The Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) will distribute free activity coupons from next Monday (July 22) for Sport For All Day 2024 to be held on August 4 (Sunday). Members of the public with the coupons can take part in a series of free recreation and sports programmes to be held at designated sports centres in 18 districts on the event day.
      
     The theme of Sport For All Day (SFAD) this year is "Parent-child Exercise for Fun and Fitness". The LCSD will organise a variety of sports demonstrations and parent-child fun games, encouraging parents and children to exercise together and develop the habit of regular physical activity.
        
     "Parent-child Group Exercises" suitable for people of different ages will be demonstrated, and an electronic virtual sports booth will be set up at the Tung Cheong Street Sports Centre, the prime venue. Experiential activities for new sports as well as urban sports, such as Kabaddi and Basketball 3×3, which are popular these years, will also be introduced. Members of the public of different age groups are encouraged to take part in these activities and explore their potential in sports.
      
     Free recreation and sports programmes will be held from 2pm to 6pm on August 4 at designated sports centres in 18 districts. The activities will include health talks and fitness corners, as well as sports demonstrations and fun games for the elderly and persons with disabilities.
      
     Activity coupons will be available from 8.30am on July 22 (Monday) at LCSD District Leisure Services Offices and designated venues in the 18 districts. Participants are advised to bring along the activity coupons to attend the events on time. A small portion of coupons will be reserved for walk-in participants on the event day on a first-come, first-served basis.
      
     Furthermore, various LCSD leisure facilities will also be open for free use by the public on SFAD 2024, and the sessions for free use of facilities will be allocated through balloting. Members of the public can submit a balloting application via SmartPLAY from now on until July 22. The computer balloting results will be announced by July 25. Members of the public, who have not been allocated with or applied for the balloted free sessions, can book the remaining free sessions, if any, via SmartPLAY on a first-come, first-served basis from 7am on July 29 for the free sessions on August 4. Regardless of the facility types or reservation methods, each person is limited to reserving only one free session.
      
     Sports demonstrations will be featured in a live webcast via the event dedicated website (www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/sfad) and the "LCSD Plusss" Facebook page (www.facebook.com/LCSDPlusss) on the event day from 2pm. Members of the public can experience the vigour of sports demonstrations at home through online platforms.
      
     Moreover, the LCSD will set up an SFAD activity booth at the "Sport for All Fun Day" of Festival of Sports, which will be held by the Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China (SF&OC) at the Free Space of Kwun Tong Town Centre from 11am to 6pm on August 3 and 4, aiming to further enhance public interest in sporting activities. For the details of the event, please visit the website of the SF&OC at fos.hkolympic.org/en/programme/event-list.
      
     Furthermore, to echo the SFAD 2024, over 10 organisations will firstly hold free land-based and aquatic recreation and sports programmes for the public to join in their venues, or open up their facilities for free use on August 4. Details are available on the dedicated webpage (www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/sfad/2024/organizations.html).
      
     For details of SFAD 2024, please visit the dedicated website at www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/sfad.

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

     The Legislative Council (LegCo) Panel on Housing will depart for Zhuhai and Shenzhen on Sunday (July 21) to conduct a two-day duty visit.

     The objectives of the duty visit are for LegCo members to learn about the manufacturing process of concrete Modular Integrated Construction modules in Mainland, and to gain an understanding on how Mainland cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area create public housing projects and community facilities through green technology, modular construction techniques, etc.

     The delegation will visit the following places and organisations from July 21 to 22:

Zhuhai

• Guangdong Hailong Construction Technology Company Limited
• Fushan Industrial City
   

Shenzhen

• Guangqiao Yayuan
• Phoenix Yinghui Town
• Housing and Construction Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality
• Double-line Park (Coastal Bridge) in Bao'an Central District
   

     The delegation is led by the Chairman of the LegCo Panel on Housing, Mr Stanley Ng. The deputy delegation leader is the Deputy Chairman of the Panel, Mr Vincent Cheng. Other participating Panel members include Mr Paul Tse, Dr Lo Wai-kwok, Mr Lau Kwok-fan, Mr Tony Tse, Mr Andrew Lam, Mr Leung Man-kwong, Mr Chan Hok-fung, Mr Gary Zhang, Ms Carmen Kan and Dr So Cheung-wing; as well as non-Panel members Ms Lam So-wai, Ms Judy Chan, Mr Chan Siu-hung and Dr Ngan Man-yu.

     The Housing Bureau's delegation led by the Secretary for Housing, Ms Winnie Ho, will also join the duty visit.

