Draft Expenditure Estimates 1992-93
51. The forecast level of economic growth and our healthy financial position make it possible to allocate increased resources for all the Government's programme areas next year. I am proposing an increase of $13.8 billion in total government spending compared with the original estimates for 1991-92. Total expenditure will rise to $115.1 billion. Members have already received draft estimates of expenditure, and I do not propose to go through the figures in detail this afternoon. But please note what I am saying here. Contrary to the impression many people have gained from press reports in recent months, recurrent spending on social welfare, and indeed on the social services in general, will increase in real terms next year.
52. To push this point home, I should like to review spending items of special concern to the community at large. Hong Kong has an excellent record in developing its social services. In recent years, we have made a substantial increase in the funds available for this purpose. We can now meet the demand for basic services. But the public expects higher standards and a greater range of facilities to meet the changing requirements of our rapidly developing society. We plan to respond to these expectations. Let me highlight our plans in some of the key areas.
53. Last year's White Paper on social welfare set ambitious goals for developments during the rest of this decade. The financing of this long-term programme will require careful management. My proposals for social welfare spending this year will lay the foundations for achieving our targets. We are planning for a rapid expansion over the next four years. By 1995-96, we should be able to meet 80% of the demand from the elderly for places in care-and-attention homes, and over 60% of the demand for hostel places for the mentally-handicapped. We should be able to meet in full all the demand for places in half-way houses and long-stay care homes for discharged mental patients.
54. Our commitment to meeting the community's expectations is not confined to the welfare field. Now that the Hospital Authority is operational, I should comment on government plans for financing improvements in the range and quality of hospital care. Over the next four years, we will make the funds available to increase the number of hospital beds by 5,600 or 25%.
55. We will continue to expand and upgrade services in our traditional areas of strength which we often take for granted. Year after year, the housing programme supplies subsidised flats on a massive scale. In the current financial year, 39,000 new flats will have come on stream. In this way, we make a major contribution to the public's well being in the shape of relatively cheap but increasingly attractive modern homes. This substantial effort will continue, with 400,000 new flats planned for the public sector over the next decade.
56.
The forecast for the education sector is similarly impressive. We have plans for the further improvement of primary and secondary schooling. Our drive to expand tertiary education will continue. We are investing $18 billion over the next three academic years, so that by 1994-95 the number of first-year, first degree places will increase to 15,000, three times the number available in 1987-88.
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