XN000022-1997-03-10 — Page 6

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$45 billion allocated to improve health and welfare services

The Government plans to spend $25.8 billion on health and $19.5 billion on welfare in recurrent expenditure in 1997/98, an increase in real terms of 6.5 per cent and 9.4 per cent respectively compared with 1996/97.

This was stated by the Secretary for Health and Welfare, Mrs Katherine Fok, at a press conference outlining the expenditure in her policy area in the coming financial year today (Monday).

On welfare, Mrs Fok said the Government would spend some $12 billion, covering health, welfare and social security services, to improve the quality of life for the aged population.

As part of its programme to expand existing services, the Government will provide about 1,600 more residential places for the elderly, five nursing homes, and an additional 30 elderly centres. These will bring the total number of residential places for the elderly to 17,000, nursing home places to 1,200, and elderly centres to 335.

On the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) Scheme, Mrs Fok expected that the expenditure in this area in 1997/98 would increase by 11 per cent to $7.8 billion, as compared with $7 billion in 1996/97. Spending on Social Security Allowance Scheme is also expected to increased by 2.9 per cent, from $4,033 million in 1996/97 to $4,150 million in 1997/98.

To meet the community demands and to enable elderly CSSA recipients who wish to take up permanent residence in Guangdong Province to continue to receive payments there, the Government will implement the Portable Comprehensive Social Security Assistance for Elderly Persons Retiring to Guangdong Province (China) from April this year.

"The Scheme is a new arrangement aimed at meeting present needs," Mrs Fok said. "We will do our best to publicise the Scheme and provide prospective applicants with the relevant information to help them make the choice that best suits their needs." she added.

For people with a disability, the Government is set to spend nearly $1.6 billion of recurrent expenditure in 1997/98 on direct welfare services which represents an increase of 21 per cent over this year.