The following is issued on behalf of the Legislative Council Secretariat:
 
     The Legislative Council (LegCo) Subcommittee to Follow Up Issues Related to Inadequate Housing and Relevant Housing Policies visited the Lok Sin Tong (LST) Social Housing Scheme and a pilot project for conversion of school premises into transitional housing today (April 30) to better understand the latest progress of the projects.
 
     Accompanied by the Under Secretary for Transport and Housing, Dr Raymond So Wai-man, and the Chairlady of LST Benevolent Society, Kowloon, Dr Yang Xiao-ling, Members visited the premises of LST Social Housing Scheme. Members observed the common area of the premises and then visited the families to learn about their living conditions. Members also received a briefing by representatives of the Government and LST on the experience and challenge of operating the "Transitional Housing Scheme".
 
     After that, Members visited LST Primary School, which will be converted into transitional housing after its closure in August this year. It is expected that around 50 housing units could be provided.　During the visit, Members observed the school's environment and were briefed on the details of the conversion plan.
 
     Members participating in the visit included the Chairman of the Subcommittee, Mr Vincent Cheng; the Deputy Chairman of the Subcommittee, Mr Andrew Wan; and Subcommittee member Ms Chan Hoi-yan.

      

     Hong Kong Customs seized about 12 000 suspected counterfeit goods with an estimated market value of about $350,000 at Man Kam To Control Point on April 27.

     Customs officers intercepted an incoming truck at Man Kam To Control Point on April 27. The batch of suspected counterfeit goods, including adapters, earphones and phone cases, were found inside the cargo compartment of the vehicle. The 61-year-old male driver was arrested.

     Initial investigation revealed that the counterfeit goods were to be transhipped to the Netherlands by sea.

     Investigation is ongoing and the arrested man has been released on bail pending further investigation.

     Hong Kong Customs will continue to strengthen co-operation with the European countries concerned to combat cross-boundary counterfeiting activities.

     Under the Trade Descriptions Ordinance, any person who imports or exports any goods to which a forged trademark is applied commits an offence. The maximum penalty upon conviction is a fine of $500,000 and imprisonment for five years.

     Members of the public may report any suspected counterfeiting activities to Customs' 24-hour hotline 2545 6182 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk).

  

The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:

     The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), together with relevant regulators which participate in the Global Financial Innovation Network (GFIN) cross-border pilot tests, announced the next steps of the initiative.
 
     In total, 44 unique applications were submitted across the 17 participating regulators. Every regulator participating in the pilot was the subject of at least one application. Each regulator has considered whether a proposed test meets its individual screening criteria, areas of interest, and its ability to support the activity.
 
     After this initial screening, relevant regulators will continue working with eight firms (Note). The next phase is for the firms to develop testing plans with the relevant regulators for their cross-border trials. Firms that develop a testing plan satisfactory to each relevant regulator’s criteria will take part in the pilot testing phase.
 
     The announcement is not a render of indicative regulatory approval or a guarantee that each firm will undertake a test. Rather, it is conditional on further work being undertaken and tests being agreed by relevant regulators involved. An announcement of the firms formally selected for the cross-border testing pilot will be made in late second quarter.
 
     Of those applications that did not meet the eligibility criteria for testing, GFIN members will engage in further discussions on other types of potential support where relevant. Also, several applications have been determined by some regulators to not need sandbox in their jurisdictions to proceed to testing.
 
     GFIN is keen to explore how these pilot tests will function and welcomes feedback from applicants to help inform and enhance its approach. As a founding member of GFIN, the HKMA will continue to contribute to the work of GFIN by collaborating closely with other members on the cross-border trials.

Note: The names of the firms can be found in Financial Conduct Authority's website: www.fca.org.uk/firms/gfin-cross-border-testing-pilot-next-steps.

     Police will implement special traffic arrangements to facilitate three public order events to be held on Hong Kong Island tomorrow (May 1).

(I)
     
     The following traffic arrangements will be implemented from 10.30am until the crowd has dispersed and traffic resumes normal:

Road closure
————

     The following roads will be intermittently closed:

– Westbound Hennessy Road;
– Queensway;
– Southbound Rodney Street;
– Harcourt Road; and
– Northbound Tim Mei Avenue.

