The Government announced today (February 22) that the Chief Executive has reappointed Mr Kenneth Fok Kai-kong as a non-official member of the Board of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA) for another term from February 25, 2024, to December 31, 2025. 
      
     Under the WKCDA Ordinance (Cap. 601), the Board is the governing and executive body of the WKCDA. It is responsible for the planning, development, operation and maintenance of the arts and cultural facilities and related facilities in the West Kowloon Cultural District.

     The Labour Department (LD) will hold a public talk entitled "Chemical and Occupational Health" on March 1 (Friday) at 3.30pm in the Health Education Room, Occupational Safety and Health Centre of the LD, G/F, Kwun Tong Community Health Centre Building, 60 Hip Wo Street, Kwun Tong. The talk will elaborate on how chemicals enter the human body and their impact on health, as well as the prevention of chemical hazards.
 
     The LD will hold another talk entitled "Infection Control in the Workplace" on March 5 (Tuesday) at 6.30pm at the Lecture Theatre of the Hong Kong Central Library, 66 Causeway Road, Causeway Bay. The talk, designed for employees who may come into contact with pathogenic bacteria and viruses in their workplace, will explain how micro-organisms enter human body and affect people's health. The concept of infection control in the workplace will also be covered.

     Both talks will be given in Cantonese by the LD's occupational health nurse. Admission is free but pre-registration is required. Interested participants can register online (www.oshsreg.gov.hk). For enquiries, please call 2852 4040.
 

     â€‹To further enhance support for ethnic minorities (EMs), the Home Affairs Department (HAD) today (February 22) invited eligible and interested non-profit-making organisations (NPOs) to apply for funding to establish and operate a support service centre for EMs (EM centre) in Kowloon Central or New Territories East.
      
     The two new centres are required to organise language programmes, dedicated programmes for youths, orientation and familiarisation programmes for EMs newly arrived in Hong Kong, as well as integration activities and counselling and referral services, to facilitate EMs' early integration into the community. The centres are also required to set up Ethnic Minority Care Teams to provide dedicated caring services through household visits or outreach services to EMs.
      
     Details of the project, the application criteria and the briefing session are set out in the Project Brief, which is available on the HAD website (www.had.gov.hk).
      
     The deadline for application is 5pm on April 5.
      
     Currently, the HAD provides multiple support services to assist ethnic minorities to integrate into the local community. The HAD has commissioned NPOs to run eight EM centres in Wan Chai, Kwun Tong, Tuen Mun, Yuen Long, Yau Tsim Mong, Sham Shui Po, Tung Chung and Kwai Tsing to provide language classes, interest classes, after-school tutorial classes, youth activities, integration programmes, etc, to EMs to facilitate their integration into the community. Among these centres, the CHEER Centre in Kwun Tong also provides general interpretation and translation services between English and eight ethnic minority languages (namely Bahasa Indonesia, Hindi, Nepali, Punjabi, Tagalog, Thai, Urdu and Vietnamese) in non-specialised/non-professional areas. In the 2022-23 project year, the total number of service recipients of the eight centres was over 102 000. Apart from EM centres, the HAD has also provided other support services for EMs including community support teams, ambassador schemes, District-based Programmes for Racial Harmony, Harmony Scholarships Scheme, etc. For dissemination of information, the HAD has sponsored five radio programmes in ethnic minority languages, operated a website and published guidebooks in six ethnic minority languages to facilitate EMs' early integration into the community.
      
     In order to reach out to the ethnic minority communities more effectively and assist them to integrate into the local community, the 2023 Policy Address announced that two additional EM centres will be set up, one in Kowloon Central and the other in New Territories East, bringing the total number of these centres to 10. Each of the centres will be invited to set up one Ethnic Minority Care Team to reach out to EM households, understand their needs and introduce public services they need. 

Attention TV/radio announcers:

Please broadcast the following as soon as possible and repeat it at regular intervals:

     Here is an item of interest to swimmers.

     The Leisure and Cultural Services Department announced today (February 22) that since the water off Silverstrand Beach in Sai Kung District is now suitable for swimming, the red flag has been lowered.

     The red flag was hoisted at the beach earlier on after a red tide was found.

Attention duty announcers, radio and TV stations:

     Please broadcast the following as soon as possible and repeat it at suitable intervals:

     The Marine Department today (February 22) reminded masters, coxswains and persons-in-charge of vessels navigating in Hong Kong waters to proceed at a safe speed and exercise extreme caution because restricted visibility of less than 2 nautical miles has been reported.

     Appropriate sound signals shall be made when underway or at anchor. All vessels must comply with the International Regulations for Preventing Collision at Sea.

     Also, when radar is used without the benefit of adequate plotting facilities, the information obtained from the equipment is rather limited and should be construed accordingly.

     Visibility reports are broadcast by the Vessel Traffic Centre (VTC) on VHF channels 02, 12, 14, 63 and 67.

     In the event of an accident, a report shall be made immediately to the VTC at Tel: 2233 7801.