'More Help Needed For SMEs And Poor Students'

Education sector legislator, Ip Kin-yuen is urging the government to roll out another round of epidemic relief measures to help businesses that were largely left out of previous packages.

These include businesses such as tuition institutes, education centres, part-time tutors and coaches who provide extra-curricular training for schools. He said there is also a need to enhance support for the unemployed and the semi-unemployed, and to strengthen the loans available to SMEs to tide them over their difficulties.

Speaking on RTHK's Letter to Hong Kong programme, Ip said that with the epidemic threatening to become a long-term global threat, the administration should use a part of its abundant reserves to protect people's livelihoods and the economy

He also said the prolonged school shutdown has exposed the disparity between rich and poor pupils. With schools now teaching online, children from needy families are finding it difficult to keep up because many do not have computers at home, or sufficiently fast internet speeds for distance learning.

Ip added that classes should only resume when there are no new cases with an unknown source for 28 days, and when schools have enough protective equipment like face masks, for all pupils.