Tag Archives: China

     Following is a question by Dr the Hon Tan Yueheng and a reply by the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Christopher Hui, in the Legislative Council today (November 27):
 
Question:
 
     The Chief Executive has proposed in the 2024 Policy Address to set up a Working Group on Promoting Silver Economy, and one of its five areas of work is to enhance silver financial and security arrangements. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
 
(1) of the implementation of the various schemes under the “Retire 3” (i.e. the HKMC Annuity Plan, the Reverse Mortgage Programme and the Policy Reverse Mortgage Programme) operated by The Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation Limited, which is wholly owned by the Government through the Exchange Fund, including the respective numbers of participating elderly persons;
 
(2) of the measures currently put in place by the Government, in addition to the Retire 3, to assist elderly persons in making arrangements for retirement financial security and planning, as well as to enhance the financial planning and management capabilities of elderly persons; and
 
(3) whether it will formulate a roadmap in the future to gradually improve measures for meeting the financial security and management needs of elderly persons from various classes; if so, of its plans; if not, the reasons for that?
 
Reply:
 
President,
 
     The Chief Executive announced in the 2024 Policy Address the setting up of the Working Group on Promoting Silver Economy, which will implement measures in five areas, including the promotion of “silver financial and security arrangements”, thereby assisting the elderly in making suitable financial arrangements and strengthening retirement protection. The Working Group held the first meeting in early November to examine the initial work directions of bureaux concerned under the five areas, and discuss ways to strengthen collaboration among relevant bureaux and departments to build a silver-friendly community in concerted efforts and accelerate the development of silver economy.
 
     My reply to the question raised by the Dr Hon Tan Yueheng is as follows:
 
(1) One of the missions of The Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation Limited (HKMC) is to promote the development of the retirement planning market. In mid-2021, the “HKMC Retire 3” brand was launched to promote the HKMC Annuity Plan, the Reverse Mortgage Programme (RMP) and the Policy Reverse Mortgage Programme (PRMP). These three products share the common feature of providing retirees with immediate, stable and lifelong income. Their implementation progress is set out below:
 
(a) The HKMC Annuity Plan enables customers to turn their savings into lifelong monthly annuity income. Since its launch in 2018 up to end-October 2024, the HKMC Annuity Plan had acquired nearly 20 000 customers with total subscription at approximately $18 billion. In the first ten months of 2024, the HKMC Annuity Plan received over 6 500 applications, representing a year-on-year increase of almost three times, with total subscription exceeding $3.3 billion, marking a year-on-year increase of 1.5 times.
 
(b) The RMP helps homeowners release the value of their residential properties, so that they can receive monthly income and stay in the properties for the rest of their lives. Since its launch in 2011 up to end-October 2024, the RMP had received 7 837 applications with an average monthly payout of $16,700. In the first ten months of 2024, the RMP received 859 new applications, representing a year-on-year increase of 45 per cent.
 
(c) The PRMP enables borrowers to use their life insurance policies as collaterals, so that they can receive lifelong payouts. Since its launch in 2019 up to end-October 2024, the PRMP had received 124 applications with an average monthly payout of around $2,700. In the first ten months of 2024, the PRMP received 35 applications.
 
(2) The Government has been working closely with relevant regulators to enhance the elderly’s understanding of retirement planning. We, together with the Securities and Futures Commission and its subsidiary, the Investor and Financial Education Council (IFEC), conduct investor education through various means and channels (including public activities, community outreach, social media platforms, etc.) to enhance the public’s financial literacy. The IFEC’s website provides information on different investment tools and diverse digital financial management tools for free public use. Meanwhile, financial planning for retirement should begin during working years. Therefore, the IFEC’s education foci for working adults cover “saving more for retirement” and “selecting suitable financial products”. With the introduction of the “Retirement Planning Toolkit” and “Retirement Planner” calculator, etc., the IFEC assists working adults in assessing readiness for retirement and setting retirement goals and action plans.
 
