Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying on Saturday chaired the first Commission on Poverty Summit, at which Chief Secretary and Chairman of the commission Carrie Lam announced the poverty line for 2012 to be 50 percent of median monthly household income before tax and welfare transfers.
The 2012 poverty line for one-person households is set at 3,600 HK dollars (464.52 U.S. dollars), and at 7,700 HK dollars, 11,500 HK dollars, 14,300 HK dollars, 14,800 HK dollars for two, three, four and five-person households, and 15,800 HK dollars for households with six persons or more.
About 1.3 million, or 19.6 percent of the city's 7 million people, were below the poverty line last year if excluding impact from government aid. Including benefits, the poverty rate falls to 15.2 percent, or 1 million people, according to Lam.
She said the poverty line has limitations as an analysis tool.
"For example, assets are not taken into account and this may overstate the number of people living in poverty. Hence, a poverty line should not be taken as the poverty alleviation line," she said, adding that relative poverty will mean a poorer population always exists statistically.
Lam said employment is the best way to tackle poverty. Actions proposed include work incentives, focusing public resources on the working poor, and supporting youth in families living on government aid in their studies.
"To alleviate poverty, the government must promote balanced economic development," Leung Chun-ying said at the summit. " Poverty is not only an issue of the low-income population's hardship, but it also affects Hong Kong's harmony and stability, thus affecting its long-term competitiveness," he said.
