The Government published the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes (Amendment) Bill 2019 (the Amendment Bill) in the Gazette today (June 28).
 
     Specifically, the Amendment Bill seeks to amend the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Ordinance (Cap. 485) and relevant subsidiary legislation to:
 
(a) give the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority (MPFA) explicit power to set up a wholly owned subsidiary as the legal entity to build, own and operate the eMPF Centralised Platform (CP) for more efficient administration of Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) schemes; and
 
(b) enable the MPFA to charge MPF approved trustees the statutory Annual Registration Fee (ARF) at a level of 0.03 per cent of the net asset value (NAV) of an MPF scheme starting from January 1, 2020.

     "The CP will facilitate the standardisation, streamlining and automation of MPF scheme administration processes to create room for reduction of MPF management fees, and to create a predominantly paperless MPF experience. After taking into account various considerations and the views of the industry, we consider that tasking a subsidiary under the MPFA to implement the CP project is the optimal institutional arrangement," a spokesman for the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau said.
 
     The MPFA has completed a Request for Information exercise to collect market information and is now preparing for the tendering exercise and the next-phase legislative proposal. The current target of the Government and the MPFA is to complete the development of the CP in 2022 and implement it in phases thereafter.
 
     As for the ARF, it is the Government's policy that the MPFA should be self-financing by recovering from approved trustees its costs of exercising and performing its functions with respect to MPF registered schemes. However, due to various reasons, the MPFA has never charged trustees the statutory ARF. As such, the ARF level has been set at 0 per cent of the NAV of a registered scheme since the commencement of the operation of the MPF regime in 2000.
   
     "To protect the interests of scheme members, trustees will be prohibited from charging any constituent fund of a registered scheme, any registered scheme or any scheme member any ARF-related fee. With such prohibition, the Government suggests adopting an incremental approach by starting with a lower level of 0.03 per cent of the NAV of a registered scheme for the first six years to allow room for trustees to adjust to the new expenses. The ARF level will be revised with effect from the seventh year after review with a view to achieving cost recovery from then," the spokesman added.
 
     The Amendment Bill will be introduced into the Legislative Council for first reading on July 3. 
 

     The Department of Health (DH) today (June 28) announced that applications for hospital licences under the Private Healthcare Facilities Ordinance (Cap. 633) (the Ordinance) will be accepted from July 2. The Director of Health has also issued the Code of Practice for Private Hospitals, which will take effect on the same date. The relevant notices were gazetted today.
 
     The Private Healthcare Facilities Bill was passed by the Legislative Council on November 15, 2018, and the Ordinance was gazetted on November 30, 2018. The new Ordinance will further protect patient safety and rights through the introduction of a new regulatory regime for private healthcare facilities (PHFs).
 
     Four types of PHFs will be subject to regulation, namely hospitals, day procedure centres, clinics and health services establishments. The regulatory regime will be implemented in phases based on the types of PHFs and their risk levels.
 
     From July 2 to December 31, 2019, operators of existing private hospitals currently regulated under the Hospitals, Nursing Homes and Maternity Homes Registration Ordinance (Cap. 165) and scheduled nursing homes listed in Schedule 10 to the Ordinance may apply to the DH for a hospital licence under the Ordinance. Operators of new private hospitals which have not yet commenced operation may also submit their applications for a licence under the new Ordinance starting from July 2. 
 
     Hospital licences issued under the Ordinance will take effect on January 1, 2021. By then, the regulation of private hospitals will have migrated to the new regime under the Ordinance and the repeal of the Hospitals, Nursing Homes and Maternity Homes Registration Ordinance will take effect on the same date.
 
     Applications for licences for day procedure centres under the Ordinance will be accepted from January 2020. Details will be announced in due course. The dates for the applications for licences of clinics and health services establishments and requests for the letter of exemption in respect of clinics will also be announced later.
 
     For more details of hospital licence application, please visit the website of the DH's Office for Regulation of Private Healthcare Facilities (www.orphf.gov.hk).
 

     The Government announced today (June 28) that the Chief Executive has appointed and re-appointed the following persons to the Board of the Ocean Park Corporation (OPC) for a period of two years from July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2021.
 
New appointments
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Mrs Bonnie Woo Chan Tak-chi
Mr Enoch Lam Tin-sing
Mr Paulo Pong Kin-yee
Ms Stephanie Poon
 
Re-appointments
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Ms Joanne Cheung Shui-lin
Ms Maureen Fung Sau-yim
Professor Kenneth Leung Mei-yee
Permanent Secretary for Development (Works) (or representative)
Commissioner for Tourism (or representative)
 
     "We are grateful to the re-appointed OPC Board members for their hard work in taking forward the development of Ocean Park and also welcome the four new members, namely Mrs Bonnie Woo Chan Tak-chi, Mr Enoch Lam Tin-sing, Mr Paulo Pong Kin-yee and Ms Stephanie Poon, for joining the Board. We are sure that, with the devotion and wide-ranging expertise of the Board members, Ocean Park will continue to grow as a world-class leading marine-themed recreational and educational park," a spokesman for the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau said.
 
