THE ECONOMY
The Basic Law further stipulates that Hong Kong shall maintain its status as an international financial centre. The current decade saw remarkable growth in Hong Kong's financial services in banking, securities trading, insurance and fund management. The government will strive to continuously enhance Hong Kong's position in this regard, by maintaining a world-class supervisory regime without over- regulation, by providing the most up-to-date financial infrastructure and a well- trained and highly adaptable workforce, and by sustaining an open and competitive market. Complementing these are a robust monetary regime, a stable currency and a healthy banking sector, which are the key to confidence for Hong Kong to foster its global finance and business operations.
The government will not seek to influence the overall economic structure through regulations, tax policies or subsidies. Business decisions are best left to the private sector, except where social considerations are over-riding. Private enterprise will continue to have the maximum freedom to set its own direction, and to explore and seize opportunities in the light of ever-changing market conditions.
Moreover, the government will continue to adhere to prudent fiscal practice, while maintaining a simple tax structure with low tax rate that will sustain workers' incentive to work and entrepreneurs' incentive to invest. The current corporate profits tax rate and standard tax rate, at 16 per cent and 15 per cent respectively, are low by international standards. The public sector will stay small and efficient. In concrete terms, the growth rate of public expenditure is to be kept within the trend growth rate of the economy over the medium term. This ensures that the government will not crowd out an excessive amount of resources from the private sector.
In a move to alleviate the difficulties faced by the community as the economy weathered the impact of the regional financial turmoil, the government introduced several packages during the course of 1998. These included measures to help ease the financial burden on households as well as businesses, to improve liquidity in the financial system, to stabilise the property market, and to boost tourism. Moreover, measures to enhance employment services and re-training as well as to create more jobs were taken to enable the unemployed to re-enter the labour market at an early opportunity.
Business and Services Promotion
To render the best possible support to the business community, the government has embarked on the Helping Business Programme and the Services Promotion Programme. The Business and Services Promotion Unit (BSPU), formed as part of the Financial Secretary's Office in May 1997, co-ordinates and supports the work of various parts of the government on these two programmes. Its vision is to maintain Hong Kong as the best place in the world for business, and the region's premier services centre.
The Financial Secretary launched the Helping Business Programme in 1996 with a view to maintaining Hong Kong as the best place in the world for business, and making the government genuinely business-friendly. Leading businessmen and senior officials meet quarterly in the Business Advisory Group to take forward helping business issues in areas of deregulation, assessment and reduction of cost of compliance, transfer of public services to the private sector as well as introduction of new and improved services. The administration completed 25 studies in the past two and a half years and identified more than 270 helping business recommendations.
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