Author Archives: hksar gov

     Following is a question by the Hon Frankie Yick and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport and Logistics, Mr Lam Sai-hung, in the Legislative Council today (November 20):

Question:

     In the Action Plan on Modern Logistics Development published last year, the Government proposed that four logistics sites with development potential would be released by 2027 for industry to develop modern and high-end multi-storey logistics facilities. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) of the following information on the above four sites: location, size, the expected timetable of release, and the floor area to be provided upon completion of the relevant logistics facilities;

(2) of (i) the quantity and value of high-value goods handled by Hong Kong’s logistics industry as well as their respective percentages in total cargo volume and total goods value, and (ii) the number of logistics practitioners handling such goods and its percentage in the total number of logistics practitioners, in each of the past three years, together with a breakdown by type of goods; and

(3) as there are views that while Hong Kong, as a logistics hub, is actively promoting the development of high-end and high value-added logistics services (including the construction of modern and high-end multi-storey logistics facilities) to handle high-value goods, it should also give due attention to non-high-value goods so as to strike a balance between the two, whether the Government has measures on land supply in place to support the development of logistics for non-high-value goods?

Reply:

President,

     Having consulted the Development Bureau, our reply to the Hon Frankie Yick’s question is as follows:

     With Hong Kong’s premier geographical location, extensive aviation and maritime network, world-class airport and port infrastructure, comprehensive multimodal cargo transport network, favourable business environment and financial and legal systems that align with international standards, Hong Kong has all along been an important regional logistics hub in Asia and a crucial gateway for trade between the Mainland and the rest of the world. Our country also staunchly supports Hong Kong’s logistics development. The Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035 clearly supports Hong Kong in enhancing its role as an international maritime centre and international aviation hub, as well as the development of Hong Kong’s services sector towards the high-end and high value-addedness. The Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area also clearly states that Hong Kong’s advantages as an international maritime centre should be leveraged to drive the formation of a world-class port cluster and an international maritime and logistics centre with other cities in the Greater Bay Area so as to strengthen the area’s overall international competitiveness. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government therefore has been actively fostering the development of Hong Kong’s logistics industry and promulgated the Action Plan on Modern Logistics Development (Action Plan) last year, which put forward eight strategies and 24 action measures for consolidating and enhancing Hong Kong’s status as an international logistics hub.

     The Government recognises the importance of land to the development of high value-added logistics services. Therefore, “stabilising the supply of logistics land and developing logistics clusters with different functions” is one of the eight development strategies in the Action Plan. Our objective is to satisfy the industry’s demand for logistics land in the short-, medium- and long-term through various measures, so as to support the continual development of the logistics industry.

     Particularly, in terms of short- and medium-term logistics land supply, we have identified four logistics sites with development potential in the vicinity of the Kwai Tsing Container Terminals, with a plan to release them regularly between 2024 and 2027 for the industry to take advantage of their proximity to the port and develop multi-storey logistics facilities, thereby providing the logistics industry with more room for development. The first of such logistics sites in Tsing Yi was put up for public tender on November 8, 2024. The site has a total area of about 4.4 hectares and can provide a total gross floor area of 227 836 square metres. The area of the three remaining logistics sites ranges from 3.8 to 6.3 hectares. The Government will closely monitor the market situation and launch the three remaining logistics sites in a timely manner in accordance with the programme as set out in the Action Plan.

     In the long run, the Government will create modern logistics clusters with different functions on the logistics sites reserved in the new development areas (NDAs), so as to achieve clustering effect, increase the operational efficiency of the logistics industry and thereby facilitate the sustainable development of smart logistics in Hong Kong. We will start with the development of a modern logistics cluster on sites reserved for modern logistics development in Hung Shui Kiu/Ha Tsuen NDA as a pilot. The relevant planning study is in progress, and the findings are expected to be announced in 2025.

     In respect of logistics operators, those mode of operation of whose business is not suitable to be conducted in modern logistics facilities, the Government has been working to address their concerns. On one hand, the Government is providing port back-up land in the vicinity of the Kwai Tsing Container Terminals and Hung Shui Kiu/Ha Tsuen NDA to support logistics operations such as container storage. On the other hand, the Government will also reserve land suitable for open storage in the planning for the Northern Metropolis.