     In respect of investor education for the elderly, the IFEC’s education foci include “selecting suitable financial products”, “making the most of retirement savings”, “building resilience against financial adversities” and “anti-financial scam”. In particular, the IFEC endeavours to enhance the elderly’s digital financial literacy and capabilities in detecting financial scams, while alerting investors to the risks and opportunities in respect of digital financial management. For example, the IFEC has introduced the first-ever anti-financial-scam educational scheme designed for the elderly. Through interactive game provided by the scheme, the elderly can learn how to identify and prevent falling prey to financial scams. The IFEC has also launched from March this year the first digital experiential “IFEC FinEd Hub” which provides free immersive learning experiences for the elderly to enhance their fraud prevention awareness.
 
     The HKMC is also committed to enhancing public financial literacy. Through collaboration with various organisations in arranging the launch of educational videos, seminars, exhibitions, loyalty programmes etc., the HKMC provides information on the concepts of longevity risk and retirement financial planning to assist the elderly in making suitable financial arrangements.
 
(3) The IFEC has formulated the Financial Literacy Strategy, targeting the Hong Kong public, with the elderly identified as a core segment. The IFEC has been devoting resources to assist the elderly in managing and protecting their retirement savings, based on three main themes concerning the elderly’s behaviours, namely “making the most of limited income”, “building resilience against financial adversities” and “selecting suitable financial products”. During the annual territory-wide financial education campaign “Hong Kong Money Month” held in March this year, the IFEC collaborated with stakeholders from different sectors to conduct multiple seminars and activities for the elderly and pre-retirees with an aim to enhance their financial literacy. The IFEC will continue to provide fresh investor education experiences and step up its partnerships with stakeholders such as social welfare organisations in catering for the elderly’s financial management needs. At the same time, we understand that elders from different walks of life have different needs. Therefore, we will continue to maintain communication with relevant organisations and stakeholders, organise various activities, and strengthen information provision, with a view to enhancing the awareness of the elderly and pre-retirees of retirement preparation.
 
     Thank you, President. read more

     â€‹The Home and Youth Affairs Bureau (HYAB) and the Youth Development Commission (YDC) jointly launched the Funding Scheme for International Youth Exchange 2025-26 today (November 27). Eligible non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are invited to submit applications.
      
     The Government attaches great importance to youth development. The HYAB promulgated the Youth Development Blueprint at the end of 2022, which states that the Government will further strengthen the breadth and depth of the Mainland and international internship and exchange programmes with a view to enhancing young people’s understanding of the development of the country and the world. Through the Funding Scheme for International Youth Exchange, the HYAB and the YDC provide funding for NGOs to organise international exchange projects for Hong Kong young people to broaden their global exposure and their understanding of the history, culture and the latest developments of different places. The funding scheme also covers exchange projects to the regions along the Belt and Road to promote cultural exchanges and foster people-to-people bonds. Launched earlier this year, the Pilot Scheme on Subsidy to Grassroots Youth for Participating in Exchange Activities Outside Hong Kong will also continue to provide additional subsidies to grassroots youth with financial needs to participate in exchange projects under the 2025-26 funding scheme.
      
     Details and application forms of the new round of the funding scheme are available on the YDC website (www.ydc.gov.hk/en/programmes/ep/ep_fundingschemeinternational.html). Interested NGOs should submit their applications on or before December 30. read more

     In response to the Japanese Government’s plan to discharge nuclear-contaminated water at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Station, the Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene issued a Food Safety Order which prohibits all aquatic products, sea salt and seaweeds originating from the 10 metropolis/prefectures, namely Tokyo, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Miyagi, Chiba, Gunma, Tochigi, Niigata, Nagano and Saitama, from being imported into and supplied in Hong Kong.
 
