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them with reality, one wonders whether we ought not to take an even harder line than at present.
Firstly, whilst we still define street trading as 'small scale business', it is not unknown for some of these to grow into substantial enterprises; to illustrate the point, one only has to observe the scale of some food establishments at the Macau Ferry Pier concourse at night, where incidentally power is drawn from what could easily be mistaken as Hong Kong Island's second electricity company!
Secondly, whilst our monthly statistics show that the number of hawker licences in force has been reducing by a handful each month and is now below the 30,000 mark, no one seems to know or cares to admit how many unlicensed hawkers there are, and even wild guesses in these chambers have ranged from 4 times to 10 times as many as licensed hawkers. I am not sure whether the number of unlicensed hawkers is also decreasing like the licensed ones, but judging from the number of rather young people trading their merchandise in the streets, especially at night and on weekends, I would not be surprised if someone told me illegal hawkers are increasing, which is contrary to our aims of 'To seek a gradual reduction in street trading.'
Thirdly, the subsidy from rates towards hawkers is still very heavy. When we recently approved increases in hawker licence fees, and not even all Councillors agreed to that, the extra amount derived was merely a holding operation in keeping the public subsidy to hawkers at 70%. Admittedly, had we not increased fees, the situation would have deteriorated, but it does seem to be an uphill battle indeed to not only contain the level of ratepayers' subsidy, but also to actually reduce it.
Mr. Chairman, the Council having lost the battle for many years, has now more or less started to come to grips with it. It is worthwhile mentioning that the task is arduous because we are really up against the laws of economics.
There are some people who have been established hawkers for decades, and quite a number of these people are well over forty or fifty years of age. A lot of these people are selling vegetables in areas where marketing facilities are inadequate, and the produce they sell are not the kind that nearby shops can provide. There are also newspaper hawkers who will probably always be necessary. We have to recognize that under these special circumstances, a social need is fulfilled. In any case, the more elderly, established street trader cannot easily adapt to any other employment except to move into markets which the Council is helping them to do but which also cannot be done overnight.
On the other hand, there are a large number of street traders who are not only under the age of 40, which makes it obvious that they only entered the trade not too long ago, but are also selling merchandise which competes directly with nearby shops and department stores. Being an executive working
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is a commercial firm, I would be the last to speak out against healthy competition, but the fact remains that the public purse is being subsidized to a large extent. There is much public knowledge nowadays of the fact that the Urban Council needs in this current year $45.4 million in hawker management and only gets $10.5 million from hawker fees, therefore rate-payers are subsidizing nearly $35 million.
But this is not the only aspect of public subsidy. If you are a factory worker or a construction site labourer, you are eligible to pay tax if your monthly income exceeds $1,042 per month, but how many street traders pay tax? In 1979 we heard of shortages of labour in factories and construction companies, we see posters everywhere offering jobs for skilled and unskilled workers, some wages for which would bring the workers into the tax net. If we were to interpret the phenomenon that hawkers pay no taxes and conclude that street trading is a profession that offers rewards much lower than working in industry, surely all hawkers under 40 years of age ought to be clamouring for factory jobs and only be too glad to discard street trading as a means of livelihood. But, Mr. Chairman, the reverse seems to be the case, so I can only conclude that there is an economic reason why middle-aged and young people who should have little difficulty in adapting to industry would rather choose hawking instead, and that reason appears to be a double public subsidy not only manifested by the Council's deficit on street traders, but also by the absence of tax, or even licence fees for that matter, in the case of illegal hawkers. The reason why street traders continue to thrive is economic.
I hope the Council will not hesitate to take bold measures firstly to bring unlicensed street traders under the same degree of control as licensed street traders and then raise the level of hawker fees in general to a fair economic market level where no form of public subsidy is required. In particular, no subsidy or toleration should be allowed for able-bodied persons under forty years of age, and in fact, I would even go so far as to say there might be a financial penalty. I think all members here, even those who in public session vote against fee increases regardless of reasoning, will agree with the former measure, but not necessarily the latter on the grounds that hardship may be created. This is because the ghost of equating hawking with social welfare still lingers on, but I think there is no reason why we should fear that street trading will become an economically unattractive business especially for the young and middle-aged, and if it is a matter of time, then there is no better time than now because job opportunities do exist for those who want to get out. We ought to devise policies and make it clear to the public that there is no future for a further generation of hawkers.
Beaches
One of the greatest gifts of Nature to the Urban area in the field of recreation is the beaches on the Southern and Eastern part of Hong Kong Island. With the continuing rise in the general prosperity of our people,
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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
them with reality, one wonders whether we ought not to take an even harder
line than at present.
