Collective Effort for a Better Future

Collective Effort for a Better Future 「群策創新天」--- Dr. Hon. Lam Tai Fai, our School Supervisor, stresses the immediate need of the amendment of the Double-Taxation policy among Hong Kong and the Mainland in his article 「群策創新天」有口號無行動on Wednesday, 20-02-2010.

"A man wished to buy a pair of shoes and he first measured the size of his feet and marked it on the ruler. As soon as he found his shoes in the market he realized that he had forgotten to bring the ruler, making him not able to try the shoes. By the time he returned to the market from home with the ruler, the market was already closed. When he was asked why he did not try the shoes with his feet, he said he only trusted the marked ruler instead of his own feet." (Zheng-man buying shoes)

The lesson from this story reminds people that they have to be practical and flexible in handling daily life problems, rather than following pre-set rules straightly without accommodating any adjustments or modifications. The same applies to the current situation in Hong Kong: the government has to change or improve the policies to cope with the ever-changing economic environment in Hong Kong and Mainland China.

In order to boost further economic link and greater co-operation between Hong Kong and PRD in realizing the 「One-hour Economic and Living Sphere」, both the hardware (infra-structure) and software (policies) have to be engineered and strengthened in a realistic way. Although the problem of the current Double-Taxation policy has been discussed many times, still no action has been taken by the departments concerned. The longer the policy was unattended to, the greater will be the burden on Hong Kong citizens who have to spend long time working in mainland cities which in fact has become increasingly effluent in the economic situation of Hong Kong and the Mainland.

Dr Lam points out that, there has been no positive feedback from the related departments and it is doubted that no investigation or survey concerning the possible adjustment of the taxation system has ever been carried out. He also comments that the argument offered by the government in which the international practice of double taxation has to be applied to Hong Kong and Mainland China is not sound, since the former is an inseparable part of the latter.

Dr Lam does question the slogan of 「Breaking New Ground Together」 of the recently announced Policy Address 2010. He urged the government to listen to the voice from the Industrial Sector, conduct research and survey so as to explore a better policy which can best cope with the reality of Hong Kong and the well-being of the H.K. citizens.