By then, we will need to provide about 28,000 additional places for higher education, bringing the total number to about 55,000. But it is hard to see how cutting funding will help to achieve Mr Tung's goal. This is all the more frustrating while Hong Kong enjoys huge fiscal reserves by any standard. This is quite apart from the other little nest egg which Hong Kong has - namely the Exchange Fund, which is used to back up the Hong Kong dollar. No one is asking for a bonanza.
Education is investment in infrastructure.
The Government's own report last November made clear there is an urgent need to invest in this, not only to meet the requirements of the Hong Kong market but to keep people in productive jobs and out of unemployment. And Article 107 of the Basic Law has nothing to do with it. So it seems that what the community is paying for is not balance, prudence or adherence to the Basic Law, but sheer obsession. It is said that money alone cannot make education work. This is true.