About 20 children from grassroots families today (January 20) visited the Tuen Mun Public Riding School in the company of civil service volunteers to sample the fun of horse riding and learn about the environment of horses at the stables.
 
     The volunteers today came from different grades of the Water Supplies Department (WSD), including Engineers, Waterworks Inspectors and Technical Officers. The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mrs Ingrid Yeung, and the Director of Water Supplies, Mr Tony Yau, also participated to express support for the event.
 
     Mrs Yeung said, "The children taking part in the event today have never been around horses. They were very excited to be able to have close contact with the horses under the good care of the volunteers and the patient guidance from staff. Seeing the bright smiles and excitement of the children riding on the back of the horses is the best reward for the volunteers."
 
     This marks the first volunteer activity fostered by the Civil Service Bureau (CSB) and jointly organised by civil service volunteer teams, the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) and district organisations. It also received sponsorship from the HKJC. The CSB will continue to work with the HKJC to enable more civil service volunteer teams to actively promote volunteer services and serve the community through liaison and collaboration with social welfare organisations in different districts.
 
     Mrs Yeung said, "The CSB has been encouraging civil servants to participate in volunteer services. Apart from showing civil servants' care for those in need, volunteerism can bolster the solidarity of the civil service and deepen colleagues' understanding of public needs. In this way, they can provide public service in their respective posts which are more targeted and can better meet the needs of the people. We will continue to support volunteer teams of various bureaux/departments (B/Ds) in organising volunteer activities and providing more diversified volunteer services by joining hands with the community so that their co-operation can achieve greater synergy."
 
     At present, 70 volunteer teams have been formed by different B/Ds to provide volunteer services of diversified categories and formats from time to time. Among them, the WSD volunteer team established in 2002 has been consistently participating in community services.

        

     In response to media enquiries on the quality of steel reinforcing bars (rebar) used in the redevelopment project of Mariners' Club in Tsim Sha Tsui, a spokesman for the Buildings Department (BD) gave the following response today (January 20):

     The Government attaches great importance to the safety and quality of building works. In so far as private development projects are concerned, the BD, by virtue of the Buildings Ordinance (BO) (Cap. 123), requires the registered building professionals (including the registered structural engineers (RSE)) and the registered contractors (RC) responsible for the building works to properly supervise the works, including the quality of the reinforced concrete works, so as to ensure that the works are carried out in accordance with the BO and its subsidiary regulations, approved plans of the works concerned and any orders made or conditions imposed by the BD under the aforementioned legislation, including compliance with the required standards.

     According to the established mechanism, the BD will, when approving structural plans, impose conditions under the BO to require the sampling and testing of rebar to comply with the construction standards before use. The test shall be performed by a laboratory accredited under the Hong Kong Laboratory Accreditation Scheme. When submitting the test reports, the project RSE should append a signed statement to confirm that the aforesaid conditions have been complied with and all rebar used for the construction and the test specimens covered by the test reports are in accordance with the requirements of the BO and allied regulations. 

     The BD received reports from members of the public about the quality of the rebar used in the Mariners' Club redevelopment project at 11 Middle Road between September and November 2023. The project RSE was then contacted and requested to submit the test reports of the rebar used in the redevelopment project, so as to ensure the compliance with the approved plans, as well as the requirements of the BO and allied regulations. The test reports for a total of 17 batches of rebar submitted by the project RSE have demonstrated compliance with the approved plans and with the requirements of the BO and allied regulations and no irregularity on the quality of rebar was found. Nonetheless, the test reports for one batch of rebar (involving 29/F to 39/F of the project) revealed that the batch was originally intended to be used in another development project at No. 105-113 Ta Chuen Ping Street, Kwai Chung. The RSE also explained that the rebar in question had been sampled and tested in accordance with the construction standards upon arrival at the Kwai Chung development site, but some of it was later delivered to the Middle Road site for use.
      
     As the test reports themselves were not sufficient to prove that that particular batch of rebar which had passed the test was indeed the same batch that was delivered for use at the Middle Road site, the BD then requested the RSE for an explanation. In this regard, the RSE proposed in mid-January this year to randomly open up part of the cast structures, in which that batch of rebar had been used, and to take rebar samples for testing to verify compliance with the approved plans and relevant statutory standards. The BD is now scrutinising the proposal so as to ensure that the rebar in question complies with the approved plans, the BO and allied regulations, thereby ensuring building safety and removing any doubts. 

     The BD has always attached great importance to the quality of building works. The BD will conduct an investigation into the incident. If it is found that a person/RC has breached the provisions of the BO, the BD will take follow-up actions seriously, including instigating prosecution and/or disciplinary action against the person/RC. 

Attention duty announcers, radio and TV stations:

Yellow fire danger warning

     The fire danger situation today (January 20) is yellow and the risk of fire is high. People are urged to prevent fires breaking out and hikers should also be vigilant.

     Three charities have been issued Public Subscription Permits to hold flag sales from 7am to 12.30pm today (January 20). They are, on Hong Kong Island, The Hong Kong Down Syndrome Association; in Kowloon, Society for the Welfare of the Autistic Persons; and in the New Territories, Wai Ji Christian Service, a spokesman for the Social Welfare Department (SWD) said.
      
     Arrangements have been made with the charities to help people to distinguish among the three flag-selling activities.    
      
     Information on the three flag-selling organisations on January 20 is as follows:
 

 
     Details of the charitable fund-raising activities, including any updated information, covered by the issued Public Subscription Permits have been published on the GovHK website (www.gov.hk/en/theme/fundraising/search). Permits for flag days containing information on contact methods of the flag-selling organisations and the approved flag-selling activities have also been uploaded to the SWD's website (www.swd.gov.hk/en/ngo/controlofc/flagdays) for reference. For enquiries, please call the SWD's hotline at 2343 2255, or the designated hotline of the 1823 Call Centre at 3142 2678.
      
     In the case of suspected fraudulent flag day activities, people should not make any donation and should immediately report the matter to the Police, the spokesman added.

　　The Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan, concluded the last day of his visit to Davos, Switzerland, today (January 19, Davos time) 

　　Accompanied by the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Algernon Yau, Mr Chan met with the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Mr Chan briefed her on Hong Kong's latest economic and trade situation and thanked the WTO for reaffirming the free trade regime of Hong Kong, China and its position as one of the world's most important international trade and financial hubs in its Trade Policy Review conducted at the end of last year. Mr Chan said that Hong Kong would continue to firmly support a rule-based multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core, and actively promote free trade, so as to contribute to a better recovery of the global economy.

　　Mr Chan also met with the chief executive officer of an international insurance company.

     At the end of his visit today, Mr Chan will leave Switzerland tonight and arrive in Hong Kong in the evening of Saturday (January 20).