Hongkong Post announced today (August 12) that, as advised by the postal administration of the United Kingdom, due to local strikes (August 26 and 31 and September 8 and 9), all mail delivery services to the United Kingdom will be subject to delay.
The Transport and Logistics Bureau (TLB) today (August 12) held a session on "Spirit of the President's Important Speech" at the Central Government Offices, enabling colleagues of the TLB and its departments to have a deeper understanding of the core essence of the important speech delivered by President Xi Jinping 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). The Secretary for Transport and Logistics, Mr Lam Sai-hung, delivered a keynote speech to share with the participants how to apply what they learnt from President Xi's speech in their daily work by being pragmatic and living up to the people's expectations.
President Xi raised "four musts" for the HKSAR Government in his important speech: it must fully and faithfully implement the principle of "one country, two systems"; it must uphold the Central Government's overall jurisdiction while securing the HKSAR's high degree of autonomy; it must ensure that Hong Kong is administered by patriots; and it must maintain Hong Kong's distinctive status and advantages. President Xi also laid down "four proposals" for the newly inaugurated Government, i.e. further improving its governance, continuing to create strong impetus for growth, earnestly addressing people's concerns and difficulties in daily life, and working together to safeguard harmony and stability.
Mr Lam said that the "four musts" and "four proposals" set out a high-level visionary guidance for the future development and governance of Hong Kong.
"When President Xi shed light on the point that Hong Kong should maintain its distinctive status and advantages, he reiterated that the Central Government fully supported Hong Kong in the effort to maintain its distinctive status and edges, to improve its presence as an international financial, shipping and trading centre, to keep its business environment free, open and regulated and to maintain the common law, so as to expand and facilitate its exchanges with the world. We must leverage the staunch support of the country towards Hong Kong to expand our scope for further development by giving full play to our unique strengths. We must not let down our country as it has all along been showing care and support for Hong Kong," he said.
Mr Lam stressed that Hong Kong's international airport and port facilities are among the best in the world and have been renowned for their high efficiency, strong connectivity and extensive coverage. The Government will continue to put forward more policies and initiatives, and work closely with the industry, with a view to further raising Hong Kong's competitiveness in sea, land and air transport and logistics as well as enhancing its international connectivity.
​During the session, the Permanent Secretary for Transport and Logistics, Ms Mable Chan; the Under Secretary for Transport and Logistics, Mr Liu Chun-san; and other participating colleagues also shared their thoughts and feelings with the participants.
Around 110 colleagues of the TLB and its departments, including the Civil Aviation Department, the Highways Department, the Marine Department and the Transport Department, attended the session.
The Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, Professor Sun Dong, visited the Compulsory Quarantine Support Centre set up by the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) in Wong Chuk Hang today (August 12) to encourage the hard-working OGCIO colleagues.
Accompanied by the Deputy Government Chief Information Officer, Mr Tony Wong, Professor Sun inspected the operation of the centre to learn about how the OGCIO used the electronic wristbands pairing with the "StayHomeSafe" mobile application to help monitor persons under home isolation to ensure that they stay in the designated premises during the isolation period.
Professor Sun said that technology plays an important part in anti-epidemic work. The Government uses technologies to combat the epidemic with precision, and the use of the electronic wristband is an example. Coupled with the Red Code launched on Monday, the electronic wristband helps monitor and prevent confirmed cases from leaving the designated isolation premises and minimises the risk of the spread of infection.
Starting from July 15, persons under home isolation have to wear electronic wristbands. The OGCIO has arranged for service providers to assist persons under home isolation to wear electronic wristbands and install the "StayHomeSafe" mobile app, according to the list provided by the Centre for Health Protection.
Professor Sun chatted with frontline colleagues to learn about the support they provide to confirmed cases under home isolation during the monitoring period. He noted that apart from OGCIO personnel, staff of the Hong Kong Police Force, the Customs and Excise Department, and the Immigration Department also assisted in the work of wearing electronic wristbands during the initial stage of the implementation of relevant measures. This allowed the OGCIO to have more time to make prompt and timely arrangements for the distribution and wearing of electronic wristbands. At present, except for confirmed cases received by the OGCIO in the evening, over 80 per cent of confirmed cases can receive and wear their electronic wristbands, and activate their "StayHomeSafe" mobile application, on the same day that the cases are received from the Centre for Health Protection.
Professor Sun said, "The OGCIO has been using the 'StayHomeSafe' application together with the electronic wristbands to carry out monitoring work on persons under home quarantine since the outbreak of the epidemic. Four monitoring centres were set up and over 700 serving and retired civil servants from various departments, as well as volunteers from the information technology sector, had offered assistance to the monitoring work amid the service surge. I would like to express my gratitude to civil service colleagues from various departments for their dedicated efforts in supporting the anti-epidemic work of Hong Kong over the past two years, demonstrating the team spirit of the whole Government in fighting the epidemic together."
The 2022 Guangdong/Hong Kong Seminar on Intellectual Property (IP) and Development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) (Online) was held today (August 12), attracting the participation of over 260 SME representatives, IP practitioners and government officials from the Mainland and Hong Kong.
