Correctional officers stopped a person in custody from assaulting another person in custody at Tong Fuk Correctional Institution today (Oct 31). At 5.45pm, a 34-year-old male person in cust… read more
The Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, conducted the third day of her visit to Japan today (October 31). She visited innovation and technology (I&T) organisations and institutions in Tokyo to explore possibilities for collaboration between Hong Kong and Japan. She also attended a luncheon on women’s leadership, the opening ceremony of an exhibition on Hong Kong architecture and a special concert celebrating the friendship between Japan and Hong Kong performed by alumni of the Asian Youth Orchestra (AYO) from Hong Kong and Japan.
Accompanied by the Secretary for Innovation and Technology, Mr Nicholas W Yang, Mrs Lam had a breakfast meeting with the President of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), Mr Michinari Hamaguchi, and its key members. Also present were the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation, Dr Sunny Chai and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited, Dr George Lam. Managed by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the JST promotes state-of-the-art research and development (R&D) projects and spearheads co-creation of innovation. It also formulates long-term R&D strategies and promotes the transformation of technological achievements and related education. Mrs Lam said at the meeting that the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) is determined to develop Hong Kong as an international I&T hub and has been advancing I&T development using an eight-pronged approach. She noted that she had proposed in her recent Policy Address the allocation of an additional $28 billion to support university research, encourage re-industrialisation and promote technological entrepreneurship. Mrs Lam said she encouraged technology enterprises, R&D institutions and academics from Japan to partner with their Hong Kong counterparts in research to make good use of the R&D grants and tax deduction for expenditure on R&D rolled out by the HKSAR Government.
Later, Mrs Lam and the other officials visited the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) to meet with its President, Professor Kazuya Masu, to learn about the institute’s development in technological research, as well as to view the supercomputer Tsubame 3.0. Tsubame 3.0, one of the largest supercomputers in Japan, has excellent computing power and energy efficiency. Tokyo Tech is one of the top four universities in Japan. Mrs Lam said she was pleased to learn that Tokyo Tech has established links with several universities in Hong Kong through a co-operation agreement and various collaborative research projects and student exchange programmes. She expressed the hope that Tokyo Tech would continue to collaborate with Hong Kong’s universities to jointly enhance the level of scientific research.
Mrs Lam then attended a luncheon organised by the Economist Corporate Network with women’s leadership as the theme, at which she discussed with over 100 senior executives topics including women in leadership, female empowerment and assistance for women in career development. She introduced to the participants situation of women in Hong Kong in such areas as education, employment and appointment to public offices, and a series of initiatives in support of women and family-friendly measures by the HKSAR Government in order to give women equal opportunities for development and room to give full play to their talents.
In the afternoon, accompanied by the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Edward Yau, Mrs Lam officiated at the opening ceremony of the “More than High-rise: Exploring Hong Kong through Architecture” exhibition organised by the Hong Kong Institute of Architects in Tokyo. Speaking at the ceremony, she said that Hong Kong is not only celebrated for its skyscrapers, but also for historic built heritage such as the Blue House in Wan Chai and the PMQ in Central, with the former winning the Award of Excellence at the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation. In addition, contemporary iconic buildings including Hong Kong International Airport, the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal, the Xiqu Centre and M+ in the West Kowloon Cultural District also enrich Hong Kong’s skyline and cityscape, she added.
In the evening, Mrs Lam attended the “Asian Youth Orchestra Alumni Special Concert – Celebrating Friendship between Japan and Hong Kong” performed by more than 20 alumni of the AYO from Hong Kong and Japan. Based in Hong Kong, the AYO attracts many bright young musicians from all over Asia to Hong Kong for training every year and takes them to different parts of the world for performances and cultural exchange. The AYO has played a significant role in promoting arts and cultural exchanges between Hong Kong and Japan. The orchestra’s first public concert in 1990 was held in Kumamoto, Japan. Since then, Japan has been one of the AYO’s touring destinations almost every year. The AYO was awarded Japan’s Praemium Imperiale Grant for Young Artists in 2010 in recognition of its contribution to the development of young artistic talents. It was also awarded the Nikkei Asia Prize in 2015 for Culture and Community for promoting friendship and understanding through the common language of music.
Mrs Lam had dinner with the AYO musicians and will continue her visit to Japan tomorrow (November 1).
Hong Kong is ranked fourth globally on the ease of doing business, moving up one place from being fifth last year, according to the World Bank’s Doing Business 2019 Report (Report) released today (October 31).
“In the past ten years, Hong Kong has maintained its position among the world’s top ranking economies in the Report, re-affirming our favourable business environment for overseas companies to set up their regional headquarters and offices, and for all businesses to flourish,” a government spokesman said.
“The score of Hong Kong has improved from 83.44 last year to 84.22 this year, reflecting continuous enhancements in our business facilitation measures. The World Bank commends Hong Kong for the successful implementation of reform measures to improve the ease of doing business,” he added.
The Report compares the ease of doing business in 190 economies across 10 indicators. Among the 10 indicators, Hong Kong performs well in a number of them, including “paying taxes” (ranked first), “dealing with construction permits” (ranked first), “getting electricity” (ranked third) and “starting a business” (ranked fifth).
The Government will study the Report carefully and continue to work closely with the business sector and other stakeholders to reform the existing regulatory regimes, enhance regulatory efficiency and reduce business compliance costs, so as to further improve the business environment in Hong Kong. read more
More endangered species will be put on the control list under the Protection of Endangered Species of Animals and Plants Ordinance (Cap 586) when the amendments to schedule 1 come into force tomorrow (November 1), a spokesman f… read more
Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Wong Kam-sing, on the introduction of the Waste Disposal (Charging for Municipal Solid Waste) (Amendment) Bill 2018 into the Legislative Council at a media session at the Central Government Offices, Tamar today (October 31):
Secretary for the Environment: The Government will introduce the Waste Disposal (Charging for Municipal Solid Waste) (Amendment) Bill 2018 into the Legislative Council (LegCo) on November 14 to underpin the implementation of municipal solid waste (MSW) charging.
