'Welcome Relief, But More Is Needed To Save Jobs'

The catering sector has welcomed news that a fresh round of anti-epidemic relief may be approved by the Legislative Council before Christmas but made it clear another round of the Employment Support Scheme is also needed to save jobs.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced on Tuesday that the government will ask lawmakers to endorse a fourth round of anti-epidemic funds to help businesses hardest hit by the social distancing measures.

Simon Wong, the president of the Federation of Restaurants, said a third round of the Employment Support Scheme would also be crucial.

"This is also very important to help the employers to pay salaries to their staff. Otherwise, I'm afraid that with the poor situation nowadays, a lot of restaurants cannot sustain their business," Wong told RTHK's Annemarie Evans.

He said many eateries have been hit hard by the latest round of social distancing measures which ban dine-in services after 6pm.

Wong said relief measures to the tune of HK$30 billion would go a long way towards helping struggling businesses in the upcoming holiday season. The third round of the government's anti-epidemic relief totalled HK$24 billion.

But he also said the longer-term outlook for the catering trade – leading up to and after the Lunar New Year in February – is still uncertain.

Even without the pandemic, it has been quite common for restaurants to fold in previous years in the period after the Lunar New Year holiday.

"I think this fourth round of relief fund can only sustain the business for perhaps two months. Afterwards, what are we going to do if the pandemic is still going on and if we don't have the vaccine at that time?" he said.

"We have to rely on the government to help us in terms of recovery of the economy and also helping us in this difficult time."