HK Chief Executive Pleased at GDP GrowthTung Chee Hwa, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, was very pleased to learn that Hong Kong's economy was recovering very well as the GDP growth for the first quarter was an impressive 14 percent."We are confident that our economy will grow to 6 percent for the whole of the year," Tung said Friday evening, attributing the economic recovery to the hard work and collective effort of all the people in Hong Kong over the last two years or so. He said Hong Kong people would continue to be very watchful, particularly of the changing external environment, the recent interest rate increase in the United States and possible future increases that would affect the economic growth. Tung noted that while Hong Kong's economy was growing, there were certain sectors of the community who had not yet benefited from this, such as those who were still unemployed and those who were at the lower income market. The chief executive said the government had been taking positive steps to help those affected by economic restructuring. He noted that the Legislative Council just approved Friday a budget of 480 million HK dollars (about 61.5 million US dollars) for various training programs such as the on-going "Youth Pre- Employment Training Program," the new "On-the-Job Training Program " and "Information Technology Training." |
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