Struggle to survive in post-Covid reality

Private tutorial school Brilliant Education cannot claim any level of brilliancy after it astonished parents and children with its sudden announcement of closure.

Before its shutdown, the school had been providing tutorial classes in five centers.

It is alarming to hear some parents say when the school closed on the weekend that its Chai Wan center was still accepting payment of tuition fees last week.

Even though it is not unprecedented for a failing company to continue charging its customers fees for services it would be unable to provide, the latest incident is plainly disturbing if the reported account is true.

It is clear that more needs to be done to enhance consumer protection in the SAR.

Do those at the Consumer Council see a need to work with their government peers to conduct a review of the situation so that consumers can be better protected from questionable practices, especially when a service provider continues to charge for services that it knows it won't be able to deliver?

There have been plenty of cases in which customers have been charged for services they cannot get. In many instances, customers were even unable to get a refund.

I fear there could be more such cases unless the general environment for doing business in the city genuinely improves.

It would be imprudent to brush off the Brilliant Education incident as isolated as it may not be.

Earlier, Castelo Concepts, a restaurant chain serving menus catering to the taste of multinational diners, announced it was closing nine of its eateries in Hong Kong due to a liquidation push by creditors.

Being of vastly different natures, the two ongoing incidents do have one thing in common: they are among a number failing to survive a post-Covid economic rebound that has disappointedly fallen short of the anticipated strength.

It may be ironic that many small and medium-sized businesses were able to struggle on when pandemic-related lockdowns were still hitting the mainland and SAR hard.

Then, a raft of government bailouts - including subsidies for payrolls and a special policy barring commercial property landlords from evicting tenants for arrears of rent - had offered business operators a lifeline.

Expectation had been high that the reopening of the border would bring about a strong economic rebound once mainlanders, the big spenders of the past, were allowed to travel to Hong Kong normally again.

It is true that the border reopening has led to a strong rebound in the number of travelers, but it is a lot less obvious in terms of capital.

The rebound in numbers has not yet replenished local educational institutions with students or brought new customers to restaurants known for their multinational specialties.

It can be said with confidence that local businesses are entering a new period of natural selection after all the pandemic subsidies and policies are gone.

Business operators are willing to struggle until they can thrive again. But there must be a friendly environment for such a struggle to be possible in the first place.