Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) John Tsang began outlining the budget for the fiscal year 2009-2010 at the Legislative Council on Wednesday morning.

Delivering his second budget speech at the Legislative Council, Tsang said the global financial environment has changed dramatically last year, referring to what he called a "once-in-a-century financial turmoil."

"The financial crisis triggered by the US sub-prime mortgage problem is the most severe for the world economy since the Great Depression in the 1930s," Tsang said, noting: "Being a small open economy, Hong Kong will inevitably be hit by the turmoil and our economy will slide into recession."

In the introduction of his budget speech, Tsang said the HKSAR government is responding with measures to ease the liquidity crunch in the financial system, relieve enterprises' financing difficulties and bolster the community's confidence.

He promised to be responsive to social problems arising from the economic downturn, including unemployment, reduced incomes, and the negative wealth effect of lower property and stock values.

(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2009)