HONG KONG: More measures aimed at alleviating the burden of economic hard times may be on the way. They could come by mid-year as the government expects the worst of the financial crisis is yet to come, Chief Executive Donald Tsang said yesterday.

Tsang told reporters ahead of today's fourth meeting of the Task Force on Economic Challenges that the pace of economic recovery around the world depends on the effectiveness of measures launched by large economies and whether protectionist measures are adopted.

"It will take a bit of time before we are going to see the worst," he said. "If protectionist measures are being taken, I am afraid that it will take a much longer time for the world to recover."

The government already launched a series of relief measures, mostly job creation, which cost HK$57 billion, or about 3.4 percent of the city's gross domestic product. The government will review the economic situation in the middle of the year, and more measures may be launched as necessary.

"We will not be stingy. We will continue implementing measures to ease public worries," he said. "We are taking all kinds of measures, hoping that the unemployment rate will not be increased to the level we had reached during SARS crisis (which hit more than 8 percent)."

Tsang called for unity among Hong Kong's people as they weather the storm, and for the community to seek new business opportunities.

The three previous meetings of the task force focused on short-term measures, while the meeting today will focus more on long-term strategies and ways to support industries in which Hong Kong holds a competitive advantage.

He named four fields, including Chinese medicine, medical, education and creative.

"We need to examine why we cannot fully develop the potential for these industries we are good at and why we cannot make them be more economically active. Is it because we have defects in our system, policies and laws? Or is it because we do not have enough resources and manpower? We need to closely examine the problems," he said.

The chief executive believed Hong Kong will remain a competitive financial center even though Shanghai is catching up fast.

"We should not be worried about Shanghai becoming a financial center as London will not worry about the challenges from Paris and Frankfurt. The important thing is that we can manage to be the forerunner in the financial industry," he said.

Tsang said the measures adopted by Hong Kong to face the crisis are far from perfect, but added that Hong Kong is more stable than other economies because the government does not need to rescue financial institutions.

(HK Edition 04/03/2009 page1)