The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, chaired the third meeting of the Youth Development Commission (YDC) today (October 29). At the meeting, members took note of the various new initiatives to support youth development promulgated in the "The Chief Executive's 2018 Policy Address", as well as the Government's strategy to step up youth life planning work.
      
     Members noted the various new initiatives to support youth development promulgated in the "The Chief Executive's 2018 Policy Address". They agreed with the Government's overall vision and direction in promoting youth development and, through a multi-pronged approach, understanding young people's thoughts, creating more space for them to unleash their potential and facilitating their upward mobility.
      
     On youth innovation and entrepreneurship, the YDC agreed that the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area could enable Hong Kong's young people to grasp more opportunities. The YDC suggested that the Government should thoroughly consider the needs of youth entrepreneurs while reviewing the Youth Development Fund (YDF) to provide entrepreneurial support that better meets their needs. The Task Force on Youth Development Fund and Programme will conduct a review of the YDF, including consulting youth entrepreneurs and relevant stakeholders to better understand their views on the operation of the YDF.
      
     The YDC agreed to promote cross-bureau and cross-sectoral collaboration to strengthen youth life-planning work by deepening life-planning work at schools, fostering collaboration between non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and schools, and encouraging the participation of the business sector. In particular, the YDC endorsed the allocation of additional resources to enhance the Funding Scheme on Youth Life Planning Activities starting from 2019-20, thereby strengthening synergy between NGOs and schools. The Task Force on Youth Development Fund and Programmes will follow up on the relevant work and consider factors such as strengthening promotion to schools and reviewing the funding limit and period of funded projects.
      
     The meeting noted the enhancement measures to be implemented during the new cycle of three funding schemes, namely the Funding Scheme for Youth Internship in the Mainland, the Funding Scheme for Youth Exchange in the Mainland and the Funding Scheme for International Youth Exchange. Measures include: under the new cycle of the Funding Scheme for Youth Internship in the Mainland and Funding Scheme for Youth Exchange in the Mainland, NGOs with satisfactory track record and meeting specified criteria may apply for three-year funding through a single application; the maximum fundable duration of internship projects will be extended; a new funding item for accompanying staff in an exchange project will be introduced; the matching grant mandatory requirement under the Funding Scheme for International Youth Exchange will be removed; and the age requirements for participants under the various schemes will be rationalised. 
      
     The Funding Scheme for Youth Internship in the Mainland 2019-20 is now inviting applications. The application deadline is November 19, 2018. For details, please visit www.ydc.gov.hk.
      
     The YDC Youth Ambassadors Scheme 2019 has launched recruitment and is now inviting relevant NGOs, post-secondary education institutions, etc, to nominate qualified young people to join the scheme. The nomination deadline is November 16, 2018. Through the scheme, the YDC hopes to identify and nurture, in a systematic manner, more young talents who are committed to and passionate about serving the community.
      
     The YDC will soon launch youth engagement activities to strengthen communications with young people. The first school exchange session will be held in early November. Members will interact with students to learn about their views on the work of the YDC and other youth development issues of their concern.

The following is issued on behalf of the Legislative Council Secretariat:

     The Legislative Council (LegCo) will hold a meeting on Wednesday (October 31) at 11am in the Chamber of the LegCo Complex.  During the meeting, the Second Reading debate on the Inland Revenue (Amendment) (No. 4) Bill 2018 will resume.  If the Bill is supported by Members and receives its Second Reading, it will stand committed to the committee of the whole Council.  After the committee of the whole Council has completed consideration of the Bill and its report is adopted by the Council, the Bill will be set down for the Third Reading.

     The Supplementary Appropriation (2017-2018) Bill and the Inland Revenue (Amendment) (No. 6) Bill 2018 will be introduced into the Council for the First Reading and the Second Reading.  The Second Reading debate on the Bills will be adjourned.

     On Members' motions, Mr Kenneth Leung will move two proposed resolutions under section 34(4) of the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance respectively. The first proposed resolution is to extend the period for amending the Tax Reserve Certificates (Rate of Interest) (Consolidation) (Amendment) Notice 2018 laid on the table of the Council on October 10, 2018 to the meeting of November 28, 2018.  The second proposed resolution is to extend the period for amending the Inland Revenue (Double Taxation Relief and Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to Taxes on Income) (Republic of India) Order and the Inland Revenue (Double Taxation Relief with respect to Taxes on Income and Prevention of Tax Evasion and Avoidance) (Republic of Finland) Order laid on the table of the Council on October 10, 2018 to the meeting of November 28, 2018.

