XN000022-1994-12-08 — Page 5

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Mr Marvin Cheung: Governor, will you please advise this Council when will you provide concrete evidence to show what proportion of our old age people now and in the future are in fact in need of financial assistance as envisaged by the arguments in support of the proposal for the Old Age Pension Scheme and other similar schemes? And do you support or deny the statements made by the Financial Secretary in this chamber on previous occasions to the effect that Hong Kong has enjoyed a very healthy state of economy for the last 30 years and that our people have been the world's best savers over this period of time so that there should be very few old people in financial need?

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Governor: It is true that because of Hong Kong's economic success, because of 34 years of uninterrupted economic growth - not a bad record, I say in passing, for the Administration to allude to because of those things there are fewer people in general in need and fewer elderly in particular in need than would otherwise be the case. It is also true that for cultural and doubtless economic reasons as well, Hong Kong has been able to point to high savings over the years. but I am sure that the Honourable Member also recognises that those who were building Hong Kong's economic success in the earlier years, by and large don't find themselves today among the largest beneficiaries of that economic success. You don't have to be a sociologist - perish the thought - to recognise that in our community today it is the elderly who by and large are likely to be the neediest group. There are others who are in need. There are those who are suffering from disabilities and handicaps, there are single-parent families and some low-paid families with a large number of children but the biggest category, 1 think, of identifiable need is among the retired elderly.

The disputed statistic, I suppose, for the number of people in that category would be those who actually claim the benefits which the Government make available to those whose income does not exceed a particular threshold but I guess that a number of social workers would dispute whether that was a wholly accurate assessment of those in need. I don't dispute for one moment that need is not as acute as in some other communities but I do think that it is an identifiable social problem. It is not a social problem which is going to get easier to deal with as more people live for longer and as we have more very elderly in the community and sooner or later we have to address it, and we have to address it in a way, which we believe we have been doing, which doesn't threaten the same sort of welfare spending problems to which the World Bank, in a very good report, recently alluded. It is a social problem which the community and the government have to address.

Mr Marvin Cheung: Mr Governor, do I take it from your reply that the Government are unable or unwilling to provide any concrete evidence of the actual number of old people in financial need and if not, can I have a straight answer as to when will this statistic be provided?