Author Archives: hksar gov

     The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government today (December 9) commenced the public consultation exercise for the 2020-21 Budget.
 
     The Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan, said, “Affected by the global economic slowdown, the adverse impact of China-US trade tensions and the series of local social incidents that often include violence, Hong Kong’s economy has entered into a recession. A shadow looms over our economic prospects and the outlook for the next year is full of challenges. In preparing the 2020-21 Budget, I will adopt a strategic and forward-looking approach, with a view to ‘support enterprises, safeguard jobs, stimulate the economy and smoothen livelihoods’. I sincerely invite members of the community to express their views and offer their insights to this Budget. This way, together we can help Hong Kong move forward.”  
 
     To facilitate the expression of views by the community, the Government has introduced various channels for collecting opinions. Members of the public can find relevant information at the website www.budget.gov.hk and share their comments through the said website, the dedicated Facebook page for the Budget (www.facebook.com/Budget20to21), by email (budget@fstb.gov.hk), by phone (2810 3768), by fax (2147 5770) or by post (Budget Consultation Support Team, 24/F, Central Government Offices, 2 Tim Mei Avenue, Tamar, Hong Kong). read more

The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     The spokesperson for the Hospital Authority (HA) today (December 9) announced a laboratory test product incident:

     The HA received notification from medical device manufacturer bio Merieux that two batches of varicella zoster virus test kits may give false positive results due to invalid calibration. As a result, the tests may not give accurate results on immunity against varicella zoster virus, which causes chickenpox.

     Upon receiving the notification, the HA immediately suspended use of the batches of test kits concerned, and switched to other batches. The affected blood samples were also traced.

     Tuen Mun Hospital (TMH), Hong Kong Children’s Hospital (HKCH) and Kowloon West Cluster (KWC) had used the batches of test kits concerned, involving 411 people. TMH and HKCH repeated the tests for all 249 blood samples and the results were consistent. Among the 162 samples in KWC, 11 were from patients. Nine patients have been arranged to return to hospital to repeat the test, while the other two patients have had other confirmatory tests and retesting would not be needed. The remaining 151 samples belong to hospital staff, performed for recruitment body checking and post-exposure contact tracing. The hospital will contact them to repeat the tests accordingly. If indicated, chickenpox vaccination will be arranged for the staff according to infection control protocols.

     The HA is concerned about the incident and will continue to follow up with the product manufacturer. The HA will also liaise closely with the Department of Health on the latest developments. read more

     Two restaurants, namely 11 Westside on Davis Street and Twelve Flavors on Sands Street in Kennedy Town, violated the requirements of the relevant statutory notices issued by the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) by failing to reduce excessive cooking fume emissions. The restaurants were convicted and fined a total of $20,000 at Eastern Magistrates’ Courts today (December 9) and on November 11 respectively for contravening the Air Pollution Control Ordinance (APCO).

     During inspections targeting air pollution and nuisance caused by cooking fumes emitted by restaurants, EPD enforcement officers found that the two restaurants had failed to appropriately install or repair cooking fume control equipment and were emitting excessive cooking fumes and causing nuisance to residents nearby. The EPD then issued statutory notices under the APCO requiring the restaurants to install and repair cooking fume control equipment by a deadline with a view to reducing cooking fume emissions. Subsequently, the two restaurants were prosecuted by the EPD as they failed to appropriately install or repair cooking fume control equipment by the deadline, thereby violating the requirements of the notices. In addition, 11 Westside was convicted of an offence of the same kind in April this year.

     The EPD is very concerned that 11 Westside violated the requirements of a statutory notice again and will continue to liaise with the company’s management on a solution. The EPD will consider initiating prosecutions against the company directors concerned if the restaurant is found violating the requirements of a statutory notice again in future.

     According to the APCO, it is an offence if restaurant operators do not comply with the requirements of a statutory notice and do not adopt effective remedial measures to abate excessive cooking fume emissions within a specified time limit. First-time offenders are liable to a maximum fine of $100,000. A maximum fine of $200,000 and six months’ imprisonment may be imposed on a second or subsequent conviction.