     We will continue to maintain close liaison with the industry, with a view to making available suitable logistics sites in a timely manner so as to facilitate the continual development of the logistics industry in Hong Kong as a whole. As regards the quantity and value of high-value cargo handled by the logistics industry in Hong Kong and the number of practitioners handling such cargo, the Government does not compile the relevant statistics. read more

     Hong Kong Customs yesterday (November 19) detected a suspected money laundering case involving about $53 million in crime proceeds subsequent to a follow-up investigation of a dangerous drug case identified in mid-2024. Two local women and two local men, aged between 23 and 41, suspected to be connected with the case, were arrested.
      
     In June this year, Customs detected a dangerous drug case involving about $28 million worth of drugs and arrested the two local women and one local man, aged between 23 and 25, who were suspected to be connected with the case. A subsequent financial investigation and fund-flow analysis revealed that there were numerous suspicious transactions in the personal bank accounts of the three arrested persons between January 2021 and June 2024. The funds were suspected to be crime proceeds. Meanwhile, the investigation also revealed that a 41-year-old local man received the suspected crime proceeds and dealt with large amounts of money with unknown sources during the mentioned period. The total amount of the suspicious transactions handled by the four arrestees has reached about $53 million.
      
     Upon further investigation, Customs arrested the 41-year-old man yesterday for “dealing with property known or reasonably believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offenses” (commonly known as money laundering) under the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance (OSCO) and searched his residential premises in Sai Wan Ho. Two mobile phones and a batch of bank documents were seized in the operation. On the same day, Customs officers also further arrested the three persons, who have been remanded due to the related drug trafficking case, for money laundering.
      
     The three arrested persons continue to be remanded in custody, while the 41-year-old man has been released on bail pending investigation. The investigation of the case is still ongoing, and the likelihood of further arrests is not ruled out.
      
     Under the OSCO, a person commits an offence if he or she deals with any property knowing or having reasonable grounds to believe that such property, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly represents any person’s proceeds of an indictable offence. The maximum penalty upon conviction is a fine of $5 million and imprisonment for 14 years while the crime proceeds are also subject to confiscation.
      
     Members of the public may report any suspected money laundering activities to Customs’ 24-hour hotline 182 8080 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk) or online form (eform.cefs.gov.hk/form/ced002/en/). read more

     Following is a question by the Hon Stanley Li and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Chris Sun, in the Legislative Council today (November 20):
 
Question:
 
     To improve the service quality of private residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs), the Social Welfare Department (SWD) launched a five-year Accreditation Subsidy Scheme for Private Residential Care Homes for the Elderly (the Subsidy Scheme) in 2019 to provide full subsidies for private RCHEs joining SWD’s approved accreditation schemes provided under the Accredited Certification Body of Certification of Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) Service Providers’ Management System recognised by the Hong Kong Accreditation Service (accreditation schemes). It is learnt that there is an increasing demand for RCHE places in the community, and that quite a number of elderly people have switched to the services in private RCHEs due to the longer waiting time for Government subsidised places. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
 
(1) of the current number and proportion of RCHEs joining the accreditation schemes;
 
(2) of the specific measures or plans the Government has put in place to proactively assist those RCHEs that have not joined the accreditation schemes to enhance their service quality;
 
(3) whether it has reviewed the effectiveness of the Subsidy Scheme; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
 
(4) given that the provisions of the Residential Care Homes Legislation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Ordinance 2023 have come into operation progressively since June 16, 2023, of the Government’s plans in place to assist small and medium-sized RCHEs in enhancing their services; and
 
(5) apart from basic statutory regulations and guidelines, whether the Government has other measures to urge private RCHEs to enhance their service quality on their own initiative?

Reply:
 
President,
 
     The Government attaches great importance to the service quality of the residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs) and has been committed to strengthening the regulation of RCHEs and improving their service standard. The Social Welfare Department (SWD) launched a scheme of around five years in October 2019 to fully subsidise private RCHEs to join SWD’s approved accreditation schemes under the Accredited Certification Body of Certification of Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) Service Providers’ Management System recognised by the Hong Kong Accreditation Service (hereafter referred to as the Accreditation Subsidy Scheme). The Accreditation Subsidy Scheme aims to encourage private RCHEs to improve their service quality through joining independent accreditation schemes for objective assessment of their services by certification bodies.
 
     I reply to the five parts of the question raised by the Member as follows:
 
(1) The Accreditation Subsidy Scheme came to an end on March 31, 2024. A total of 344 private RCHEs (accounting for around 55 per cent of all private RCHEs) had participated in and obtained accreditation under the Residential Aged Care Accreditation Scheme of the Hong Kong Association of Gerontology (HKAG), or the Residential Care Home for the Elderly Certification Scheme of the Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency (HKQAA).
 