The implementation of MSW charging sits at the centre of our overall waste reduction strategy. It will provide the necessary financial incentives to drive behavioural changes and encourage various sectors of the community to practise waste reduction and clean recycling. Experiences in other cities clearly show that it helps reduce waste disposal effectively. Amid the increasing waste disposal level in Hong Kong, which is higher than those in other cities like London and Seoul, in addition to combat climate change, we should introduce MSW charging to promote waste reduction and recycling in order to reduce carbon emissions.
Over the past few years, the Government has been consulting various stakeholders and the community to build understanding of and support for the introduction of this major waste reduction policy and on the relevant implementation arrangements. Last year, having regard to the views received from various trades, we announced the modified charging arrangements, which expand the scope of the use of pre-paid designated garbage bags to cover some 80 per cent of the MSW being disposed of every day. The remaining MSW will be subject to a “gate fee” when it is sent to landfills or refuse transfer stations for disposal. The modified arrangements have been largely accepted by the trades and the community.
We do not underestimate the challenges of implementing MSW charging on a territory-wide scale, and have formulated a pragmatic strategy to put this into practice.
The key strategy can be represented by “ECO”: “E” stands for “education”, “C” stands for “community support” and “O” for “outreaching assistance”.
Number one, education and publicity hold the key to the implementation of MSW charging. Under the theme of “Dump Less, Save More”, we will launch a territory-wide publicity and public education campaign, which will put due emphasis on first-hand participation, collaboration with various stakeholders and provision of on-site assistance.
Secondly, community support. The Government will put in additional recurrent resources to support the community to practise waste reduction at source and clean recycling. As recently announced in the Policy Address, the Government will first provide an additional provision of around $300 million to $400 million for the next financial year, which will be further increased to no less than $800 million to $1,000 million from the financial year when the MSW charging is to be implemented. The amount of this annual provision would be comparable to the estimated gross revenue to be generated from MSW charging, so as to achieve the effect of “dedicated fund for dedicated use”.
We plan to make use of additional resources to provide free territory-wide collection service in respect of waste plastics from non-commercial and industrial (C&I) sources and food waste from all sources in the longer run subject to the outcome of the pilot schemes on non-C&I waste plastics and C&I food waste, and implement a pilot scheme to assess the effectiveness of applying reverse vending machines in promoting the recycling of plastic beverage containers.
Thirdly, outreaching assistance. We plan to make use of additional resources to set up outreaching teams to provide on-site assistance to the community, thereby putting waste reduction and recycling, as well as MSW charging, into practice.
Lastly, I would like to say that it will take time to cultivate the necessary behavioural change. To this end, we will put in place a preparatory period of 12 to 18 months after the passage of the Bill to provide the Government, different stakeholders and other people with appropriate time to prepare for the implementation of MSW charging. We estimate that MSW charging could be implemented by end-2020 at the earliest. Let’s support the “Dump Less, Save More” movement to make Hong Kong cleaner and greener in the long run. Thank you.
Reporter: What would be the penalty of not using the designated rubbish bag? Also, how can it be executed? People living in a building will throw their garbage to the garbage room on the floor, so how can you identify which bag is from which home?
Secretary for the Environment: I think the enforcement challenge is not only faced by Hong Kong, but also elsewhere which have similar waste charging mechanisms. As I have said earlier, public education and publicity is the priority, as it has been adopted in other cities. After that, enforcement arrangement will be a backup and we will have a risk-based approach. That means, if there are areas identified with frequent fly-tipping, relevant authorities will be notified and necessary enforcement arrangement will be made. Certainly, we will receive complaints on repeated locations (that do not used designated bags), and we will have arrangement on the enforcement plan.
Reporter: Mr Wong, the introduction of the MSW charging bill has been further delayed, and lawmakers will oppose to the bill. How would you assess the public perception and knowledge of this plan? Do you think many of them know about it and how is it going?
Secretary for the Environment: I would like to share with you that over the past period of time, we have been in contact with stakeholders, including business sectors, green groups, education sector, etc. My feeling is that many Hong Kong people are actually supportive to a greener and waste less society in Hong Kong. For lawmakers, we will go through our lobbying process and it is not without challenge. I think we will try our best endeavours to liaise with them because the current proposal has been improved and enhanced. It is a balanced approach, a practicable approach. Certainly, it takes time for Hong Kong to build up various facilities on recycling infrastructure. We will convince them that MSW charging policy should be given priority. Similarly in other cities, they implement MSW charging first, and at the same time they also push ahead other recycling and supporting facilities in parallel.
Reporter: Can you tell more about the penalty? Penalty for not using the bags?
Secretary for the Environment: As I said earlier, publicity and education is the priority but we will also have the enforcement arrangement. Each time if one is caught, the minimum fixed penalty is $1,500. The amount is equivalent to a typical family’s waste charging for a few years. So it would be a substantial warning to individuals if they are not following the law.
Reporter: Now that the implementation of the MSW charging will be postponed one year, how about the year 2022 waste reduction target? Will it be affected?
Secretary for the Environment: As I said earlier and similar to other cities, direction is the key. The timeline will be affected by various factors, including our waste blueprint and the timeline set for the latest MSW charging bill. I think the emphasis should be placed on the direction. We hope to gain the support from lawmakers for the passage of the bill. So, direction is the key.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.) read more