Night view of the Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong on July 8, 2018. [Photo/VCG] HONG KONG - The government of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) is expected to have a surplus of HK$58.7 billion ($7.48 billion) for the fiscal year of 2018-2019, its financial chief said Wednesday. Hong Kong's fiscal reserves are expected to reach HK$1,161.6 billion ($147.99 billion) by March 31, 2019, the end of the 2018-2019 fiscal year, the HKSAR government's Financial Secretary Paul Chan said when delivering the annual budget. Looking ahead for 2019, Chan said the uncertain global economic outlook this year will restrain Hong Kong's economic performance. Having regard to the latest internal and external developments, I will make optimal use of the fiscal surplus for 2018-2019 to introduce one-off measures to support enterprises and relieve people's burden, he said. Together with the stimulus effect of other measures in the budget, Chan said he forecasts economic growth of 2 percent to 3 percent in real terms for Hong Kong in 2019. On inflation, taking various factors into account, he forecast that the headline inflation rate and the underlying inflation rate for 2019 would both be 2.5 percent. While forecasting the medium-term average growth rate slightly higher than the trend growth of 2.8 percent over the past decade and the inflation rate remaining 2.5 percent, Chan warned that Hong Kong has to stay vigilant against the mounting external pressures. I prepared this year's budget along the direction of 'supporting enterprises, safeguarding jobs, stabilising the economy, strengthening livelihoods', he said, adding that he would provide new resources ready for use of about HK$150 billion in the new budget. (1 US dollar equals 7.85 Hong Kong dollars) wristbands canadacustom silicone bracelets canadarubber bracelets canadasilicone bracelets canadasilicone wristbands canadacustom wristbands canadacanadian wristbandswristbands canada
A woman who successfully received a womb gives birth to a healthy baby boy at the Xijing Hospital in Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi province, Jan 20, 2019. [Photo/Xinhua] XI'AN -- A woman who successfully received a womb donated by her mother after a uterus transplant in November 2015 gave birth to a healthy baby boy in northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Sunday. Weighing 2 kg and measuring 48 cm long, the baby is considered to be China's first and the world's 14th baby who was born from a transplanted womb, said doctors with the Xijing Hospital in Xi'an, where the baby was born and the previous uterus transplant was performed. Twenty-six-year-old Yang Hua, the new mother, was born without a uterus but has her own ovaries which produce eggs. When the mother-daughter womb transplant, also China's first human womb transplant, was done in 2015, Yang was 22 and her mother was 43. Doctors perform a cesarean operation on a woman who has successfully received a womb at the Xijing Hospital, Jan 20, 2019. [Photo/Xinhua] Uterus transplants are not new. In the 1960s, Britain and the United States began to experiment with uterus transplants on animals. In 2000, the world's first human womb transplant took place on a 26-year-old woman in Saudi Arabia. The transplanted uterus failed after three months and had to be removed. In 2011, doctors successfully performed a uterus transplant on a woman in Turkey. Two years later, nine women in Sweden successfully received transplanted wombs donated by relatives. Chen Biliang, director of the obstetrics and gynecology department of Xijing Hospital, said uterus transplants still remain a medical challenge in the world today. Photo taken on Jan 22, 2019 shows the baby who was born from a transplanted womb at the Xijing Hospital. [Photo/Xinhua] The uterus, with plenty of tenuous blood vessels, grows in the depths of a woman's pelvic cavity. Therefore, a string of problems including cutting, the structure of the blood vessels during the transplant and strong rejection reactions may occur, said Chen. There are about one million women in China who are suffering from uterine infertility. Due to the limitation of the current assisted reproductive technology and the prohibition of surrogacy in many countries, uterus transplants have provided an effective way for women plagued by uterine infertility to have their own babies, according to Chen.
