HK proposes 2b HKD for Sichuan reconstruction

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-07-16 23:50

HONG KONG -- The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government proposed Wednesday to create a new commitment of 2 billion HK dollars (256.72 million USdollars) for injection into the "Trust Fund in Support of Reconstruction in the Sichuan Earthquake Stricken Areas", as the initial stage of its financial commitment to the reconstruction work.

In a paper submitted to the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council(LegCo), the HKSAR government said the fund will be set up under the Secretary for Home Affairs Incorporated Ordinance (Cap. 1044) as a vehicle to receive government funding and public donation.

The Sichuan Wenchuan massive earthquake affected more than 46.24 million people and the hard-hit areas amounted to 125,000 square kilometers. According to the Sichuan Provincial Government, the financial expenditure involved for reconstruction of quake-hitareas is roughly estimated to be over 1,000 billion Renminbi(146.78 billion US dollars).

A spokesman for the HKSAR government said: "Taking into accountthe overall expenditure required for the reconstruction work, the proposed mode of HKSAR's participation in the reconstruction work and the government's affordability, and on the prerequisite that our work to improve Hong Kong's economy and livelihood will not beaffected, we have proposed to the Finance Committee to create the financial commitment of 2 billion HK dollars(256.72 million US dollars). Our preliminary assessment is that the overall commitment should not exceed 10 billion HK dollars(1.28 billion US dollars) and the commitment will be reduced correspondingly after off-setting donation from the public.

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