Tag Archives: China

     To tie in with the tradition of cleaning up before the Lunar New Year, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) today (January 16) commenced a year-end clean-up campaign across the territory, and appealed to the public for their earnest participation and efforts to maintain cleanliness in the household, the community and public places to welcome the Year of the Dragon.
      
     An FEHD spokesman said, “The annual year-end clean-up campaign started today and will last for 21 days to consolidate the efforts of keeping Hong Kong clean and maintain a clean and hygienic environment.”
      
     During the campaign period, the FEHD will step up the cleaning of public facilities under the department’s management including markets, cooked food centres, hawker bazaars, public toilets and refuse collection points. Cleaning of problematic sites of illegal refuse dumping and other public cleanliness offences will also be enhanced. FEHD staff will step up inspections, cleaning and disinfection of communal areas and facilities in the markets, and remind stall tenants to clean up their stalls thoroughly.  
      
     In addition, the FEHD will conduct mosquito and rodent prevention and control operations targeting places such as old tenement buildings, streets, rear lanes, village houses and construction sites, according to each district’s circumstances. In view of the upcoming implementation of municipal solid waste charging, the FEHD will assess the actual situation and consider increasing the number of temporary junk collection points in each district for residents to discard large items of household waste. Cleaning as well as refuse and bulky waste collection services at the refuse collection points in all districts will also be enhanced.
      
     The spokesman added that to ensure the cleanliness of public places, the department will continue to strengthen enforcement action and issue fixed penalty notices to offenders in breach of the public cleanliness and obstruction regulations.
      
     For more details about the efforts and work of the year-end clean-up campaign as well as information on environmental hygiene, please visit the FEHD website at www.fehd.gov.hk.
      
     The spokesman stressed that maintaining a clean and hygienic community hinges on the co-operation and earnest participation of everyone. He called for the concerted efforts of every member of the public to maintain environmental hygiene and enjoy a clean environment in the coming Lunar New Year.

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     The Secretary for Health, Professor Lo Chung-mau, met with a delegation led by the President of the Guangdong Province Hospital Association, Professor Huang Li, today (January 16) to exchange views on deepening medical co-operation between the Mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).

     At the meeting, Professor Lo introduced to the delegation the latest policy initiatives on cross-boundary medical collaboration put forward by the HKSAR Government, including the extension of coverage of the Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme on the Mainland, cross-boundary medical services as well as high-quality healthcare talent training and exchange programmes.

     Professor Lo said, “The HKSAR Government attaches great importance to cross-boundary medical collaboration. In his 2023 Policy Address, the Chief Executive adopted for the first time ‘Cross-boundary Medical Collaboration’ as one of the subtitles and proposed a number of specific measures, including the establishment of the Greater Bay Area International Clinical Trial Institute to achieve concerted development in clinical trials with the Mainland; participation in and support to the internationalisation of national hospital accreditation standards; the roll-out of the Elderly Health Care Voucher Greater Bay Area Pilot Scheme; utilising eHealth digital health records to support cross-boundary medical collaboration in the Greater Bay Area; provision of direct cross-boundary ambulance service; and promotion of the accreditation standards of national chest pain centres.

     “Under the principle of complementarity and mutual benefits and on the premise of benefitting the healthcare development of both the Mainland and Hong Kong, the HKSAR Government has all along been working together with various counterparts on the Mainland in reinforcing co-operation on healthcare service developments with a view to levelling up the healthcare quality. Looking ahead, we will remain committed to fostering cross-boundary medical co-operation so as to propel the important national strategy of ‘Healthy China’ through concerted contribution.”

     Deputy Secretary for Health Mr Eddie Lee; the Senior Advisor (Secretary for Health’s Office), Dr Joe Fan; the Director of Cluster Services of the Hospital Authority (HA), Dr Simon Tang; and representatives of the Health Bureau, the Department of Health and the HA also attended the meeting today.

