richest man in Hong Kong fight against inequality

                 

The richest man in Hong Kong said companies should pay more taxes to help combat income inequality and urged the government to seek ways to address the growing dissatisfaction of the younger population giving them more opportunities.

"If companies pay one or two percent more, many poor could benefit," said the president of CK Hutchison Holding board, Li Ka-shing, Angie Lau, Bloomberg TV, in his first interview to the international press since 2012.

"The most important thing the government has to do is provide options for young people."

Li, who said that the city is going through the most difficult period in two decades, is entering the debate about income inequality in the world, which took names like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates to call for higher taxes on large fortunes.

Although low taxation has helped put Hong Kong on the list of the world's most competitive places to do business, according to the School of Management IMD, one of every seven people live in a family with a monthly income less than $ 2,100.

Income inequality in Hong Kong - where the assets of the 10 richest billionaires amount to more than a third of annual economic output - has been accused of fueling social unrest, such as protests in defense of democracy that paralyzed the city in 2014 and a riot in February that left dozens of police injured. This caught the attention of the central government of China, which ordered the former British colony authorities to put aside political debates and to focus on improving the quality of life of the population.

With regard to tax collection, Hong Kong has one of the lowest corporate burdens of the world, limiting them to 16.5 percent, compared with the US, with 40 percent, and the world average of 23 , 6 percent, according to the accounting firm KPMG and advice.

Unlike Buffett and Gates, Li opposes the idea of ​​charging higher taxes of large fortunes. "You can not impose higher taxes and a lower to others, but is a mess," he said.

Li, 87, arrived in Hong Kong from China, devastated by war in 1940 and began to raise his fortune making plastic flowers for export to the West.

Often considered as the richest person in Asia, Li has become a symbol of ascension of the city, but his image of "Superman" has been tempered by disappointment, in general, about the future of Hong Kong and ties with the mainland.