A girl who went missing in Aberdeen has been located.
Ng Wa-sin, aged 14, went missing after she left a hostel on Nam Long Shan Road on August 20, 2018. Her family made a report to Police on August 22 last year.
Police located the girl on Hong Ning Road, Sau Mau Ping this afternoon (March 18).
With a view to improving user-friendliness and facilitating information retrieval, the Town Planning Board today (March 18) promulgated a revised set of application forms and Guidance Notes for applications submitted under section 12A and section 16 of the Town Planning Ordinance. The revised application forms and Guidance Notes will be made available for use from April 1.
The existing five sets of section 16 application forms are consolidated into three sets: (a) Form No. S16-I for general development proposals other than those covered by Forms No. S16-II and No. S16-III; (b) Form No. S16-II for proposals involving construction of "New Territories Exempted House"; and (c) Form No. S16-III for proposals involving temporary use/development of land and/or building not exceeding three years in rural areas and renewal of such temporary approvals.
The major revisions made to the section 12A and section 16 application forms include the use of checkboxes for selection of options, standardising date input, simplifying the input for "Owner's Consent/Notification", revising the declaration statement on uploading the application materials to the Board's website, and providing a new "Gist of Application" to facilitate publication of an application.
Opportunity is also taken to revise the Guidance Notes of Applications with more detailed explanations on the submission requirements. Corresponding amendments will be made to the Town Planning Board Guidelines No. 34B, and the electronic versions of the application forms and Guidance Notes.
The paper copies of the revised application forms will be launched for use on April 1, while the revised electronic versions will be launched later when they are ready. A grace period of six months from April 1 will be given, under which applications using the existing application forms will still be acceptable within the transitional period.
The revised application forms, Guidance Notes and Town Planning Board Guidelines No. 34C will be made available from April 1 at the Secretariat of the Board at 15/F, North Point Government Offices, 333 Java Road, North Point, Hong Kong (tel: 2231 4810 or 2231 4835); the Board's website (www.info.gov.hk/tpb); and at the Planning Enquiry Counters of the Planning Department in North Point and Sha Tin.
In response to media enquiries on the use of swimming lanes in public swimming pools under priority allocation by the Hong Kong Amateur Swimming Association (HKASA) and its three affiliated clubs, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) today (March 18) released the results of the department's investigation and examination report.
After investigating and examining the information and reports submitted by the HKASA and its three affiliated clubs, the LCSD found no substantive evidence suggesting that the three swimming clubs had transferred the swimming lanes or used the swimming lanes allocated by priority for profit-making purposes.
However, the department has found room for improvement in various aspects taking into consideration the above investigation and examination, and after revisiting the Central Lane Allocation System (CLAS).
A spokesman for the LCSD said the department would implement improvement and enhancement measures in a number of areas based on the findings of the investigation and examination. These include strengthening the requirements and enhancing the declaration system to ensure that the swimming lanes allocated under CLAS will be used for organising non-profit-making activities by non-profit-making organisations; improving the appointment of agents by and financial arrangements of various major national sports associations (NSAs)/sports clubs and their affiliated clubs; demanding NSAs/sports clubs to establish a fair, impartial and open internal system for the allocation of swimming lanes, including enhancing the mechanism of interest declaration and avoidance of conflicts of interest, increasing transparency, and establishing an appeal mechanism; and reinforcing the monitoring role of NSAs/sports clubs as well as establishing/enhancing the monitoring mechanism and non-compliance penalty system. In addition, the LCSD will review and enhance the CLAS regularly, and revise the booking arrangement of public swimming pools and the relevant guidelines to further set out the requirements clearly.
Apart from the CLAS, the LCSD has also reviewed the booking mechanism through the Booking Procedure for Use of Public Swimming Pools and extended relevant improvement and enhancement measures to the booking of swimming lanes through such procedures, the spokesman added.
The investigation and examination report has been uploaded to the department's website (www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/aboutlcsd/ppr/investigation/Swimming_Lanes_Report_en.pdf).
The latest test results of the opening-up investigation in the second stage of the holistic assessment strategy for the Hung Hom Station Extension under the Shatin to Central Link (SCL) project (as at March 18) are now available at the Highways Department's website for the SCL project
(www.hyd.gov.hk/en/road_and_railway/railway_projects/scl/index.html) for reference by the public.
Further to the external merchandise trade statistics in value terms for January 2019 released earlier on, the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) released today (March 18) the volume and price statistics of external merchandise trade for that month.
In January 2019, the volume of Hong Kong's total exports of goods decreased by 2.2% over January 2018. Concurrently, the volume of imports of goods decreased by 7.7%.
Comparing the three months ending January 2019 with the three months ending January 2018, the volume of Hong Kong's total exports of goods decreased by 4.2%. Concurrently, the volume of imports of goods decreased by 6.1%.
Comparing the three-month period ending January 2019 with the preceding three months on a seasonally adjusted basis, the volume of total exports of goods decreased by 6.1%. Concurrently, the volume of imports of goods decreased by 7.5%.
Changes in volume of external merchandise trade are derived from changes in external merchandise trade value with the effect of price changes discounted.
Comparing January 2019 with January 2018, the prices of total exports of goods increased by 2.0%. Concurrently, the prices of imports of goods increased by 2.0%.
Price changes in external merchandise trade are reflected by changes in unit value indices of external merchandise trade, which are compiled based on average unit values or, for certain commodities, specific price data.
The terms of trade index is derived from the ratio of price index of total exports of goods to that of imports of goods. Compared with the same period in 2018, the index remained virtually unchanged in January 2019.
Changes in the unit value and volume of total exports of goods by main destination are shown in Table 1.
Comparing January 2019 with January 2018, double-digit decreases were recorded for the total export volume to India (-34.9%) and Taiwan (-16.8%). Concurrently, the total export volume to the USA, the mainland of China (the Mainland) and Japan decreased by 7.8%, 6.2% and 0.5% respectively.
Over the same period of comparison, the total export prices to Japan, the USA and the Mainland increased by 3.4%, 2.7% and 2.4% respectively. On the other hand, the total export prices to Taiwan and India decreased by 0.1% and 0.8% respectively.
Changes in the unit value and volume of imports of goods by main supplier are shown in Table 2.
Comparing January 2019 with January 2018, double-digit decreases were recorded for the import volume from Japan (-15.3%) and Taiwan (-12.7%). Concurrently, the import volume from the USA, the Mainland and Singapore decreased by 9.8%, 4.2% and 2.1% respectively.
Over the same period of comparison, the import prices from all main suppliers increased: the Mainland (+2.7%), Taiwan (+2.4%), Japan (+2.2%), Singapore (+1.8%) and the USA (+0.4%).
Further information
Details of the above statistics are published in the January 2019 issue of "Hong Kong Merchandise Trade Index Numbers". Users can download the publication free of charge at the website of the C&SD (www.censtatd.gov.hk/hkstat/sub/sp230.jsp?productCode=B1020006).
Enquiries on merchandise trade indices may be directed to the Trade Analysis Section (1) of the C&SD (Tel: 2582 4918).