7386 D073815 140M 5/74 Cr.P.C. Gp.839/3
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
CONFIDENTIAL
10. Assuming more money were available, the obvious scope for expansion lies in the fields which the Government already have in mind: housing, education and health, together with the administrative apparatus necessary to support the greater public expenditure required. In some sectors, eg education and health, a considerable proportion of the cost would presumably be borne on current account; but in other fields changes in the system of financing could make a considerable contribution. The housing programme, for instance, has been remarkable by any standards but it is by no means clear why in the interests of greater quantity and better quality it would not be possible to introduce other financial arrangements eg loans recouped from rents and amortised over perhaps 20 years. Nor is it clear why rents in the public sector are so low when compared with the private sector. A recent cost of living survey showed that many tenants in public housing pay only 6% of their expenditure on rent as compared with 20% in private housing.
11. But perhaps a more remarkable example is afforded by the present weaknesses in the social security system where, in the absence of any contributory element, there is no provision for unemployment benefit, adequate retirement pensions, sickness insurance or provision for widows and orphans. It is sometimes argued in Hong Kong that the local Chinese population see no necessity for such a scheme since they can rely on the traditional family structure to provide support in times of difficulty and that,
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in any case, they would resent having to contribute
resources to a compulsory scheme when the spare money
could be bla
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can be more productively employed in places less
subject to political uncertainties. If so, it is
difficult to account for the success of the Central
Provident Fund in Singapore, or the social security scheme in Taiwan. Certainly the introduction of a contributory scheme in Hong Kong, if it proved feasible, would in time provide budgetary relief for social welfare. Alternatively it would make possible more generous provision for those who fall through the safety net of a contributory scheme.
6 CONFIDENTIAL
/12.