     For other Japanese aquatic products, sea salt and seaweeds that are not prohibited from being imported into Hong Kong, the Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department will conduct comprehensive radiological tests to verify that the radiation levels of these products do not exceed the guideline levels before they are allowed to be supplied in the market.
 
     As the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water is unprecedented and will continue for 30 years or more, the Government will closely monitor and step up the testing arrangements. Should anomalies be detected, the Government does not preclude further tightening the scope of the import ban.
 
     From noon on November 26 to noon today (November 27), the CFS conducted tests on the radiological levels of 192 food samples imported from Japan, which were of the “aquatic and related products, seaweeds and sea salt” category. No sample was found to have exceeded the safety limit. Details can be found on the CFS’s thematic website titled “Control Measures on Foods Imported from Japan” (www.cfs.gov.hk/english/programme/programme_rafs/programme_rafs_fc_01_30_Nuclear_Event_and_Food_Safety.html).

     In parallel, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) has also tested 50 samples of local catch for radiological levels. All the samples passed the tests. Details can be found on the AFCD’s website (www.afcd.gov.hk/english/fisheries/Radiological_testing/Radiological_Test.html).
 
     The Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) has also enhanced the environmental monitoring of the local waters. No anomaly has been detected so far. For details, please refer to the HKO’s website
(www.hko.gov.hk/en/radiation/monitoring/seawater.html).
 
     From August 24, 2023, to noon today, the CFS and the AFCD have conducted tests on the radiological levels of 102 360 samples of food imported from Japan (including 65 822 samples of aquatic and related products, seaweeds and sea salt) and 22 964 samples of local catch respectively. All the samples passed the tests. read more

     Following is a question by the Hon Jimmy Ng and a written reply by the Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, Professor Sun Dong, in the Legislative Council today (November 27):

Question:

     It is learnt that the Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC) adopts six indicators (including (i) the level of industry income, (ii) the number of ongoing projects involving industry participation, (iii) the number of companies participating in the ongoing projects, (iv) the number of organisations benefiting from the Public Sector Trial Scheme, (v) the number of researchers engaged under the Research Talent Hub, and (vi) the number of patents filed and granted) to evaluate the work progress and performance of the five Research and Development (R&D) Centres under its purview (including the Automotive Platforms and Application Systems R&D Centre, the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute, the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel, the Logistics and Supply Chain MultiTech R&D Centre, and the Nano and Advanced Materials Institute). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) given that, in the reply to a question raised by a Member of this Council on November 8 last year, the Government indicated that ITC hoped to gradually raise the target of the indicator for evaluating the performance of the R&D Centres in item (i) above (i.e. the level of industry income) to 50 per cent in the coming few years, yet the Government indicated in its paper submitted to the Panel on Commerce, Industry, Innovation and Technology of this Council on June 18 this year that it was considering raising the target to 40 per cent in 2024-2025, and would explore the possibility of raising the target further to 50 per cent in the long run, of the reasons for the relevant change and the latest timetable for raising the target;

(2) whether it will include more indicators for evaluating the performance of the R&D Centres, such as the success rate of patents granted and the number of new projects undertaken each year; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;

(3) given that, in the reply to a question raised by a Member of this Council on November 8 last year, the Government indicated that ITC did not keep the number of patents of the R&D Centres which had been successfully commercialised and the income involved, of the reasons for that; whether ITC will compile relevant statistics in the future, so as to enable the community to conduct a value for money evaluation of the R&D Centres’ work on conducting technology transfer to the industries; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and

(4) whether it will introduce more new measures to encourage enterprises to more actively allocate resources to conduct scientific research; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply:

President,

     The public research and development (R&D) Centres not only conduct applied research in respective key innovation and technology (I&T) areas, but also act as focal points for technology collaboration among the Government, industry, academia and research sectors, thereby complementing the implementation of the relevant development directions and strategies under the Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Development Blueprint and the development of new quality productive forces and working together to promote Hong Kong as an international I&T centre. While the Government has continued to provide resources to the R&D Centres, we have continuously monitored their performance through different performance indicators and reported to Legislative Council (LegCo) on their work progress regularly. In response to the various parts of the question, the reply is as follows:

