Page 191 ́
Page 191 be done is being done and occasionally pick up hints that while officials might be sympathetic, opposition in LegCo and/or ExCo makes some desirable measure of progress impossible. In particular there is in our view need for:
(a) the development of a social security system providing an essential safety net for the old, the sick, widows and orphans and the unemployed;
(b) further improvement in the quality of public housing and a rapid rehabilitation programme of the older resettlement blocks combined with a different approach to
financing;
(c)
the development of a system which would avoid a complete reliance on market forces to determine wage levels;
(d) the introduction of some control on hours of work and of a system of paid
vacation leave; and
(e) the development, in the course of introducing higher taxes to provide for
the present programmes for social development, of a more equitable system of direct taxation which should include the introduction of income
tax.
47. Beyond this, it should become apparent in the course of the next few years that some acceleration in the housing, educational and health fields will be possible; and that rising public expectations will make this desirable. It is perhaps necessary for the present plans, which had to be put back in the recent recession, to regain momentum before attempting anything more ambitious in these fields; but it is essential that Hong Kong develop fiscal and monetary policies meanwhile which will avoid the self-imposed restrictions of the past.
/48.
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7386 D073815 140M 5/74 Cr.P.C. Gp.839/3
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