Author Archives: hksar gov

     The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr John Lee, had the first meeting in the current term of the Legislative Council (LegCo) with the Chairman of the LegCo House Committee, Ms Starry Lee, and the Deputy Chairman of the Committee, Mr Ma Fung-kwok, this afternoon (January 17). They will thereafter have regular weekly meetings to maintain liaison and communication.
 
     At the meeting, Mr Lee first congratulated Ms Lee and Mr Ma on their re-election as the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the LegCo House Committee.
 
     Mr Lee said that the Government attaches great importance to the relationship between the Executive and the Legislature, and would make every effort to co-operate with the LegCo to perform its duties, including scrutiny of bills, funding proposals, questions and motion debates. He would lead the Secretaries of Departments and Directors of Bureaux to proactively liaise with the LegCo and seek an early opportunity to exchange views with the Members through different forums during the policy formulation process. He added that under the principle of “patriots administering Hong Kong”, the current-term LegCo Members shoulder the important responsibility of governing Hong Kong together with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. The Government would work closely with the LegCo Members in enhancing the relationship between the Executive and the Legislature to serve the interest of the Hong Kong people.
 
     Mr Lee also talked about the Government’s legislative programme, the proposal of re-organising the government structure and LegCo businesses in the coming two months, and exchanged views with the Members on various issues.

    

     The Cinemas Subsidy Scheme under the fifth round of the Anti-epidemic Fund is open for applications from tomorrow (January 18) to January 31.

     The Scheme will provide a one-off subsidy of $50,000 per screen to each existing cinema licensed as a place of public entertainment with commercial operation in December 2021. The maximum subsidy for a cinema circuit is $1.5 million. Create Hong Kong encourages all eligible cinema operators to apply.

     The application details of the Scheme are available at Create Hong Kong’s website (www.createhk.gov.hk). read more

     The Cinemas Subsidy Scheme under the fifth round of the Anti-epidemic Fund is open for applications from tomorrow (January 18) to January 31.

     The Scheme will provide a one-off subsidy of $50,000 per screen to each existing cinema licensed as a place of public entertainment with commercial operation in December 2021. The maximum subsidy for a cinema circuit is $1.5 million. Create Hong Kong encourages all eligible cinema operators to apply.

     The application details of the Scheme are available at Create Hong Kong’s website (www.createhk.gov.hk). read more

     Police today (January 17) appealed to the public for information on a man who went missing in Sha Tin.      Lam Chi-hung, aged 47, went missing after he left his residence in Fung Wo Estate last… read more

The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Housing Authority:

     At the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) meeting today (January 17), the HA endorsed the Corporate Plan for 2022-23, the 2021-22 Revised Budget and the 2022-23 Proposed Budget, and also noted the 2023-24 to 2025-26 Financial Forecasts.
 
     In 2022-23, the HA will continue to focus its efforts on providing quality homes, promoting sustainable living, optimising and rationalising the use of public resources and enhancing the attractiveness of its commercial properties. Based on these four themes, a total of 50 key activities and 19 key performance indicators have been drawn up for the 2022-23 Corporate Plan.
 
     “The Corporate Plan is the platform through which the HA directs its work and focuses its efforts to address the challenges of public housing. In 2022-23, we will continue to seek the Government’s provision of suitable sites for developing both public rental housing (PRH) units and subsidised sale flats with a view to increasing the supply of public housing units. As announced by the Chief Executive on December 30, 2021, and endorsed by the Subsidised Housing Committee of the HA on January 6, 2022, we will put up around 13 600 Home Ownership Scheme and Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme flats for sale in 2022,” a spokesman for the HA said.
 
     “On the development and construction of public housing, we will adopt more widely modular integrated construction and other innovative construction technology to speed up public housing construction. We will also leverage private sector expertise by adopting a design-and-build procurement model and improving the standard design and material standards to further improve the efficiency of public housing construction. Furthermore, we will study the feasibility of redeveloping aged PRH estates including Sai Wan Estate and Ma Tau Wai Estate. On estate management, we will continue to enhance safety, environmental hygiene, greening and landscaping, as well as community bonding, in PRH estates, and raise the awareness among PRH tenants on the Government’s upcoming implementation of municipal solid waste charging,” the spokesman added.
 
     The financial resources on hand that the HA can utilise to maintain its operation and payments for constructing the increasing number of public housing units are its cash and investment balance. For the budget and forecast period from 2021-22 to 2025-26, the cash and investment balance of the HA is projected to change from $57.9 billion at the beginning of April 2021 to around $57.7 billion by the end of March 2026. It is also projected that the HA will have the necessary financial resources to meet its recurrent expenditure and take forward its current public housing construction programme and maintenance works during the budget and forecast period.
 
     “This round of five-year Budgets and Forecasts up to 2025/26 only reflects the financial commitments of the planned production of around 100 000 flats. It has yet to take into account all the financial implications that may arise from the updated public housing supply projection of around 330 000 units for the 10-year period from 2022-23 to 2031-32 as announced in the 2021 Policy Address and reflected subsequently in the Long Term Housing Strategy Annual Progress Report 2021. We envisage that the HA’s construction expenditure for the second five-year period will be more than double that estimated in the current Forecasts. According to the existing mechanism, the HA will conduct the annual rolling five-year budgeting exercise to assess its financial position and future funding requirements,” the spokesman said.
 
     The HA’s 2022-23 Corporate Plan and the Budgets will be submitted to the Chief Executive for approval. The Financial Forecasts will also be made available to the Chief Executive for her information. read more