Hong Kong officials promise more actions to improve livelihoods for citizens

HONG KONG - Principal officials of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government on Sunday promised more measures to improve citizens' living conditions.

Matthew Cheung, the chief secretary for administration of the HKSAR government, said on his blog that the HKSAR government will press ahead with policies that will improve people's livelihoods in a short period of time and formulate long-term strategies to address public needs.

In 2019-2020, the HKSAR government's recurrent expenditure on social welfare, education, health care and other livelihood-related sectors will exceed 250 billion Hong Kong dollars (about $32 billion) to account for about 60 percent of the total recurrent expenditure, according to Cheung.

The chief executive and principal officials of the HKSAR government will soon go into communities and hold dialogues with citizens to find solutions to long-standing problems including housing, the rich-poor gap and opportunities for the young, Cheung said.

Financial secretary Paul Chan also wrote on his blog on Sunday that the HKSAR government's outlay on public projects will exceed 100 billion Hong Kong dollars annually in the coming few years.

The funds will go into sectors including public housing, renewal of hospitals and expansion of new urban towns, said Chan, while highlighting the role of infrastructure investments in boosting economic growth and improving people's livelihoods.

Unrests that have raged for months continued to hit Hong Kong on Sunday, as radical protesters of an illegal rally set fires, threw petrol bombs at the HKSAR government offices and vandalized mass transit railway stations.