Speech by the Chief Executive in delivering “The Chief Executive’s 2018 Policy Address” to the Legislative Council
37. Care for children, family support, patient care, poverty alleviation and elderly care are essential for building a compassionate and inclusive society. In addition, this Policy Address proposes a series of initiatives to strengthen support for ethnic minorities and the work on youth advocated by the new Youth Development Commission. We have earmarked $500 million and $1 billion in this year’s Budget for these two initiatives respectively.
38. Hong Kong people use mainly public transport for passenger trips. Further to the non-means tested Public Transport Fare Subsidy Scheme proposed in last year’s Policy Address, we propose this year waiving the tolls charged on franchised buses for using government tunnels and roads to ease fare increase pressure, thereby alleviating the burden of public transport expenses on citizens. The Government has reached an in-principle agreement with the franchisee of the Western Harbour Crossing (WHC) for the Government to pay for franchised buses the tolls for using the WHC. Our discussions with the franchisee of the WHC also include the adjustment of tunnel tolls for private cars, taxis and motorcycles to achieve re-distribution of traffic among the three tunnels so as to effectively alleviate cross-harbour traffic congestion.
39. Reducing traffic congestion also helps improve roadside air quality. To further bring down roadside air pollutant levels, we will, following the successful phasing out of pre-Euro IV diesel commercial vehicles, progressively phase out Euro IV diesel commercial vehicles by the end of 2023 and implement other measures to encourage green transport.