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     Following is the transcript of remarks by the Chief Executive, Mr John Lee, at a media session before the Executive Council meeting today (January 16):   Reporter: A few questions. Just to follow up on the multi-entry permit … read more

     â€‹The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD), in the small hours of today (January 16), raided an unlicensed cold store in Ping Che, North District. 

     During the operation, the FEHD arrested one person and initiated procedures on prosecution for the suspected operation of an unlicensed cold store, and found about 24 700 kilograms of chilled poultry and game with official health certificates on the premises. In addition, about 80kg of chilled cut poultry without official health certificates were seized for disposal. 

     Under the Food Business Regulation, the maximum penalty for operating an unlicensed cold store is a fine of $50,000 and six months’ imprisonment upon conviction. 

     “We will continue our stringent enforcement action against unlicensed food business to safeguard food safety and public health,” an FEHD spokesman said.

     Members of the public can report any suspected illegal food business activities by calling the FEHD hotline 2868 0000.

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     The Housing Bureau (HB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Hong Kong Center for Construction Robotics (HKCRC) today (January 16) for the establishment of a strategic partnership, with a view to jointly foster the upgrading and transformation of the construction industry, and provide solutions to address challenges including large-scale housing production, the shortage of the construction labour force, continuous enhancement of site safety, etc. Taking advantage of the vast supply, standardised design and highly repetitive nature of public housing by the Housing Department (HD) (the executive arm of the Hong Kong Housing Authority), it can provide a sufficient testing ground for trials of new technologies to facilitate testing and improvement of research outcomes before making them available in the market.     

     Speaking at the signing ceremony, the Secretary for Housing, Ms Winnie Ho, said that she felt honoured to work with the HKCRC led by Professor Li Zexiang of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering. With the HKCRC’s rich experience in research and development as well as application, the HB expects that by utilising public housing sites as a testing ground, the collaboration can inject more innovation and technology impetus into Hong Kong’s construction industry and turn the immense market demand and challenges faced by the industry into development opportunities for construction technologies.

     Witnessed by Ms Ho; the Acting Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, Ms Lillian Cheong; and the Chairman of the Board of the HKCRC, Dr Kim Shin-cheul, the Permanent Secretary for Housing/Director of Housing, Miss Rosanna Law, signed the MOU with the Associate Director of the HKCRC, Dr Liang Haobo. The three main directions of this collaboration are:
 

• Smart Tower Cranes – The HD and the HKCRC will jointly develop a smart tower crane system to first enable workers to remotely control the tower crane at ground level or indoors, thus providing a more comfortable and safer working environment for tower crane operators. An auxiliary control system with artificial intelligence (AI) functions including automatic lifting route planning and obstacle avoidance will be developed in the next stage to realise “unmanned” cranes in the long run and make crane operations simpler and more efficient.
   
• Smart Construction Sites – The HKCRC has developed different types of construction robots, such as rebar tying robots and floor grinding robots, to enhance on-site efficiency and safety at construction sites. Various high-performance digital equipment such as mobile scanners, intelligent Internet of Things (IoT)-based digital inclinometers and precast component scanners, which are already in the practical application stage, help to enhance project quality and efficiency of inspection works. Through collaborating with the HD, such research can be put for on-site testing and improvement by utilising the vast supply, standardised design and highly repetitive nature of public housing. The mature products can then be showcased and promoted to the industry, thus fostering the upgrading and transformation of the construction industry.
   
• Smart Estates – The adoption of different smart equipment and innovative technologies, such as cleaning robots and transportation robots, and the utilisation of the IoT, AI and mobile devices, will facilitate daily estate management, enhance work efficiency of frontline staff, and optimise property management.

     The HD has been committed to promoting the digitalisation of public housing development. Apart from embracing innovative construction technologies, including the wider adoption of Modular Integrated Construction methods and various construction robots to continuously enhance the safety, efficiency, productivity and sustainability of public housing construction, the HD also actively promotes smart estate management to enhance management efficiency and service quality of nearly 200 public housing estates.  read more