The Central Government promulgated the Plan for Comprehensive Deepening Reform and Opening Up of the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone last year to advance the comprehensive deepening of the reform and opening up of the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone. As such, the theme of this year's seminar was "Promoting the Development of Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry and the Greater Bay Area through IP Trading", with an aim of keeping enterprises abreast of the development of the innovation and technology ecosystem in Qianhai and the relevant IP court cases, and encouraging them to make use of the professional services provided by Hong Kong in formulating effective IP strategies, so as to provide impetus for enterprises to expand their businesses nationwide and worldwide through IP trading by seizing the opportunities arising from the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Cooperation Zone.
At the seminar, speakers made presentations and led discussions on various topics including the building of Qianhai into a world-class IP protection region, notable IP court cases related to Hong Kong, points to note for enterprises in handling IP disputes, the latest developments of IP and the original grant patent system in Hong Kong, and professional IP arbitration and mediation services provided by Hong Kong.
​
Being one of the key co-operation items under the framework of the Guangdong/Hong Kong Expert Group on the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights, the seminar was jointly organised by the Intellectual Property Department (IPD) of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and the Guangdong Administration for Market Regulation (Guangdong Intellectual Property Administration), and was co-organised by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Guangdong of the HKSAR Government. The event was also supported by other members of the Expert Group and the Federation of Hong Kong Industries.
Since 2004, Guangdong and Hong Kong have co-organised a number of activities to promote the importance of IP protection and exploitation among SMEs.
Details of the webinar are available on the IPD's website (www.ipd.gov.hk).
The Government today (August 12) exercised the power under the Prevention and Control of Disease (Compulsory Testing for Certain Persons) Regulation (Cap. 599J) to make a "restriction-testing declaration" effective from 5pm under which people (hereafter referred to as "persons subject to compulsory testing") within the specified "restricted area" in Yuen Long (i.e. Heng Chui House, Tin Heng Estate, Yuen Long, see Annex) are required to stay in their premises and undergo compulsory testing. Persons subject to compulsory testing are required to stay in their premises until all such persons identified in the "restricted area" have undergone testing and the test results are mostly ascertained. The Government aims at finishing this exercise at around 10am tomorrow (August 13). The operation may be extended depending on test results.
A Government spokesman said, "Under Cap. 599J, the Government can, according to the needs of infection control, make a 'restriction-testing declaration'. Having reviewed a basket of factors, including the viral load in sewage, the information of relevant positive cases, and other circumstantial factors, and conducted a risk assessment, the Government decided to make a 'restriction-testing declaration' for the relevant area."
The Government has set up temporary specimen collection stations at the "restricted area" and request persons subject to compulsory testing to undergo testing before 11pm today. Arrangements will be made for persons subject to compulsory testing to undergo a nucleic acid test at specimen collection stations where dedicated staff will collect samples through combined nasal and throat swabs. Persons subject to compulsory testing must stay at their place of residence until all test results are ascertained to avoid cross-infection risk. The Government will make arrangement to facilitate specimen collection for people with impaired mobility. All persons in the "restricted area" who have tested positive in the past 14 days, including positive cases identified either by nucleic acid tests recorded by the Department of Health (DH) or by rapid antigen tests that have been self-declared to the DH, are not required to undergo testing in this compulsory testing exercise.
The Government spokesman said, "We understand that this exercise will cause inconvenience to the public. The Government has made arrangements to carry out testing for all persons present in the 'restricted area' as soon as possible. The aim is to strive to complete testing of all identified persons subject to compulsory testing and confirm the results, and finish the exercise at around 10am tomorrow. The Government will make a public announcement when the declaration expires officially. In the cases in which employees are unable to go to work because of the declaration, the Government hopes their employers can exercise discretion and not deduct the salaries or benefits of the employees."
If staying in the "restricted area" will cause unreasonable hardship to individuals who are not residents in the area when the declaration takes effect, government officers may exercise discretion and allow that person to leave the area after considering the individual circumstances. That person must have followed the instructions to undergo testing and leave his/her personal information for contact purposes.
According to the compulsory testing notice to be issued today, any persons other than those specified above who had been present at the above building for more than two hours from August 6 to August 12, 2022, even if they were not present in the "restricted area" at the time when the declaration took effect, must undergo compulsory testing on or before August 14, 2022. As a mutant strain is involved, for prudence's sake, vaccinated persons and persons who have recently been tested are also required to undergo testing.
The Housing Department has set up a hotline (Tel: 2486 5000) which started operation at 5pm today for residents restricted by the declaration to make enquiries and seek assistance. The Social Welfare Department will also provide assistance to the affected persons.
The Government appeals to persons subject to compulsory testing for their full co-operation by registering and undergoing testing, and waiting for the results patiently at home. The Government will strictly follow up on whether the persons concerned have complied with the compulsory testing notices and "restriction-testing declaration". Any person who fails to comply with the compulsory testing notices commits an offence and may be fined a fixed penalty of $10,000. The person would also be issued with a compulsory testing order requiring him or her to undergo testing within a specified time frame. Failure to comply with the compulsory testing order or the "restriction-testing declaration" is an offence and the offender would be liable to a fine at level 5 ($50,000) and imprisonment for six months.