The chairman of one of Asia's largest trading companies and two former Hong Kong senior civil servants may be frontrunners to replace Antony Leung as financial secretary, an office where success can lead to the city's top job.
Chief executive Tung Chee-Hwa's list of candidates include Victor Fung, chairman of Li & Fung Ltd and the Airport Authority; Anthony Neoh, the city's former top securities regulator; and Rafael Hui, the former secretary for financial services, the Hong Kong Economic Times said, without citing its source.
Leung, who may face prosecution for buying a luxury car shortly before increasing taxes on them, resigned on Wednesday.
His successor will face both a record budget deficit and an economy in need of stimulus.
"A successful career as financial secretary will pave the way for the chief executive position," said Joseph Cheng, professor of political science at City University of Hong Kong. "Someone who can bring the Hong Kong economy around will certainly carry a lot of credentials."
The risk of failure looms large. This year's budget deficit is forecast at HK$90 billion (US$11.5 billion), and economists have said they expect the jobless rate in the city of 6.8 million to increase from the current record high of 8.6 percent.
The government halved this year's economic growth forecast in May to 1.5 percent because of the SARS epidemic, which killed almost 300 people in Hong Kong and caused tourists to disappear. Consumer spending, hurt when SARS kept shoppers at home, is forecast to drop 3 percent this year.
Retailers are still burdened by 55 straight months of deflation, forcing them to lower prices and accept smaller margins.
Leung's replacement may find himself confronting those problems from a position of weakness. Tung, who heads the government, is under fire for his handling of SARS, the economy and controversial anti-subversive legislation. Only about one in three residents was satisfied with is performance in Hong Kong University's latest popularity poll.
The next financial secretary must set policies for use of the city's HK$311 billion in fiscal reserves and for cutting the deficit, Cheng said. The public needs to feel that government money is being used fairly, he said.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
RSS