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Economic Advisory Committee
Following is a question by the Hon Sin Chung-kai and a written reply by the Secretary for Financial Services, Mr Rafael Hui, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Question:
At the resumption of the debate on the Motign of Thanks this year, the Financial Secretary expressed doubts about the setting up of an Economic Development Committee suggested by some Members of this Council as the existing Economic Advisory Committee and the Governor's Business Council were already providing the Government with valuable views and suggestions on economic and related issues. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether the Economic Advisory Committee has discussed the trend of the territory's future economic development as well as such issues as how to stimulate the economy and how to solve the unemployment problem; if so, what the conclusions are; if not, why not; and
(b) whether consideration will be given to changing the present modus operandi of the Economic Advisory Committee, which is not answerable to the public and which does not seek public opinions, so as to enhance its accountability and transparency?
Reply:
(a) The Economic Advisory Committee is set up with the remit of advising the Financial Secretary on matters relating to the economy. Pursuant to this remit, the Committee has deliberated on a large variety of economic issues. The trends and prospects of the Hong Kong economy are matters of continuous interest and are reviewed in depth on a regular basis. The unemployment problem is amongst the main current issues that the Committee has had thorough and comprehensive discussions and will continue to be closely monitored. As for measures to stimulate the economy, the general consensus was that ad hoc interventions by the Government would not be effective or could even be counter-productive, and the economy should be left to adjust to cyclical fluctuations through the market mechanism. On measures to tackle the unemployment problem, the Committee supports the Government's approach of enhancing employment counselling, job matching and placement, and retraining and upgrading of skills.