     If necessary, the following roads will be closed:

– Westbound Harcourt Road service road between Rodney Street and Cotton Tree Drive;
– Southbound Tim Wa Avenue between Lung Wo Road and Harcourt Road;
– All lay-bys along Tim Mei Avenue and Lung Wui Road; and
– The unnamed road outside ex-Hong Kong Red Cross Headquarters.

Traffic divisions
—————–

– Traffic from United Centre bus terminus must turn left to westbound Drake Street;
– Traffic along northbound Justice Drive must turn left to westbound Queensway;
– Traffic along westbound Harcourt Road near the exit of Harcourt Garden car park will be diverted to westbound Harcourt Road flyover;
– Traffic along Lung Wo Road cannot enter Tim Wa Avenue, except for vehicles accessing Chief Executive’s Office and Central Government Complex (CGC) car park;
– Traffic along Lung Wo Road cannot enter southbound Edinburgh Place; and
– If necessary, traffic along eastbound Harcourt Road near City Hall will be diverted to eastbound Harcourt Road flyover, except for franchised buses and Green Minibuses (GMBs).

(II)

     The following roads will be intermittently closed from 12.30pm until the crowd has dispersed and traffic resumes normal:

– Gloucester Road;
– Sugar Street;
– Yee Wo Street;
– Causeway Road;
– Westbound Leighton Road;
– Keswick Street; and
– Northbound Pennington Street.

(III)

Road closure
————

     The following roads will be intermittently closed until the crowd has dispersed and traffic resumes normal:

Phase I (from 1.30pm)

– U-turn slip road between southbound Gloucester Road and northbound Gloucester Road;
– Southbound Gloucester Road between Victoria Park Road flyover and Causeway Road;
– Sugar Street; and
– Jardine's Bazaar.

Phase II (from 2pm)

– Westbound Yee Wo Street between Pennington Street and Hennessy Road;
– The leftmost lane of westbound Hennessy Road between Yee Wo Street and Queensway;
– Yun Ping Road between Kai Chiu Road and Pak Sha Road;
– Kai Chiu Road;
– Lee Garden Road between Kai Chiu Road and Hennessy Road;
– Canal Road West between Sharp Street West and Hennessy Road;
– Wan Chai Road between Canal Road West and Morrison Hill Road;
– Bowrington Road between Sharp Street West and Hennessy Road;
– The leftmost lane of eastbound Queensway between Rodney Street and Hennessy Road;
– Southbound Rodney Street;
– Westbound Harcourt Road service road between Rodney Street and Cotton Tree Drive;
– Southbound Tim Wa Avenue between Lung Wo Road and Harcourt Road;
– Northbound Tim Mei Avenue;
– All lay-bys along Tim Mei Avenue and Lung Wui Road; and
– The unnamed road outside ex-Hong Kong Red Cross Headquarters.

Traffic diversions
——————

Phase I (from 1.30pm)

– Traffic along southbound Gloucester Road cannot turn right to northbound Gloucester Road;
– Traffic along eastbound Great George Street must turn left to northbound Gloucester Road, except for vehicles heading for southbound Tai Hang Road flyover;
– Traffic along eastbound Yee Wo Street cannot turn left to Sugar Street;
– Traffic along Irving Street must turn right to northbound Pennington Street;
– If necessary, traffic along southbound Victoria Park Road flyover will be diverted to turn right to westbound Gloucester Road; and
– If necessary, traffic along southbound Gloucester Road heading for Causeway Road will be diverted to southbound Tai Hang Road flyover.

Phase II (from 2pm)