(1) The Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC) has set a target of the level of industry and other income at 30 per cent since 2017-18. ITC has raised the target to 35 per cent in 2023-24. Having further reviewed the R&D Centres’ performance and the overall economic situation in Hong Kong, ITC has shortly further raised the target to 40 per cent in 2024-25 and is exploring the possibility of raising the target further to 50 per cent in the long run. The Government needs to strike a balance between raising the target to encourage the R&D Centres to strengthen co-operation with the industry and taking into account the fact that the R&D Centres bear the public mission of transferring technology to the industry extensively and other objective factors (e.g. overall economic situation). Therefore, we consider it more desirable to keep in view the economic development before hammering out the implementation timetable of adopting a new target.

(2) At present, the R&D Centres report to ITC regularly on their operation and R&D project progress (including number of new projects commenced and patent application) etc., and summarise their work in various aspects in their annual reports, allowing ITC to assess their overall performance. ITC also regularly reports to the Panel on Commerce, Industry, Innovation and Technology (CIIT Panel) of LegCo on the work progress and relevant performance figures (including the six performance indicators) of the R&D Centres. As the nature and scale of the R&D Centres are different, it is difficult to devise a set of uniformed quantifiable key performance indicators. ITC will continue to maintain close liaison with the R&D Centres and review their performance from time to time, with a view to introducing and setting new key performance indicators as and when appropriate.

(3) The R&D Centres not only conduct technology transfer through licensing their patents, but also conduct collaborative projects with the industry and conduct contract researches for the industry to transfer technology to the industry. If an industry partner has contributed at least 50 per cent of the total project cost, it is entitled to the intellectual property generated from that R&D project for commericalisation directly without the need to involve any licensing arrangement. Furthermore, some of the R&D Centre-owned patents are R&D outcome of exploratory nature, which are to pave way for conducting more downstream projects with the industry in the future.

     ITC regularly reports to LegCo CIIT Panel on the R&D Centres’ commercialisation and other income. In 2023-24, the R&D Centres received $158.9 million commercialisation and other income in total, representing an increase of about 23 per cent as compared with that in 2022-23. The R&D Centres bear the public mission of conducting technology transfer to the industry, and their objective for conducting applied R&D and technology transfer is not about making profits. In determining the licensing fee and model, the R&D Centres will take into account a basket of factors, including R&D project cost, scale of the licensee (e.g. small and medium enterprises will be given a minimal initial licensing fee), projected business returns of the licensee, scale of application of the technology being licensed, etc.

     It is evident from the above that simply using the number of patents with successful commercialisation and profits involved to measure the work of the R&D Centres in transferring technology to the industry may not fully reflect the R&D Centres’ performance in this respect. In fact, as at end-March 2024, there were 414 on-going projects (including 231 projects involving industry participation) under the R&D Centres. There were 445 companies participating in these on-going projects. All these demonstrated that the projects could meet the needs of the industry. Examples of R&D outcomes that have been successfully commercialised include the high-protective training footwear for the Hong Kong Olympics fencing team and the application of innovative hybrid modular integrated construction technology that combines steel and ultralight high-strength concrete for constructing an elderly’s home in Sha Tin. The R&D Centres bring economic contributions through helping enterprises to adopt R&D outcomes in technology upgrading and transformation. Between 2017-18 and 2022-23, the R&D Centres have brought about $23.8 billion economic contributions towards Hong Kong, averaging around $4 billion per year. We will continue to monitor the R&D Centres’ performance and urge the R&D Centres to strengthen their work on transferring technology to the industry.

