Wednesday, 25 February, 2015, 1:43pm

 
BUDGET 2015:
Cash injection will seek to diversify Hong Kong¡¯s economy and reduce reliance on external trade
 

The government will inject HK$1.5 billion into the export marketing and development funds for small and medium-sized enterprises this year, as Hong Kong will ¡°need to rely on domestic demand for maintaining economic vibrancy and preserving employment¡±, the financial chief said this morning.
Addressing the Legislative Council, John Tsang Chun-wah also said that external trade could ¡°hardly drive¡± the city¡¯s economic growth amid a host of uncertainties in the global market and unveiled measures aimed at diversifying the economy.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

In his budget speech a year ago, Tsang only mentioned SMEs in the 100th to 102nd paragraphs, but this year he mentioned it in the 25th.

He said SMEs are the mainstay of Hong Kong¡¯s economy as there are 320,000 such companies in the city, accounting for 98 per cent of the total local enterprises and employing 50 per cent of the private sector workforce.

To support them, the government will further extend the application period for the special concessionary measures under the SME Financing Guarantee Scheme for a year – to run until February next year.

Aside from injecting money into the export marketing and development funds, the scope of the former will be expanded, while the cap of funding support for each project under the latter will be more than doubled – from HK$2 million to HK$5 million.