     The Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) released today (July 19) the results of the Quarterly Business Tendency Survey for the third quarter (Q3) of 2024.
 
Business situation
 
     For all surveyed sectors taken together, the proportion of respondents expecting their business situation to be better (11%) in Q3 2024 over the preceding quarter is slightly lower than that expecting it to be worse (12%). 
 
     When compared with the results of the Q2 2024 survey round, the proportion of respondents expecting a better business situation in Q3 2024 is 11%, lower than the corresponding proportion of 14% in Q2 2024, while the proportion of respondents expecting a worse business situation in Q3 2024 is broadly the same as the corresponding proportion in Q2 2024 (12%).
 
     Analysed by sector, respondents in most of the surveyed sectors expect their business situation to decrease on balance or remain broadly unchanged in Q3 2024 as compared with Q2 2024. In particular, more respondents in the construction and retail sectors expect their business situation to be worse in Q3 2024 as compared with Q2 2024.
 
    The results of the survey should be interpreted with care. In this type of survey on expectations, the views collected in the survey are affected by the events in the community occurring around the time of enumeration, and it is difficult to establish precisely the extent to which respondents' perception of the future accords with the underlying trends. The enumeration period for this survey round was from June 1, 2024 to July 8, 2024. 
 
Volume of business/output
 
     Respondents in quite a number of the surveyed sectors expect their volume of business/output to remain broadly unchanged in Q3 2024 as compared with Q2 2024. In the manufacturing and accommodation and food services sectors, however, more respondents expect their volume of production/business to increase in Q3 2024 over Q2 2024. On the contrary, more respondents in the retail sector expect their volume of sales to decrease, as compared to those expecting it to increase.
 
Employment
 
     Respondents in most of the surveyed sectors expect their employment to remain broadly unchanged in Q3 2024 as compared with Q2 2024. Nevertheless, more respondents in the manufacturing sector expect their employment to increase, as compared to those expecting it to decrease.
 
Selling price/service charge
 
     Respondents in most of the surveyed sectors expect their selling prices/service charges to remain broadly unchanged in Q3 2024 as compared with Q2 2024. In the construction sector, however, more respondents expect their tender prices to go down in Q3 2024 over Q2 2024.
 
Commentary
 
     A Government spokesman said that large enterprises' overall business sentiment softened slightly as compared to three months ago. Meanwhile, large enterprises' appetite for hiring stayed largely positive.
 
     Looking forward, the spokesman said that while geopolitical tensions will affect business sentiment in the near term, the Central Government's various measures that benefit Hong Kong and continued growth of the local economy should provide support. The Government will monitor the situation closely.
 
Further information
 
     The survey gathers views on short-term business performance from the senior management of about 560 prominent establishments in various sectors in Hong Kong with a view to providing a quick reference, with minimum time lag, for predicting the short-term future economic performance of the local economy.
 
     The survey covers 10 major sectors in Hong Kong, namely manufacturing; construction; import/export trade and wholesale; retail; accommodation and food services (mainly covering services rendered by hotels and restaurants); transportation, storage and courier services; information and communications; financing and insurance; real estate; and professional and business services sectors.
 
     Views collected in the survey refer only to those of respondents on their own establishments rather than those on the respective sectors they are engaged in, and are limited to the expected direction of quarter-to-quarter change (e.g. "up", "same" or "down") but not the magnitude of change. In collecting views on the quarter-to-quarter changes, if the variable in question is subject to seasonal variations, respondents are asked to provide the expected changes after excluding the normal seasonal variations.
 
     Survey results are generally presented as "net balance", i.e. the difference between the percentage of respondents choosing "up" and that choosing "down". The percentage distribution of respondents among various response categories (e.g. "up", "same" and "down") reflects how varied their business expectations are. The "net balance", with its appropriate sign, indicates the direction of expected change in the variable concerned. A positive sign indicates a likely upward trend while a negative sign indicates a likely downward trend. However, the magnitude of the "net balance" reflects only the prevalence of optimism or pessimism, but not the magnitude of expected change, since information relating to such magnitude is not collected in the survey.
 
     Furthermore, owing to sample size constraint, care should be taken in interpreting survey results involving a small percentage (e.g. less than 10%) of respondents in individual sectors.
 
     Chart 1 shows the views on expected changes in business situation for the period Q3 2023 to Q3 2024.
 
     Table 1 shows the net balances of views on expectations in respect of different variables for Q3 2024.
 