     Ms Claudia Mo will move a motion under Article 73(5) and (10) of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.  The motion states: "That, pursuant to Article 73(5) and (10) of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, this Council summons the Secretary for Security, Mr John Lee and the Director of Immigration, Mr Erick Tsang, to attend before the Council on November 21, 2018 to produce all relevant papers, books, records or documents and to testify or give evidence in relation to the incident of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government's refusal to renew, for no reason, the work visa of Mr Victor Mallet, Vice President of the Foreign Correspondents' Club, Hong Kong and Asia news editor of the Financial Times, thereby causing concerns locally and internationally that the HKSAR Government suppresses freedom of the press and freedom of speech through political means."

     Ms Mo will also move a motion under the Legislative Council (Powers and Privileges) Ordinance.  The motion states: "That this Council appoints a select committee to inquire into the incident of serious land subsidence of buildings near the construction site of To Kwa Wan station of the Shatin to Central Link, and whether the incident involved ineffective monitoring by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and the MTR Corporation Limited and their deliberate concealment of the land subsidence problem, and other related matters; and that in the performance of its duties the committee be authorised under section 9(2) of the Legislative Council (Powers and Privileges) Ordinance (Cap 382) to exercise the powers conferred by section 9(1) of that Ordinance."

     Mr Lam Cheuk-ting will move a motion under the Legislative Council (Powers and Privileges) Ordinance.  The motion states: "That this Council appoints a select committee to inquire into matters relating to the MTR Corporation Limited's alleged concealment of the substandard construction works and alternations to the construction drawings of the Shatin to Central Link (SCL), alleged failure to suspend the construction works and notify the public when the settlement of some monitoring points is found to have exceeded the pre-set trigger levels during the construction of eight stations along SCL, and subsequent proposal of relaxing the pre-set trigger levels for temporary suspension of works of the monitoring points near the construction site of the Exhibition Centre Station of SCL, and other related matters, and that in the performance of its duties the committee be authorised under section 9(2) of the Legislative Council (Powers and Privileges) Ordinance (Cap 382) to exercise the powers conferred by section 9(1) of that Ordinance."

     In addition, Mr Michael Tien will move a motion on restructuring the governance of MTR Corporation Limited.  The motion states: "That the MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL) has built and operates 11 railways in Hong Kong, and in the future, seven new railway projects will most likely be assigned to MTRCL; the people of Hong Kong heavily rely on the railway system as a mode of transport, but in recent years, there have been strong views in society on the service quality, corporate governance and supervision of works of MTRCL; the Hong Kong SAR Government as the majority shareholder of MTRCL has a major responsibility of monitoring MTRCL in providing to the public the safest railway services and infrastructure of the best quality; in this connection, this Council urges the SAR Government to adopt the following measures to restructure the governance of MTRCL to restore public confidence in MTRCL:

(1) setting up an independent railway development department – given that at present, a railway from planning to construction involves various government departments, including the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department, the Civil Engineering and Development Department, the Buildings Department and the Highways Department, resulting in fragmentation of responsibilities and inefficiency; besides, responsible for all the works of roads, tunnels, bridges, etc. in Hong Kong, the Highways Department can hardly attend to everything at the same time, thus giving rise to problems in the regulation of railways; hence, the SAR Government should set up an independent railway development department dedicated to railway works and directly responsible to the Secretary for Transport and Housing;

(2) planning new development areas in tandem with their ancillary railway facilities – in planning some of the new development areas in the past, since the SAR Government did not concurrently consider ancillary transport facilities, serious traffic problems arose in such areas, and the SAR Government then constructed railways in a rush, thus causing the works quality to fall; hence, new development areas and ancillary railway facilities should be planned in tandem in order to prevent the quality of railway projects from being affected by very tight work schedules;

(3) urging MTRCL to regularly review its investment strategy of updating the signalling system – in the past, repeated serious disruptions of MTR train services were caused by the ageing signalling system; hence, MTRCL should regularly upgrade the signalling system to the latest version, rather than refusing to upgrade the signalling system on the ground of the cost being the prime factor of consideration, so as to ensure provision of stable and reliable public transport services to passengers;

