK$21 billion for specified industries hurt badly by the pandemic.
The initial round of relief measures, approved on Feb 21, provided HK$30 billion for pandemic relief measures. Over HK$8 billion of that fund has already been disbursed.
In a statement issued on Saturday afternoon, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor welcomed the passage of the funding application.
"The epidemic has caused an unprecedented impact on Hong Kong's economy in the past three months. Various sectors have been hard hit with many businesses facing pressure to close down and massive staff layoffs being anticipated. The government needs to take resolute and exceptional measures to prevent the situation from deteriorating and relieve the imminent need of the businesses and the employees," Lam said.
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"I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the LegCo Finance Committee for passing the funding application for the second round of the Anti-epidemic Fund and relevant items following some 20 hours of discussion so that the government can implement various relief measures worth HK$137.5 billion as soon as possible," said Lam.
Together with the first round of relief measures under the Anti-epidemic Fund worth HK$30 billion and the relief measures in the 2020-21 Budget costing HK$120 billion, the government has committed a total of HK$287.5 billion, accounting for 10 percent of Hong Kong's Gross Domestic Product, Lam said.
