HK Govt Expenditure to Grow 10.8 Percent in 2001-02

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government is expected to have a government expenditure of 252.7 billion HK dollars (US$32.4 billion) in the coming year, according to the draft estimates of expenditure for 2001-02 published Friday.

Announcing the government spending plan, Denise Yue, secretary for treasury, said: "government spending in 2001-02 will grow by 26.6 billion HK dollars (US$3.4 billion), or 10.8 percent in real terms, over the latest estimated spending for 2000- 01."

"This growth in government expenditure plus the re-deployment of savings under the Enhanced Productivity Program will allow us to meet on-going commitments, demand for additional services and new as well as improved services, investments in our infrastructure, and all the initiatives announced by the chief executive in all his policy addresses."

Of the total government expenditure for the next year, 203 billion HK dollars (US$26.0 billion) is for recurrent spending and 49.7 billion HK dollars (US$6.4 billion) is for capital spending.

Yue explained that recurrent government expenditure in 2001-02 will grow by 7.9 percent in real terms over the latest estimated spending for 2000-01.

Recurrent spending on education will amount to 47.6 billion HK dollars (US$6.1 billion), an increase of 5.5 percent in real terms over the latest estimated spending for 2000-01.

"This will allow us to make further improvements to our basic education programs," Yue said.

People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/