TNAG-0737-FCO40-941-Hong-Kong-annual-review-for-1977-1978 — Page 15

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or will be completed this year, and 34 more will be completed by 1981.

(c) With the help of a UK expert, a complete

review of the social welfare arrangements

introduced in 1973 was undertaken under the

three headings of payments (ie, social security),

services to the elderly, and services to youth,

and Green Papers were published on each. These

complemented an earlier review of services

for the handicapped whose findings were

finalised in a White Paper in the Autumn.

These reviews covered all aspects of social

welfare and its administration.

The

Government is assuming that all recommendations

will be adopted and has written into the new

budget and the three-year expenditure forecasts

the additional $300 million over the next four

years which they involve. Though the proposals

for the handicapped were the most complicated,

and probably have the widest long-term

implications, the proposal in tis Green Papers

which has attracted most attention has been a

semi-compulsory contributory scheme to provide

sickness, death and retirement benefits, and

possibly mortgage facilities.

The housing programme has reached a stage at

which building contracts have already been let

CONFIDENTIAL

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