HK Govt Plans to Stimulate Economy by Eating

Does Gourmet Marketplace mean food festivals all year round?

The Hong Kong government has run out of ideas. It really cannot think of anything fun, innovative, or clever in its bid to stimulate the economy.

So it has resorted to a campaign called "Happy Hong Kong".

Hello Hong Kong

and now Happy Hong Kong.

Chan announced "Happy Hong Kong" in speech

The new campaign was announced by Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po today during his budget speech and the details are... laughable.

"We will soon launch the "Happy Hong Kong" Campaign for the general public, providing them opportunities to share happy and enjoyable moments together, thereby bringing more joy to the community," said Chan.

Uh huh.

"One of the major themes for this series of events is the launch of a "Gourmet Marketplace", under which large-scale food fairs will be organised in various locations across the territory in the coming months, bringing together Mainland, Hong Kong and overseas gourmet food, with a view to enabling the public and visitors enjoy the good food in the city," he said.

It just sounds like a major gorge-fest that's going to have a lot of drunk and overstuffed people all over the city crawling for their Pepto-Bismol.

How about these outdoor food stalls every week?

But perhaps even worse is for the kitchen staff who will probably have to work remotely outside of their restaurants to prepare food which is a huge challenge in itself. Trucking in all the ingredients, pots, pans, refrigerators, stoves, cutlery, then having to cook onsite... it already sounds like a culinary nightmare.

And anyway Hong Kong has had several of these food festivals before and they were OK-lah, overpriced and weather dependent. It makes no sense and this "Gourmet Marketplace" has not been thought out carefully.

Does the government think shoving lots of food in front of Hongkongers will make them forget the deteriorating human rights situation, the national security law and growing authoritarianism in the city?

It's a pathetic attempt at wallpapering things over...