Firstly, whilst we still define street trading as 'small scale business', it is not unknown for some of these to grow into substantial enterprises; to illustrate the point, one only has to observe the scale of some food establish- ments at the Macau Ferry Pier concourse at night, where incidentally power is drawn from what could easily be mistaken as Hong Kong Island's second electricity company!
Secondly, whilst our monthly statistics show that the number of hawker licences in force has been reducing by a handful each month and is now below the 30,000 mark, no one seems to know or cares to admit how many unlicensed hawkers there are, and even wild guesses in these chambers have ranged from 4 times to 10 times as many as licensed hawkers. I am not sure whether the number of unlicensed hawkers is also decreasing like the licensed ones, but judging from the number of rather young people trading their merchandise in the streets, especially at night and on weekends, I would not be surprised if someone told me illegal hawkers are increasing, which is contrary to our aims of 'To seek a gradual reduction in street trading.'
Thirdly, the subsidy from rates towards hawkers is still very heavy. When we recently approved increases in hawker licence fees, and not even all Councillors agreed to that, the extra amount derived was merely a holding operation in keeping the public subsidy to hawkers at 70%. Admittedly, had we not increased fees, the situation would have deteriorated, but it does seem to be an uphill battle indeed to not only contain the level of ratepayers' subsidy, but also to actually reduce it.
Mr. Chairman, the Council having lost the battle for many years, has now more or less started to come to grips with it. It is worthwhile mentioning that the task is arduous because we are really up against the laws of economics.
There are some people who have been established hawkers for decades, and quite a number of these people are well over forty or fifty years of age. A lot of these people are selling vegetables in areas where marketing facilities are inadequate, and the produce they sell are not the kind that nearby shops can provide. There are also newspaper hawkers who will probably always be necessary. We have to recognize that under these special cir- cumstances, a social need is fulfilled. In any case the more elderly, established street trader cannot easily adapt to any other employment except to move into markets which the Council is helping them to do but which also cannot be done overnight.
On the other hand, there are a large number of street traders who are not only under the age of 40, which makes it obvious that they only entered the trade not too long ago, but are also selling merchandise which competes directly with nearby shops and department stores. Being an executive working
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Page 110 of 136
187
is a commercial firm, I would be the last to speak out against healthy com- public purse. There is much public knowledge nowadays of the fact that the Urban Council needs in this current year $45.4 million in hawker management and only gets $10.5 million from hawker fees, therefore rate-payers are
subsidizing nearly $35 million.
But this is not the only aspect of public subsidy. If you are a factory worker er a construction site labourer, you are eligible to pay tax if your monthly income exceeds $1,042 per month, but how many street traders pay tax? In 1979 we heard of shortages of labour in factories and construction com- we see posters everywhere offering jobs for skilled and unskilled panies, workers, some wages for which would bring the workers into the tax net. If we were to interpret the phenomenon that hawkers pay no taxes and conclude that street trading is a profession that offers rewards much lower than working in industry, surely all hawkers under 40 years of age ought to be clamouring for factory jobs and only be too glad to discard street trading as a means of livelihood. But, Mr. Chairman, the reverse seems to be the case, so I can only conclude that there is an economic reason why middle aged and young people who should have little difficulty in adapting to industry would rather choose hawking instead, and that reason appears to be a double public subsidy not only manifested by the Council's deficit on street traders, but also by the absence of tax, or even licence fees for that matter, in the case of illegal hawkers. The reason why street traders continue to thrive is economic.
I hope The Council will not hesitate to take bold measures firstly to bring unlicensed street traders under the same degree of control as licensed street traders and then raise the level of hawker fees in general to a fair economic market level where no form of public subsidy is required. In particular, no subsidy or toleration should be allowed for able-bodied persons under forty years of age, and in fact I would even go so far as to say there might be a financial penalty. I think all members here, even those who in public session vote against fee increases regardless of reasoning, will agree with the former measure, but not necessarily the latter on the grounds that hardship may be created. This is because the ghost of equating hawking with social welfare still lingers on, but I think there is no reason why we should fear that street trading will become an economically unattractive business especially for the young and middle aged, and if it is a matter of time, then there is no better time than now because job opportunities do exist for those who want to get out. We ought to devise policies and make it clear to the public that there is no future for a further generation of hawkers.
Beaches
One of the greatest gifts of Nature to the Urban area in the field of recreation is the beaches on the Southern and Eastern part of Hong Kong Island. With the continuing rise in the general prosperity of our people,
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