Attention duty announcers, radio and TV stations: Please broadcast the following message as soon as possible and repeat it at suitable intervals: The Marine Department announced that due to typhoon, the cross boundary fer… read more
The Labour Department (LD) is investigating a fatal work accident in Tuen Mun this afternoon (August 14) in which a man died. The LD immediately deployed staff to the scene upon receiving a report of the ac… read more
The Commerce and Economic Development Bureau and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) jointly held a sharing session on the investment environment of overseas Economic and Trade Cooperation Zones today (August 14) to promote collaboration with state-owned enterprises (SoEs) for Belt and Road opportunities.
The session provided a platform for SoEs to share their experiences in developing overseas Economic and Trade Cooperation Zones, and to facilitate business collaboration with Hong Kong enterprises as well as professional services for exploring opportunities together.
Led by the Secretary General of the SASAC, Mr Yan Xiaofeng, a delegation comprising over 40 representatives of the SASAC and SoEs joined the sharing session. Together with more than 200 local participants, including representatives/enterprises from chambers of commerce as well as professional bodies, they had in-depth and pragmatic discussions on participation in the Belt and Road projects, particularly those relating to the development of overseas Economic and Trade Cooperation Zones. The Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Edward Yau, and Mr Yan spoke at the sharing session.
Mr Yau said, “The overseas Economic and Trade Cooperation Zones are ideal set-off points for our enterprises and those in the Mainland to join forces in tapping Belt and Road markets. Being architects, investors and leaders in implementing the Initiative, many SoEs have been involved in the investment, design, planning, construction, promotion and operation of the Economic and Trade Cooperation Zones. They have facilitated corporations’ investment and market expansion.
“By leveraging our distinctive edge in such professional services as finance and investment, trade and logistics, legal, accounting, engineering and management, as well as local enterprises’ past experience, Hong Kong professional services can contribute to the development of overseas Economic and Trade Cooperation Zones and work together with SoEs to pursue new opportunities brought about by the Belt and Road Initiative.”
He said that at present, many local business people are interested in the Initiative, yet they may only have a limited understanding of some of the countries and regions along the Belt and Road. With rules and regulations that Hong Kong businesses are accustomed to, local enterprises can consider making use of overseas Economic and Trade Cooperation Zones to expand their Belt and Road business footing.
Mr Yau added that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government is adopting a multi-pronged approach in taking forward the Belt and Road Initiative, with a view to translating the Initiative into business opportunities. Such efforts include jointly organising sharing sessions and exchanges with various sectors, organising business missions to different regions to facilitate better understanding and exploring of the enormous potential being offered under the Belt and Road Initiative, and supporting the Hong Kong Trade Development Council in enhancing its Belt and Road Portal to promote business and project matching.
The Government is also encouraging professional bodies, tertiary institutions and trade associations to join hands to launch a professional capacity building programme in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative. The programme should provide more comprehensive capacity building and training for the local professional services sectors, and better equip them to seize the opportunities and meet the challenges and risks brought about by the Initiative.
At the sharing session, representatives from three SoEs shared their experience in developing overseas Economic and Trade Cooperation Zones in different regions and provided information about the investment environment there, including the investment policies as well as the tax and legal systems. They were the Director of the China Merchants Group Limited, Mr Hu Jianhua; the Vice President of China Communications Construction Company Limited, Mr Sun Ziyu; and the Board Chairman of China National Building Materials Group Corporation Limited, Mr Song Zhiping. In addition, the Chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Industries, Mr Jimmy Kwok; Permanent Honorary Chairman of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Textiles Mr Henry Tan; and the Vice-chairman of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, Hong Kong, Ms Connie Wong, shared their views on Hong Kong enterprises’ expansion to overseas markets and operation in Economic and Trade Cooperation Zones.
The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, visited the Elderly Health Centre (EHC) and Maternal and Child Health Centre (MCHC) under the Department of Health (DH) today (August 14) to learn more about their services for elders, infants, young children and women. He also met front-line staff of the department.
Accompanied by the Director of Health, Dr Constance Chan, Mr Cheung started the visit from the Wan Chai Elderly Health Centre at Southorn Centre and received a briefing from officers on services provided by the Elderly Health Service, including clinical, outreach and public health services.
Mr Cheung then toured facilities of the centre and was briefed about its services for the elderly, including health assessment, medical consultation, counselling, health education and allied health services. The DH provides primary health care services for the elderly aged 65 and above through its 18 EHCs.
Mr Cheung pointed out that Hong Kong was facing an ageing population and thus provision of elderly health service would be particularly important. He was pleased to learn that the centres adopted a cross-disciplinary approach to provide primary health care for the elderly under a family medicine setting. The purpose is to help the elderly identify health risks and detect disease early for timely intervention with a view to promoting healthy ageing and improving the elderly’s self-care ability.
Mr Cheung then visited the Tang Chi Ngong Maternal and Child Health Centre at Tang Chi Ngong Specialist Clinic where he received briefings on various services provided by the 31 MCHCs under the DH. The services include child health services, maternal services, family planning service and Cervical Screening Programme.
Mr Cheung commended the MCHCs for providing immunization vaccination services for infants and young children, as well as child health and developmental surveillance, including physical examination, growth and developmental monitoring as well as hearing and vision screening which had laid an important foundation for our next generation.
During the visit, Mr Cheung also met with front-line officers to learn more about their daily work. He also encouraged them to keep up their professionalism and dedication to serve the public.
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Following is the transcript of remarks by the Acting Chief Executive, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, at a media session today (August 14):
Reporter: Will the Government consider to take back FCC’s building?
Acting Chief Executive: Well, the building is in fact under a lease, currently a seven-year lease up to January 2023. We make available the premises to FCC and this testifies to our support of its work over the past decades. In fact, we’ve been co-operating very, very well with the FCC in Hong Kong. We also value the importance of press freedom, of speech freedom in Hong Kong. No question about it. These two freedoms are also protected under the Basic Law. They also represent the core values of Hong Kong, which underpin our present success as a vibrant, open, inclusive and international centre. But having said all that, this exercise of the freedoms concerned – press freedom and individual freedom, particularly speech freedom – has to be within the confines of the law, within bounds of the law. In other words, there is a limit beyond which you mustn’t overstep. OK?
Reporter: Secretary, given the statement today and the Government’s position, is the Government prepared to cease to co-operate with FCC given today’s talk, that is it damages the relations of your Government and the FCC? And my second question being, are you prepared to, perhaps, arrest Chan Ho-tin or not, because given this express statement he made in the FCC, and could you point us to which parts of his statement particularly concerned you?
Acting Chief Executive: First of all, we have a very cordial relationship with the FCC, and I’m sure that this relationship will continue. We don’t see any disruption to this very cordial working relationship. That explains why we support the allocation of the present premises, which is actually a graded building, under a pretty long lease to FCC over the past years. So there’s no question of us ceasing relationship at all. I don’t think this is a question we should consider at the moment, in fact consider in the future either.
Hong Kong, as I said, is a free place. We pride ourselves on being an open, vibrant, free international city. This is our recipe for success. We’ll certainly continue to build on our success. But having said all that, we mustn’t forget that Hong Kong has a constitutional responsibility to protect, safeguard, the national sovereignty, territorial integrity and national security of the People’s Republic of China, and Hong Kong is an inalienable part of the People’s Republic of China, so there is no question about independence. That’s why we always say that we can’t tolerate any discussion, let alone promotion, campaigning, for the sake of pushing forward nationalism, independence in Hong Kong. No question about it.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.) read more