     An EPD spokesman reminded members of the food business that they should properly design and install effective air pollution control equipment such as electrostatic precipitators in the kitchens of food premises before their restaurants start operation. This should help them avoid emitting excessive cooking fumes and being prosecuted by the EPD, and prevent technical difficulties as well as additional costs for installing the equipment after the opening of their restaurants. In addition, restaurant operators have the obligation to arrange for experienced technicians to clean, check and repair their air pollution control equipment regularly with a view to ensuring that no excessive fumes or odours would be emitted, causing nuisance to residents nearby.

     The EPD has drawn up guidelines (www.epd.gov.hk/epd/sites/default/files/epd/english/environmentinhk/air/guide_ref/files/pamphlet_oilfume_eng.pdf) to inform members of the industry on the requirements for restaurants and help improve their performance in terms of environmental protection. These guidelines also help members of the industry know more about and use appropriate air pollution control equipment with a view to controlling and reducing cooking fume and odour emissions. In addition, the department has provided members of the industry with up-to-date information about environmental protection through talks of various kinds. read more

     Business receipts in value terms of many major service industries showed decreases of different magnitudes in the third quarter of 2019 when compared with the third quarter of 2018, according to the provisional figures of business r… read more

     The Census and Statistics Department maintains a computerised Central Register of Establishments which contains information relating to some 420 000 active establishments in Hong Kong. Information kept in the Register is updated on a quarterly basis through feedback from various surveys of the department and administrative returns from relevant government departments. Information in respect of the third quarter of 2019 of the Register is now updated.

     The Register serves mainly as the sampling frame for various economic surveys conducted by the department. In addition, many other government departments and private organisations also make use of the disclosable particulars kept in the Register for their surveys, publicity, business promotion, customer classification and research work. These disclosable particulars cover the name, address, type of business and employment size class of the establishments. They are available to the public in the following two forms.

20% sample listing

     A sample listing containing 20% of the records randomly selected from the Register, together with disclosable particulars of the establishments, is available to users. Users may apply for all or part of the records in the 20% sample listing in writing by providing the following information:

* Particulars of the applicant (including name, position, organisation, address, telephone, fax and email);

* Details of the project (including name, purpose, expected completion date, and specifications of information required such as industries, employment sizes and districts); and

* Medium of delivering the information (e.g. photocopy or CD-R and file format such as Visual FoxPro, Excel or text, if applicable).

     The application can be faxed to 2827 2296, emailed to cre@censtatd.gov.hk or posted to the Employment Statistics and Central Register of Establishments Section, Census and Statistics Department, 20/F, Wanchai Tower, 12 Harbour Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong.

     The information can be supplied in the form of CD-R or photocopies at the following rates:

* CD-R – a charge of about $1,630 per listing, compiled to the user’s requirements (exact amount depending on the complexity of the job concerned);

* Photocopies – a ready standard listing is available for photocopying (in part if desired). A charge of $1.30 per page is levied.

Matching operation with specified establishments

     Users may apply to conduct matching operations for a list of establishments in their databases and then extract disclosable particulars for the matched establishments from the Register. The matching operation will be done using the application program supplied by the user and conducted on the computing facilities in the department. Both the name and address of establishment will be used as matching keys.

     Users may apply for this service item by submitting a proposal of the matching operation to the department. The proposal should cover the intended use of the information derived from the matching operation, the specifications of the establishment database provided by the user, the details of the matching process and the specifications of the output data.

     The information can be supplied in the form of CD-R. A charge will be levied at the following rates:

* a minimum charge of about $5,100 for the service required (exact amount depending on the complexity of the matching operation conducted); plus

* $1 per matched record with information supplied to the user.

Enquiries

     Further details about the above service items can be obtained from the Employment Statistics and Central Register of Establishments Section of the department at Tel: 2582 4760; fax: 2827 2296; or email: cre@censtatd.gov.hk. read more