Hong Kong's richest man Li Ka-shing is donating money to help support local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as the troubled Chinese Special Administrative Region slides into economic recession.

Donating S$173.9 million

Earlier this month, the Li Ka Shing Foundation announced that Li would be donating HK$1 billion (S$173.9 million) to help smaller local businesses.

The donation, it said, is being made in view of the "unprecedented challenges" facing Hong Kong's economy.

And now, Li is making good on that promise.

In a press release on Tuesday, Oct. 29, the foundation announced that they will be giving out HK$200 million (S$34.8 million) to SMEs in Hong Kong's food and beverage (F&B) industry, making it the first beneficiary of the bulk donation.

Tycoons writing cheques in #HongKongProtests :

Today Li Ka-shing disbursed HKD200 million to support food&beverage industry, realising of part of his earlier pledge to donate HKD 1 billion to help local SMEs.

On the same day when Li make the billion dollar donation... pic.twitter.com/02ZHSX0Zhf — Xinqi Su 蘇昕琪 (@XinqiSu) October 29, 2019

This financial injection comes at a time where months-long protests have taken a sharp toll on the city's economy, which has so far already been impacted by the ongoing U.S.-China trade dispute.

Qualified SMEs to receive S$10,435 each

Qualified SMEs will receive a cash grant of HK$60,000 (S$10,435) by the end of November, the fund said.

The F&B sector was chosen to receive the first batch of payouts as it has been "severely impacted and their revenue dropped by approximately 30 per cent, and about 200 outlets have since shut down and their employees dismissed", the foundation added.

Properly registered SMEs that employ less than 50 people and hold valid F&B licences are eligible for the grant.

The foundation said it will be adopting a "trust more, stress less" attitude on vetting to ensure speedy disbursements.

SMEs can submit their applications through the foundation's website starting November 8.

The next beneficiary of the donations will be the retail industry, the foundation said.

Other tycoons pledge help

Li's donation comes after property firm New World Development said on Sep. 25 it will donate 3 million square feet (278,700 square metres) of its farmland reserves for public housing, Reuters reported.

The area constitutes almost a fifth of the property firm's farmland reserves.

About a week later, Hong Kong's third-largest landowner, Henderson Land Development, said it will donate land in Yuen Long for social welfare purposes and to build youth hostels, according to the South China Morning Post.

It also said it was considering loaning farmland to the government for seven years to build temporary housing that will help bring some form of relief to those facing housing problems.

Beijing criticises Hong Kong tycoons for not doing enough to resolve housing problems

The Chinese Communist Party's official mouthpiece People's Daily has previously slammed Hong Kong property tycoons in a Sep. 13 commentary for not doing enough to alleviate the housing crisis in the Special Administrative Region.

It has also called on the Hong Kong government to seize land from wealthy developers to tackle the housing problem.

The argument that Hong Kong's unrest is due to housing unaffordability is also repeated by other Chinese state media, such as Xinhua and Global Times.

Hopes government can provide leave to young protesters

Previously, Li expressed his hope that the Hong Kong government would "let the future of tomorrow off" — referring to the young protesters:

However, he was accused by China's Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission for "harbouring criminality", Reuters reported.

In response, Li said he deeply regrets that his comments regarding the protests were misrepresented, and stressed that any action that violates the rule of law cannot be tolerated.

Least affordable housing market

Complex as the root causes of the current political unrest are right now, a big challenge for Hong Kong is the fact that it continues to have the world's most expensive housing.

According to the latest Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey, a median home in Hong Kong cost 19.4 times the SAR's gross annual median income in 2017.

This means it takes 19 years for an average household to be able to afford housing, even if there were no other expenses at all.

Sydney took the second spot for costly housing (12.9), while Vancouver was placed third (12.6).

In contrast, the median multiple in Singapore for 2018 stands at 4.8.

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Top image by Visual China Group via Getty Images