The Lands Department announced today (August 18) that the tender for a site, Rural Building Lot No. 1220 at Chung Hom Kok, Hong Kong, has been awarded to the highest tenderer, China Telecom Global Limited, on a 30-year lan… read more
Hong Kong Customs and the Marine Police yesterday (August 17) mounted a joint anti-smuggling operation and detected a suspected smuggling case involving a cargo vessel in the south-western waters of Hong Kong. About 22 tonnes of suspected smuggled frozen meat with an estimated market value of about $3.4 million were seized.
Customs officers and Marine Police officers conducted a joint anti-smuggling operation and spotted a suspicious cargo vessel in the waters off Cheung Chau last night. Several men on the cargo vessel, suspected of participating in smuggling activities, were unloading goods onto a high-powered speedboat. Customs officers and Marine Police officers immediately took action and intercepted the cargo vessel. The batch of suspected smuggled frozen meat was seized on board the vessel.
During the operation, Customs officers arrested five men aged between 27 and 48 who were suspected to be connected with the case.
An investigation is ongoing.
Customs stresses that it will keep up its enforcement action and will continue to fiercely combat sea smuggling activities by proactive risk management and intelligence-based enforcement strategies, along with mounting targeted anti-smuggling operations at suitable times and maintaining close co-operation in its intelligence exchanges with local and overseas law enforcement agencies to land a solid blow against relevant activities.
Smuggling is a serious offence. Under the Import and Export Ordinance, any person found guilty of importing or exporting unmanifested cargo is liable to a maximum fine of $2 million and imprisonment for seven years.
Members of the public may report any suspected smuggling activities to Customs’ 24-hour hotline 2545 6182 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk).
The Task Force on Supplies from the Mainland led by the Transport and Logistics Bureau (TLB) has been working closely with the Guangdong Provincial Government and the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government to explore various means to stabilise the supply of goods from the Mainland to Hong Kong.
A spokesperson for the TLB said that the “Sea Express” water transportation service from the Mainland to Hong Kong has been fully launched and its capacity is rising to increase the supplies of fresh food, other daily necessities and manufacturing materials. The current supply of fresh food from the Mainland is stable.
The spokesperson said today (August 18) that Shenzhen operated 47 cargo vessel trips and transported around 4 090 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cross-boundary supplies by water yesterday (August 17), equivalent to about 16 200 tonnes of goods, of which around 10 TEUs (about 10 tonnes) were fresh food and around 4 080 TEUs (about 16 190 tonnes) were non-fresh food, according to information from the Mainland authorities.
Since the launch of services from the three ports in Shenzhen since February 18 to yesterday, a total of around 826 700 TEUs of cross-boundary supplies have been transported, equivalent to about 3 984 240 tonnes of goods, of which around 2 250 TEUs (about 19 080 tonnes) were fresh food and around 824 450 TEUs (about 3 965 160 tonnes) were non-fresh food.
Meanwhile, to avoid a spillover of the epidemic, the Transport Department (TD) arranges for dedicated staff to conduct rapid nucleic acid tests, using nasopharyngeal swabs for specimen collection, for cross-boundary goods vehicle drivers at various land boundary control points. Only drivers with a negative result are allowed to enter the Mainland. A total of 3 268 rapid nucleic acid tests were conducted yesterday, among which four cases that tested preliminarily positive or indeterminate were found. The TD has passed the cases to the Department of Health for follow-up.
The TLB will closely monitor the situation and co-operate with the Mainland authorities to facilitate and implement various measures to ensure both smooth cross-boundary land transport and a stable goods supply to Hong Kong, while reducing the risk of epidemic transmission in both the Mainland and Hong Kong. read more
​The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Singapore (Singapore ETO) hosted a business seminar in Singapore today (August 18) to share with the maritime and logistics trade in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) information of the boundless opportunities offered by Hong Kong as a regional hub port with extensive connectivity and a gateway to the Mainland of China under the National 14th Five-Year Plan.