(2) and (4) To assist RCHEs of different scales in enhancing their service standard and quality, the Government gazetted the Residential Care Homes Legislation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Ordinance 2023 (the Ordinance) in June 2023. Major amendments of the Ordinance include strengthening the accountability of RCH operators, enhancing the minimum staffing requirements, increasing the minimum area of floor space per resident and enhancing the regulation of medicine administration. Respective amendments are being implemented in phases in accordance with the legislation, with a majority of the new regulations taking effect starting from mid-2024. The SWD has conducted thematic briefing sessions for RCH operators, management and frontline staff, provided relevant guidelines, and maintained communication with the sector, rendering appropriate support concerning the enhancement to service quality.
 
     Besides, the SWD has launched a five-year Training Subsidy Scheme for Staff of Residential Care Homes (the Training Subsidy Scheme) since March 2019, providing full subsidy for home managers, health workers and care workers of all RCHEs and Residential Care Homes for Persons with Disabilities across the territory to attend training courses, including Training for Home Managers, Advanced Training for Health Workers and Training for Care Workers so as to strengthen their skills in taking care of elderly persons and persons with disabilities and enhance the service quality of RCHs. Having reviewed the effectiveness of the Training Subsidy Scheme and gauged the views of the sector, the SWD has extended the Training Subsidy Scheme for three years to March 31, 2027 so that more RCH staff are subsidised to attend the relevant courses.
 
     In addition, the SWD and the Department of Health have, over the years, jointly organised regular training courses for RCHE staff covering topics related to drug safety, infection control, fall prevention, caring for dementia patients, prevention of elderly abuse, accident management and handling of working stress, etc, with a view to enhancing the service quality of staff and RCHEs.
 
(3) During the implementation of the Accreditation Subsidy Scheme, the SWD issued questionnaires to RCHEs which completed or renewed their accreditation for evaluating the effectiveness of the Scheme. The questionnaire survey showed that over 90 per cent of the RCHEs were satisfied with the services provided by the two Approved Certification Bodies (ACBs) (i.e. HKAG and HKQAA) under the Accreditation Subsidy Scheme, and nearly all the RCHEs indicated that the Accreditation Subsidy Scheme was conducive to enhancing their service quality. The SWD maintained communication with the two ACBs from time to time to learn the implementation progress and effectiveness of the Accreditation Subsidy Scheme. The two ACBs also collected feedback from RCHEs on the Accreditation Subsidy Scheme through questionnaires. Overall speaking, according to both ACBs, many RCHEs considered that the Accreditation Subsidy Scheme facilitated their service quality enhancement, including assisting them in establishing a more systematic staff supervision and training system, and conducting further review of their health and care services and procedures.
 
(5) The SWD has purchased places from private RCHEs under the Enhanced Bought Place Scheme (EBPS) since 1998, with a view to upgrading the service standard of private RCHEs through enhanced standards in staffing ratio and area of floor space per resident, and increasing the supply of subsidised residential care places. Apart from complying with the statutory requirements of the Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) Ordinance (Cap. 459) and the Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) Regulation (Cap. 459A), a private RCHE operator participating in the EBPS is also required to operate the RCHE in accordance with the requirements stipulated in the Agreement for the EBPS for Private RCHEs as signed with the SWD, including participating in and obtaining accreditation from an SWD’s approved accreditation scheme throughout the contract period. This accreditation requirement helps raise the service quality and management efficiency of the RCHEs participating in the EBPS.
 
     Moreover, the SWD carries out the Residential Care Service Voucher Scheme for the Elderly (RCSV), adopting the principle of “money-following-the-user”, to offer an additional choice to elderly persons waitlisted for subsidised residential care services. Under the RCSV, the Recognised Service Providers (RSPs) should take part in the Service Quality Group Scheme co-ordinated by the SWD in accordance with the signed Service Agreement. To encourage the RSPs (including private RCHEs joining the RCSV) to continuously improve their service quality, the SWD will reimburse part of the accreditation fees to the RSPs when they first join an SWD’s approved accreditation scheme. read more

     â€‹Hongkong Post announced today (November 20) that, as advised by the postal administration of Greece, due to a local strike mail delivery services to Greece are subject to delay. read more

Attention TV/radio announcers: Please broadcast the following as soon as possible:      Here is an item of interest to swimmers.      The Leisure and Cultural Services Department announced toda… read more