But he pledged that the government stood ready to inject more stimulus measures if necessary with the aim of boosting economic activity and consumption and ensuring financial stability.

With the city battling to contain the spread of the deadly Covid-19 disease, Chan set out his views in a panel discussion held as a live webinar by the Post as part of its Redefining Hong Kong series.

To help cope with the economic downturn, Hong Kong businesses were given a HK$18.3 billion (US$2.3 billion) lifeline of relief measures in the budget announced on February 26 as the government vowed to support enterprises and safeguard jobs.

A key highlight of the measures was a full government guarantee on loans of up to HK$2 million for every small and medium-sized enterprise, under a financing guarantee scheme and involving HK$20 billion in total.

Chan said the government decided to separate the funding request for the loan scheme and aimed to have it approved next month to make sure businesses got help in time to keep running and save jobs.

“Usually they would pass [the budget] in May … On the SME 100 per cent guarantee scheme, we are planning to bring that particular scheme to [a Legislative Council] panel for discussion in April, and if possible, also to bring it to the Finance Committee towards the end of April,” he said.

“At the time of difficulties for the SMEs, liquidity is the lifeblood. This is very important.”

A cross-departmental task force had met banks, which need three to three-and-a-half months to set up a system and interface with the government, as well as to test run it, he said.

“We estimated that the number of beneficiaries would be as many as seven million, there will be a lot of personal data that we need to safeguard.”

Chan said another priority for the administration was to create new job and training opportunities.

“We have planned to create some more temporary jobs … The Employees Retraining Board is [also] going to roll out additional schemes to provide training, with a subsidy, to people unemployed or underemployed,” he said.

Chan added that many such temporary jobs could be created with the government’s existing resources and a task force was looking into it.

A spokeswoman for Chan’s office added later that many temporary jobs would be created in the process of implementing various measures under the relief package. A secretariat for the fund would need at least 100 people to handle administrative work, she added.

Chan promised on Wednesday that the government was ready to roll out additional measures if necessary.

He also said the government would continue to boost residential land supply in the coming years to meet demand and revenue from land sales would continue to be stable in the next few years, despite the economic uncertainty.

He also said Hong Kong had been making progress in boosting its innovation and technology sector. The official said even though Shenzhen was home to China’s tech giants, and performed well in the commercialisation of new technologies, Hong Kong could complement the mainland city with its research on biotechnology, artificial intelligence and robotics.

“We have to know our strengths, and competitive advantage. The competition is not just to rely on ourselves, but how to leverage the synergy with neighbouring cities. We are very good in terms of research in some of the areas,” he said.

Chan added that while previous administrations had identified health care as an emerging industry that catered to visitors, the current government believed that with a shortage in manpower, the medical sector’s priority should be the local population, which was ageing rapidly.

Another speaker on the panel, Agnes Chan Sui-kuen, managing partner of EY for Hong Kong and Macau, was concerned as to whether the government would have enough land plots reserved for industrial and technological development.

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Paul Chan said a major source of industrial land supply would be in the New Territories.

“We provide a very substantial amount of land there to provide offices, to provide development into industrial parks,” he said.

“We do hope that despite all the differences … different aspirations and values, in the face of these economic difficulties. Let’s set aside the difference and work together to move Hong Kong forward,” he said.

Chan, who appeared relaxed and did not wear a mask throughout the nearly two-hour session, was also asked, as the government’s No 3 official, if he would be willing to become the city’s next leader if called upon to do so.

Deflecting the question, Chan said that top officials had been focused on serving Hong Kong.

“We fully recognise that at the moment, our challenge is to tackle the epidemic, and to stimulate the economy,” he said.

“It is one team, one goal, that is doing our best for the good of Hong Kong with two missions: fighting the epidemic, and to stimulate our economy, nothing else.”