     "We would also like to express our gratitude to the outgoing members, Professor Eric Yim Chi-ming and Mr Ma Lee-tak, for their invaluable contribution to the Board over the past years," the spokesman added.

     The OPC is a statutory body established under the Ocean Park Corporation Ordinance to manage Ocean Park as a public recreational and educational park.

     The Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) announced today (June 28) the launch of the second phase of the 2019 Nomination of Representatives of Arts Interests for the HKADC (the Nomination Exercise) on June 28. In the coming six weeks till August 9, arts organisations eligible to participate in the 2019 Nomination Exercise can register their members/employees as voters. Registered voters may take part in the subsequent phases of the 2019 Nomination Exercise including nomination of candidates, electioneering and polling.
 
     The first phase of the 2019 Nomination Exercise – registration by arts organisations and individual arts workers – ended on March 29, and 742 arts organisations and 2,596 individual arts workers are eligible to participate in this year's Nomination Exercise. A full list of the specified organisations and individuals has been published in the Gazette today and can be downloaded from the Nomination Exercise website.
 
     Arts organisations specified in the above-mentioned Gazette Notice (the eligible arts organisations) may register their members/employees if they are aged 18 years or above with a valid Hong Kong identity card and fulfil one of the following criteria as voters:
 
(i) be a member who has joined the organisation for not less than one year prior to January 7, 2019; or
 
(ii) be an employee of the organisation and has been directly involved in arts creation, direction or performance in the organisation for not less than one year prior to January 7, 2019; or
 
(iii) be a full-time employee of the organisation who has been responsible for co-ordination or promotion of arts events or stage management (not including employees involved in general administration, finance, human resources and other technical support duties) in the organisation for not less than one year prior to January 7, 2019.
 
     The eligible arts organisations should submit the Voter Registration Form for their members/employees and return it to the Nomination Agent on or before August 9. The Guidelines for Voter Registration and the Voter Registration Form can be downloaded from the website. Even if arts organisations had submitted voter registration forms in past Nomination Exercises, they must submit voter registration forms for their members/employees afresh this year.
 
     Individual arts workers whose names appear in the Government Gazette Notice on June 28 will be eligible to take part in the 2019 Nomination Exercise and are not required to register through the eligible arts organisations in this phase. 
 
     Tri-Leaves Promotion Limited has been appointed by the HKADC as the Nomination Agent of the 2019 Nomination Exercise. All arts organisations and individual arts workers submitting applications in the first phase and individual arts workers whose names appear in the Government Gazette Notice on June 28 will soon receive letters from the Nomination Agent. Letters to eligible arts organisations will also contain guidelines and application forms for voter registration.
 
     The HKADC is a statutory body set up to promote the development of the arts in Hong Kong. Under section 3 of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council Ordinance (Chapter 472), the Chief Executive may appoint up to 10 persons nominated by the specific arts interests as members of the HKADC. The 10 specified arts interests are Arts Administration, Arts Criticism, Arts Education, Chinese Opera (Xiqu), Dance, Drama, Film Arts, Literary Arts, Music and Visual Arts. The current term of office of the HKADC members will expire on December 31, 2019. An exercise is being conducted to nominate arts interests representatives for the Chief Executive's consideration of appointment as members of the HKADC for the next term.
 
     The 2019 Nomination Exercise is being conducted in four phases as follows:
 
Phase 1: Registration of Arts Organisations and Individual Arts Workers (January 7 to March 29)

Phase 2: Voter Registration by Arts Organisations (June 28 to August 9)
 
Phase 3: Nomination of Candidates (August to September) (Tentative)
 
Phase 4: Electioneering and Polling (October) (Tentative)
 
     For enquiries, please contact the Nomination Agent, Tri-Leaves Promotion Limited:
Ms Elizabeth Huang/Ms Serenade Woo
Tel: 3956 1408
Email: info@voteforhkadc2019.hk

     Firing practice will take place at two military sites, namely the San Wai/Tai Ling Firing Range and the Tsing Shan Firing Range, next month (July).
 
     Red flags or red lamps will be hoisted at the firing areas before and during firing practice. For their safety, people are advised not to enter the firing area.
 
     Following are the dates and times for the firing practice sessions in July 2019:
 
San Wai/Tai Ling Firing Range
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Tsing Shan Firing Range
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