S for Housing continues visit to Singapore (with photos)

     The Secretary for Housing, Ms Winnie Ho, continued her visit to Singapore today (August 25). 

     Ms Ho met with the Group Director of Policy, Statistics & Research of the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board, Mr Gregory Chia, this morning to learn about the policy of allowing citizens to use their CPF contributions to fund home ownership, healthcare and retirement. 

     Yesterday morning (August 24), Ms Ho and members of the delegation paid a courtesy call on the Chargé d'Affaires of the Chinese Embassy in the Republic of Singapore, Mr Zhu Jing, to introduce the work on housing policies in Hong Kong, and to learn about the latest development in co-operation between China and Singapore.

     During the meeting, Ms Ho said that she has updated housing, relevant construction departments and sectors in Singapore about the application of Modular Integrated Construction (MiC) in different construction projects in Hong Kong, including public housing, transitional housing and Light Public Housing. Ms Ho also shared her experience of inspecting building technologies and construction robotics technologies during her earlier visit to the Mainland. She learnt that Singapore would like to deepen its understanding about the related development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, in particular different construction projects involving the use of MiC. In response to their interest in visiting factories on the Mainland to learn more about the technologies, Ms Ho said she was delighted to help facilitate technological exchanges between the two places.

     In addition, the delegation visited a project site of a construction company in Singapore to inspect the application of MiC (known as Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric Construction (PPVC) in Singapore) in the project. 

     Ms Ho had a meeting with the Chief Executive Officer of the Building and Construction Authority, Mr Kelvin Wong, in the afternoon to learn about how the Singapore Government promotes green buildings and green technologies in the country. Ms Ho also shared relevant concepts of Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) has been actively promoting the use of MiC in suitable projects. For public housing projects to be completed in 2028-29 to 2032-33, no less than half of them should adopt the MiC approach, so as to enhance the construction efficiency, quality and site safety.

     Ms Ho said that this visit has deepened the exchanges between the two places in areas such as housing, construction technologies, green building and age-friendly home. She expected the two places to maintain liaison and continue sharing experience in housing and construction for the betterment of livelihood of the residents. When meeting with local political and business communities as well as construction professionals, the delegation also told the good stories of Hong Kong by introducing Hong Kong's unique advantages of enjoying the strong support of the motherland and being closely connected to the world under the "one country, two systems" principle. 

     Members of the delegation included members of the HA Strategic Planning Committee, as well as representatives of the Hong Kong Housing Society, the Housing Bureau and the Housing Department.

     Ms Ho will return to Hong Kong today after the visit.