(4) To encourage more enterprises to conduct R&D in Hong Kong, the Government made amendments to the Inland Revenue Ordinance in 2018 to provide a two-tiered enhanced tax deduction regime for expenditure on “qualifying R&D activities” incurred by enterprises on or after April 1, 2018. The deduction is 300 per cent for the first $2 million of “qualifying R&D expenditure” incurred by enterprises and 200 per cent for the remaining amount. There is no cap on the amount of the relevant tax deduction. Among the tax returns received as at September 30, 2024, the claims for tax deduction on R&D expenditure for the year of assessment 2022/23 was about $3.9 billion, which has more than doubled that of $1.67 billion in the year of assessment 2017/18 (i.e. prior to the implementation of the measure). This indicated that the tax measure could attract and encourage enterprises to devote more resources in local R&D activities. Besides, some funding schemes under the Innovation and Technology Fund also encourage enterprises to invest in R&D. For instance, the Enterprise Support Scheme provides funding to companies for conducting in-house R&D projects; the Research and Development Cash Rebate Scheme encourages companies to establish stronger partnership with local public research institutes etc.

     In addition to fostering collaboration among the Government, industry, academia and research sectors, the current-term Government will increase investment and guide more social capital to invest in I&T industries, reflecting a revamped approach of the Government in this aspect. As announced in the 2024 Policy Address, one of such measures is to set up a $10 billion I&T Industry-Oriented Fund to form a fund-of-funds which will be industry-centric and focus on industry development. By leveraging market capital, more investments will be driven to specified emerging and future industries of strategic importance, including life and health technology, AI (artificial intelligence) and robotics, semi-conductors and smart devices, advanced materials and new energy, etc. We will also optimise the Innovation and Technology Venture Fund by redeploying $1.5 billion to set up funds jointly with the market, on a matching basis, to invest in start-ups of strategic industries, with a view to enhancing Hong Kong’s startup ecosystem. read more

     The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department today (November 27) released the test results of a targeted food surveillance project on the nutrition labelling of canned meat. Among 40 samples tested, two samples were found with saturated fatty acids or sugars content inconsistent with the declared values on their nutrition labels, while one sample was found with the heading of the list of ingredients not properly declared on the food label. The remaining 37 samples passed the test.

     “The CFS collected samples from different retail outlets for the targeted food surveillance project. Tests were conducted to check if the energy content and specified nutrient content (total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, sugars, sodium, protein, carbohydrates, and more) are consistent with the declared values on their nutrition labels. The food labels were also checked to see if they comply with relevant requirements under the laws,” a spokesman for the CFS said.

     The CFS has announced the irregularities on the actual nutrient contents earlier. The vendors concerned have also stopped selling the relevant batch of the affected products. Prosecution will be instituted should there be sufficient evidence.

     The Food and Drugs (Composition and Labelling) Regulations (Cap. 132W) require all applicable prepackaged foods to list the ingredients and the content of energy plus seven core nutrients, namely carbohydrates, protein, total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, sodium and sugars, and regulate any associated nutrition claims. The list of ingredients of all prepackaged food shall also be preceded by an appropriate heading consisting of the words “ingredients”, “composition”, and “contents” or words of similar meaning.

     Nutrition labelling can assist consumers in making informed food choices, encourage food manufacturers to apply sound nutrition principles in the formulation of foods, and regulate misleading or deceptive labels and claims. According to Section 61 of the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance (Cap. 132), if any person falsely describes food or misleads as to the nature, substance or quality of the food on a label of the food sold by him or her, he or she shall be guilty of an offence and be liable to a maximum fine of $50,000 and six months’ imprisonment upon conviction.

     The CFS will continue to conduct surveillance on other food samples to check if their energy content and specified nutrient content are consistent with the declared values on their nutrition labels, and the results will be released in due course. The spokesman reminded the food trade to comply with the law, and urged members of the public to pay attention to the information on nutrition labels when purchasing food to make informed food choices to achieve a balanced diet and stay healthy. read more