– Traffic along northbound Pennington Street must turn right to eastbound Yee Wo Street;
– Traffic along Yun Ping Road must turn left to Lan Fong Road;
– Traffic along northbound Canal Road West near the junction with Sharp Street West will be diverted to the up-ramp leading to northbound Canal Road flyover;
– Traffic along eastbound Sharp Street West will be diverted to the up-ramp leading to northbound Canal Road flyover;
– Traffic along eastbound Sharp Street West cannot turn left to northbound Bowrington Road;
– Traffic along northbound Bowrington Road must turn right to eastbound Sharp Street West;
– Traffic along eastbound Wan Chai Road must turn right to southbound Morrison Hill Road;
– Traffic along westbound Hennessy Road cannot turn left to southbound Canal Road East;
– Traffic along northbound Justice Drive must turn left to westbound Queensway;
– Traffic from United Centre bus terminus must turn left to westbound Drake Street;
– Traffic along westbound Harcourt Road near the exit of Harcourt Garden car park will be diverted to westbound Harcourt Road flyover;
– Traffic along Lung Wo Road cannot enter Tim Wa Avenue, except for vehicles accessing Chief Executive’s Office and CGC car park;
– Traffic along Lung Wo Road cannot enter southbound Edinburgh Place; and
– If necessary, traffic along eastbound Harcourt Road near City Hall will be diverted to eastbound Harcourt Road flyover, except for franchised buses and GMBs.

     All on-street parking spaces and disabled parking spaces at Lung Wui Road will be suspended from 9am to 6pm. The disabled parking spaces at northbound Gloucester Road near Sugar Street will be suspended from 11.30am to 6pm.  

     Vehicles may not be permitted to leave the car parks along the routes during the road closure periods.

     Actual implementation of the traffic arrangements will be made depending on traffic and crowd conditions in the areas. Motorists are advised to exercise tolerance and patience and take heed of instructions of the Police on site.

     The Secretary for Education, Mr Kevin Yeung, today (April 30) presented certificates to awardees under the HKSAR Government Scholarship Fund (GSF) and the Self-financing Post-secondary Education Fund (SPEF) for the 2018/19 academic year.
 
     The total value of scholarships and awards, distributed to around 6 700 students in total, amounted to about $146 million. In addition, the GSF has reserved about $32 million for the Talent Development Scholarship and the Reaching Out Award.
 
     Both the GSF and the SPEF give recognition to meritorious post-secondary students with special educational needs (SEN) through the Endeavour Merit Award and the Endeavour Scholarship. This year, a total of around 300 SEN students were given the award/scholarship.
 
     In addition, the GSF awards Targeted Scholarships under the Targeted Scholarship Scheme every year to first-year non-local full-time students from Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries, India and Korea, who are enrolled in publicly-funded degree programmes in Hong Kong. In the 2018/19 academic year, eight new Targeted Scholarships have been awarded, comprising five awardees from Korea and one awardee each from India, Singapore and Vietnam. Starting in the 2016/17 academic year, the Belt and Road (B&R) Scholarship was introduced under the Targeted Scholarship Scheme to encourage more students from the B&R regions to pursue undergraduate studies in Hong Kong. Twenty students from Indonesia and Malaysia have been awarded with this scholarship for the first time in this academic year.
 
     The GSF was established in 2008 to attract outstanding local students to advance their studies at home, and meritorious non-local students to pursue higher education opportunities in Hong Kong. Scholarships and awards under the GSF are, namely Scholarships for Outstanding Performance, Targeted Scholarship, Talent Development Scholarship, Reaching Out Award and Endeavour Merit Award. Scholarships are offered to students studying for a full-time publicly-funded sub-degree or undergraduate-level or above programmes. A list of 10 participating institutions is in Annex I. Out of some 1 500 student awardees in this academic year, about 1 100 were local students and 400 were non-locals. In terms of level of study, around 900 students were at undergraduate level or above, while the remainder were at sub-degree level.
 
     The Self-financing Post-secondary Scholarship Scheme was established under the SPEF in 2011 to promote the quality and sustainable development of the self-financing post-secondary sector. There are five types of scholarships and awards under the scheme, namely Outstanding Performance Scholarship, Best Progress Award, Talent Development Scholarship, Reaching Out Award and Endeavour Scholarship. These scholarships and awards are offered to students pursuing full-time locally accredited self-financing sub-degree or undergraduate programmes. A list of 34 participating institutions is in Annex II. For the 2018/19 academic year, the SPEF offered scholarships and awards to around 5 000 local and around 200 non-local students. In terms of level of study, around 2 600 of them pursued undergraduate studies while the others were sub-degree students.
 
     Details of the scholarships and awards under the GSF are available at www.edb.gov.hk/en/edu-system/postsecondary/local-higher-edu/publicly-funded-programmmes/scholarship.html. Those under the SPEF are available at www.cspe.edu.hk/en/Overview-Measures-Fund-SPSS.html.