Pro-Beijing Group To Offer Tips On Handout Spending

An alliance set up by pro-Beijing heavyweights including former Chief Executives CY Leung and Tung Chee-hwa says it will be sharing information on discounts offered by various businesses in the city to encourage people to spend their HK$10,000 handouts locally.

Registration for the payouts announced in the last budget will open on June 21 and the government says people will start receiving the money in July.

The Hong Kong Coalition, which also includes the likes of tycoons Li Ka-shing and Lee Shau-kee, and NPC Standing Committee member Tam Yiu-chung, says it wants to see the money being spent on businesses hit hard by the city's unrest and the coronavirus pandemic.

At a press conference on Thursday, around two dozen of the pro-establishment figures involved urged companies to offer more discounts on their goods and services, and to upload the details to the coalition's website.

Kennedy Wong, a deputy secretary general of the coalition, brushed aside queries about whether they are only going to back pro-establishment businesses.

"This is an open platform. I don't think we should take any narrow view on who can upload," Wong said.

"This platform hopefully will grow bigger and bigger and then consumers will use this information wisely."