China News Service, Hong Kong, April 12. The Finance Committee (FC) of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region approved the application for funding from the SAR government on the 12th and injected 43 billion yuan (HK$, the same below) into the Anti-epidemic Fund to implement a new round of employment protection plan.
The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Carrie Lam, welcomed this and said the goal is to start accepting applications in late April to provide timely financial support to all walks of life affected by the fifth wave of the epidemic.
Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor expressed her heartfelt thanks to the Legislative Council Finance Committee for once again showing its spirit of cooperating with the executive in governing the people for the people. After approving an injection of 27 billion yuan into the Anti-epidemic Fund in February this year to implement the sixth round of support projects, another 43 billion yuan was quickly passed. Yuan launched the "2022 Employment Guarantee" plan.
The new Legislative Council fully reflects the unity of the executive and the legislature to jointly solve the difficulties faced by citizens and enterprises under the new crown epidemic.
After the Hong Kong SAR government announced the preliminary framework of the "2022 Employment Support" plan on March 18, many Legislative Council members and related industries expressed strong support, but also made additional demands.
After listening to the opinions of all parties, the SAR government announced on April 7 a revised version of the "2022 Employment Support" plan, introducing optimization measures, including: removing the monthly salary cap for employees eligible for wage subsidy, and covering part-time employees, temporary employees and Self-employed persons with MPF accounts and employees aged 65 or above, etc.
The SAR government estimates that the improved Job Support 2022 plan will benefit about 160,000 employers, 1.6 million employees and 140,000 self-employed persons.
Carrie Lam emphasized that when the SAR government implements the new round of employment protection plan, the main premise is that the application process is simple and convenient for applicants. The goal is to start accepting applications in late April, and strive to distribute subsidies to the first batch of successful applicants in early May. .
Carrie Lam believes that the "2022 Job Support" plan, together with the SAR government's earlier launch of the fifth and sixth rounds of anti-epidemic fund measures totaling 30.6 billion yuan, plus a series of relief measures in the 2022-2023 Budget , which will help accelerate the apparent rebound of the local economy after the fifth wave of the epidemic subsides.
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