(4) rationalising the appointment of the Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer of MTRCL – to cope with the foreseeable railway projects, either of the Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer of MTRCL, being the two highest persons-in-charge, should have an engineering background to facilitate monitoring of the works progress at the highest level;

(5) supervising MTRCL in reviewing the criteria of its internal tendering system – when drawing up the criteria of its internal tendering system, MTRCL should study following the criteria of the tendering system of the SAR Government which draw greater reference from the past performance, cooperative attitude, accountability performance of tenderers, etc., rather than overstressing the principle of 'the lowest bid wins' and the number of times the tenderers were awarded railway projects in the past as priority considerations, so as to avoid monopolisation;

(6) requiring MTRCL to strengthen the project management notification system – MTRCL should draw up specific and transparent notification criteria and make improvements on two levels: on the first level, requiring frontline site staff to report to the management in higher ranks the site conditions, including but not limited to issuing to contractors  non-conformance notices/reports for any work that does not comply with plans and works requirements, and on the second level, reporting to the Government all construction problems in respect of repeated mistakes without rectification, delays in resolving such problems and suspected violations of statutory requirements; and

(7) raising MTRCL's requirements for supervision of the works of contractors – MTRCL should draw reference from the requirements of the SAR Government in supervising public works, including considering the introduction of the Contractor Management Handbook for public works to conduct regular assessments on the quality, progress and safety of works, environmental protection, management and attitude of the persons-in-charge of projects, subcontracting of works, performance of procurement, etc., and requiring resident site staff to conduct thorough on-site supervision, thereby effecting more stringent supervision of railway projects."

     Mr Luk Chung-hung, Mr Chan Han-pan, Dr Kwok Ka-ki and Mr Lam will move separate amendments to Mr Tien's motion.

     Mr Chan Chi-chuen will move a motion on studying the formulation of policies for homosexual couples to enter into a union.  The motion states: "That this Council urges the Government to study the formulation of policies for homosexual couples to enter into a union so that they can enjoy equal rights as heterosexual couples."

     Dr Priscilla Leung, Mr Au Nok-hin and Mr Gary Fan will move separate amendments to Mr Chan Chi-chuen's motion.

     During the meeting, the Chief Secretary for Administration will present the Government Minute in response to the Report of the Public Accounts Committee No. 69A and No. 70 of May and July 2018 and address the Council.

     Members will also ask the Government 22 questions on various policy areas, six of which require oral replies.

     The agenda of the above meeting can be obtained via the LegCo Website (www.legco.gov.hk).  Please note that the agenda is subject to change, and the latest information about the agenda could be found on the LegCo Website.

     Members of the public are welcome to observe the proceedings of the meeting from the public galleries of the Chamber of the LegCo Complex.  They may reserve seats by calling 3919 3399 during office hours.  Members of the public can also watch or listen to the meeting via the "Webcast" system on the LegCo Website.

     The Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA) today (October 29) mounted a raid operation in Sham Shui Po against two radio dealers for the suspected sale of radio jammers, which are illegal and strictly prohibited in Hong Kong. In the operation, six pieces of such suspected illegal apparatus were seized and two persons were taken to the police station to assist in further investigation.

     "Radio jammers aim to interfere or even block radiocommunications by emitting radio waves at the same operating frequency as the targeted radio apparatus, and they are not licensable in Hong Kong. Notwithstanding that licensed radio dealers are authorised by the Communications Authority under the Telecommunications Ordinance (TO) to possess and deal in the course of trade or business in radio apparatus, it is an offence to sell radio jammers to any person in Hong Kong," a spokesman for OFCA said.

     The operation mounted today was an enforcement action taken following regular market surveillance against suspected selling of illegal apparatus. "We stand ready to enforce the TO and will not hesitate to take action to clamp down on any sale of illegal radio apparatus if it is identified," the spokesman added.

     Under the TO, it is an offence for any person to possess a radio apparatus (including radio jammer) without a valid licence, and/or intentionally use such a radio apparatus to cause harmful interference with legitimate radio apparatus. The offender is liable on summary conviction to a fine of $50,000 and to imprisonment for two years for the former offence, and to a fine of $50,000 and to imprisonment for six months for the latter.

     "The sale, possession and use of radio jammers is an offence, and citizens are strongly advised not to defy the law, as interfering with legitimate radiocommunications could have very serious consequences," the spokesman said.

     Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Dr Law Chi-kwong, on the abolition of using employers' mandatory contributions under the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) System to offset severance payment and long service payment, after officiating at the Citi-HKCSS Community Intern Program 2018 Recognition Ceremony this afternoon (October 29):

Reporter: Secretary, it seems there are a lot of different scenarios, situations and very complicated calculations with regards to how businesses will bear extra cost and how the Government can compensate or subsidise the businesses when we scrap the MPF "offsetting" mechanism. So is there a healthy discussion because it seems that there are still a lot of misunderstandings. They are saying that you said this number, while you are saying that their calculations may not work for everyone. So when can we see an agreement or is there going to be an agreement when the Government introduces the proposal to the LegCo for lawmakers to vet? My second question is: Some businesses are still proposing that they want a fund pool instead of having subsidies. Is this completely off the table?

Secretary for Labour and Welfare: Let's go back to the last question first. The Government has considered all possible alternatives that have been expressed and suggested to the Government. In fact, all these options, most of them were actually mentioned before this administration, that is, in the last administration.

     The "fund pool" idea sounds attractive for those particularly who do not really understand what possibly the impact would be for their own business. But then if you look at all these kinds of "fund pool" arrangements, it has particularly a moral hazard and that moral hazard would be unfavourable to those who are doing business in a proper manner and fair to their own employees. Therefore, this is basically out of the question for the Government to set a system to encourage moral hazards in such a way which is unfair to business. Your first question?

Reporter: The calculation, numbers.

Secretary for Labour and Welfare: I do think that the Government has a duty, at least I as the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, has the duty to explain to the community, in particular the business community, the details of the proposal and the implication in abolishing the MPF "offsetting" mechanism. I guess, a lot of business people having the MPF "offset", they have actually forgotten what the long service payment and severance payment are really meant for, and who will be eligible. Who will not be eligible? And the implication of such abolition of the "offsetting" mechanism will mean to them. Therefore, I do see a need for me, at least, and my colleagues to try to explain to the community and the business as far as possible. That is what we are going to do in the future. In fact, we will try to solicit support from other professional bodies, too, so as to help them ease their mind. Because if they do not believe in the Government, they have to believe in other professionals. So that is what we are going to do. Thanks.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

     The Secretary for Education, Mr Kevin Yeung, today (October 29) visited two education institutions and an innovation and technology enterprise in Zhejiang to learn more about the diversified education and development pathways for young people in the province.
 
     In the morning, Mr Yeung visited Hangzhou CIS, a project run by Chinese International School, and the Xixi Park of Alibaba Group. In the afternoon, he called at the China Academy of Art.
 
     Established in 1999, Alibaba Group engages in e-commerce, digital media, entertainment and other innovative projects. All these provide young people with new opportunities for career development. During his visit to the Xixi Park of Alibaba Group, Mr Yeung took the opportunity to meet some young people from Hong Kong and learn more about their work in the enterprise.
 
     Mr Yeung said that the Internet and other technological advancements had removed the geographical barriers that used to hinder young people's learning and development. In recent years, Hong Kong had put more emphasis on information technology and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education in the stage of basic education and at the same time increased its investment in higher education substantially to provide more research funding and nurture talents.
 
     He encouraged the young people to continue with their efforts in exploring these areas and contribute to Hong Kong's development into an international innovation and technology hub in the future.
 
     In these two days, Mr Yeung met with a number of senior officials, including the Vice Governor of Zhejiang Province, Mr Cheng Yuechong; the Director of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Education, Mr Guo Huawei; the Secretary of the CPC Hangzhou Municipal Committee, Mr Zhou Jiangyong; the Secretary General of the CPC Hangzhou Municipal Committee, Mr Xu Ming; the Vice Mayor of the Hangzhou Municipal Government, Ms Chen Hongying; and the Director of the Hangzhou Municipal Education Bureau, Mr Shen Jianping. They exchanged views on education developments in Zhejiang Province and Hong Kong.
 
     Tomorrow morning, Mr Yeung will visit the University of Nottingham Ningbo China and Ningbo Xiaoshi High School, followed by a meeting with senior officials of Ningbo. In the afternoon, he will join members of the Hong Kong education sector to participate in the Ningbo-Hong Kong Education Co-operation Forum 2018, where he will deliver a speech and witness the signing of four sister school agreements by eight schools from Hong Kong and Ningbo.