     The survey results are published in greater detail in the "Report on Quarterly Business Tendency Survey, Q3 2024". Users can browse and download the publication at the website of the C&SD (www.censtatd.gov.hk/en/EIndexbySubject.html?pcode=B1110008&scode=300).
       
     Users who have enquiries about the survey results may contact the Business Expectation Statistics Section of the C&SD (Tel: 3903 7263; e-mail: business-prospects@censtatd.gov.hk).

     The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) today (July 19) released the latest grading of water quality for 39 gazetted beaches (see Note 1) and one non-gazetted beach (see Note 2).
 
     Nineteen beaches were rated as Good (Grade 1), 18 as Fair (Grade 2), and three as Poor (Grade 3).
 
Grade 1 beaches are:          

 
Grade 2 beaches are:

 
Grade 3 beaches are:

 
     Compared with the grading released last week, Deep Water Bay Beach, Ma Wan Tung Wan Beach, Stanley Main Beach and Tai Po Lung Mei Beach have been upgraded from Grade 2 to Grade 1.
 
     Under the present grading system, beaches are classified into four grades, namely Good (Grade 1), Fair (Grade 2), Poor (Grade 3) and Very Poor (Grade 4), according to the level of E. coli in the water. Grades are calculated on the basis of the geometric mean of the E. coli counts on the five most recent sampling occasions.
 
     While the ratings represent the general water quality at the beaches, an EPD spokesman reminded members of the public that water quality could be temporarily affected during and after periods of heavy rain. Bathers should avoid swimming at beaches for up to three days after a tropical cyclone or heavy rainfall.
 
     A summary of beach grades is published weekly before the weekend. The latest beach grades based on the most current data may be obtained from the EPD's website on Beach Water Quality (www.epd.gov.hk/epd/beach) or the beach hotline, 2511 6666.  Members of the public can also obtain the latest daily water quality forecast information for all beaches that are open for swimming through the Beach Water Quality Forecast mobile application (available for download from: www.epd.gov.hk/en/BWQApp) or the dedicated beach water quality forecast page (www.epd.gov.hk/en/BWQForecast) on the EPD's beach thematic website.
 
Note 1: Lifesaving services are provided by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department at 21 gazetted beaches, marked with an asterisk (*) above, from June 1. Due to the damage caused to the footpaths leading to Chung Hom Kok Beach by landslides, the beach is temporarily closed until further notice. For details, please refer to the Leisure and Cultural Services Department’s Special Announcement (www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/beach/index.html).
 
Note 2: This refers to Discovery Bay Tai Pak Beach which is a non-gazetted beach that has no lifesaving service.

     In response to the Japanese Government's plan to discharge nuclear-contaminated water at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Station, the Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene issued a Food Safety Order which prohibits all aquatic products, sea salt and seaweeds originating from the 10 metropolis/prefectures, namely Tokyo, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Miyagi, Chiba, Gunma, Tochigi, Niigata, Nagano and Saitama, from being imported into and supplied in Hong Kong.
 
     For other Japanese aquatic products, sea salt and seaweeds that are not prohibited from being imported into Hong Kong, the Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department will conduct comprehensive radiological tests to verify that the radiation levels of these products do not exceed the guideline levels before they are allowed to be supplied in the market.
 
     As the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water is unprecedented and will continue for 30 years or more, the Government will closely monitor and step up the testing arrangements. Should anomalies be detected, the Government does not preclude further tightening the scope of the import ban.
 
     From noon on July 18 to noon today (July 19), the CFS conducted tests on the radiological levels of 192 food samples imported from Japan, which were of the "aquatic and related products, seaweeds and sea salt" category. No sample was found to have exceeded the safety limit. Details can be found on the CFS's thematic website titled "Control Measures on Foods Imported from Japan" (www.cfs.gov.hk/english/programme/programme_rafs/programme_rafs_fc_01_30_Nuclear_Event_and_Food_Safety.html).

     In parallel, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) has also tested 50 samples of local catch for radiological levels. All the samples passed the tests. Details can be found on the AFCD's website (www.afcd.gov.hk/english/fisheries/Radiological_testing/Radiological_Test.html).
 
     The Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) has also enhanced the environmental monitoring of the local waters. No anomaly has been detected so far. For details, please refer to the HKO's website
(www.hko.gov.hk/en/radiation/monitoring/seawater.html).
 
     From August 24 to noon today, the CFS and the AFCD have conducted tests on the radiological levels of 69 141 samples of food imported from Japan (including 44 457 samples of aquatic and related products, seaweeds and sea salt) and 16 394 samples of local catch respectively. All the samples passed the tests.