Entitled “Development of Hong Kong Shipping Registry and logistics opportunities associated with Greater Bay Area”, the hybrid-mode event was well received by industry leaders and executives, attracting over 100 in-person and online participants from various companies and associations.
Addressing the audience in a virtual keynote speech, the Secretary for Transport and Logistics, Mr Lam Sai-hung, said that Hong Kong is one of the world’s busiest transhipment container ports, serving some 270 container ship services a week and connecting to over 600 destinations worldwide. Despite port congestion worldwide, the city’s port throughput stood at around 18 million twenty-foot equivalent units in 2021.
“Despite the prolonged impact of the pandemic and international trade disputes, air cargo services at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) remain resilient. We moved around 5 million tonnes of cargo in 2021, representing a rise of around 13 per cent as compared to the 2020 figure,” he added.
Highlighting President Xi Jinping’s important speech delivered at the meeting celebrating the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to the motherland and the inaugural ceremony of the sixth-term Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), and his calls for “four musts” for the new administration, with one being the “must” to maintain Hong Kong’s distinctive status and edge, Mr Lam showed confidence in the Central Government’s continued support for Hong Kong’s maritime, aviation and logistics industries.
He cited a wide range of measures taken by the authorities to further advance the maritime and logistics sectors, including smart port and green port initiatives to support port development and improve port efficiency.
“We also foster high value-added maritime services, including ship registration, ship finance, ship management, marine insurance, and maritime legal and arbitration services,” he added. To this end, new tax concessions for ship agents, ship managers and ship brokers were introduced by the relevant authorities last month to encourage them to use Hong Kong as a base to grow their businesses.
“To enhance services for owners of Hong Kong-registered ships residing abroad, we have set up Regional Desks of the Hong Kong Shipping Registry (HKSR) in seven cities around the world, including the Singapore Regional Desk which was set up in 2020,” he said.
On the logistics front, to take forward the development of intermodal transhipment within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) to facilitate the flow of goods within the region, the HKIA Logistics Park will be established in Dongguan port. HKIA’s three-runway system, expected to be commissioned in 2024, will also boost the city’s cargo handling capacity to 10 million tonnes annually, he added.
Mr Lam’s speech was followed by presentations by the Head (Transport, Infrastructure and Advanced Manufacturing) of Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK), Mr Benjamin Wong; the Regional Head (Singapore), HKSR, Marine Department, Mr Philip Ho; and the Chairman of the Promotion Sub-committee under the Hong Kong Maritime Arbitration Group (HKMAG), Captain Lee Fook-choon. They briefed the audience on different topics, including opportunities offered by Hong Kong’s shipping and logistics sectors for businesses in ASEAN; support rendered by the HKSR for owners of Hong Kong-registered ships residing in Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and India; and the advantages of using Hong Kong as the seat for maritime arbitration.
Several industry players then joined the three speakers in a panel to discuss their experiences of using Hong Kong as a platform to grow their businesses. They were the Deputy Chief Financial Officer of Orient Overseas Container Line, Mr Michael Fitzgerald; the Executive Director, Global Business Development of LF Logistics, Mr Simon Oxley; and the Chief Executive and General Manager of China Merchants Insurance Co Ltd, Ms Sigorney Lau. They discussed a wide range of issues including the challenges presented by disruptions in supply chains under the epidemic, the enormous business potential offered by the GBA as the world’s ninth largest economy, the unique advantages of using maritime insurance and arbitration services in Hong Kong, and career prospects and talent attraction in the maritime industry.
After the business seminar, participants at the scene joined a networking session to further establish ties and exchange views with the speakers as well as other industry players.
Co-organised with InvestHK, the Marine Department and the HKMAG, the business seminar was the ninth event held by the Singapore ETO this year to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the HKSAR. The Singapore ETO will continue to host events under the theme of “A New Era – Stability • Prosperity • Opportunity” to invite a wide spectrum of the community to celebrate this momentous occasion.
The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority: The Hospital Authority today (August 18) announced information regarding patients who tested positive via admission screening or testing with patients or staff mem… read more