Thursday, January 11, 2024
【Weather】It will be sunny and dry for part of the day in Hong Kong today, with a maximum temperature of about 21 degrees. Moderate to clear east to northeast winds. Cool tomorrow morning. There was some sunshine for the next two or three days. Windy winds will be strong in the middle of next week.
● According to the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, on the morning of January 10, Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, met with Yau Yinghua, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, and his party in Beijing. Xia Baolong fully affirmed the progress and results made by the SAR Government in promoting Hong Kong out of the epidemic, continuously enhancing its development momentum, and making every effort to fight for the economy and development. He said that Hong Kong has a solid guarantee of the "one country, two systems" principle, has an irreplaceable unique status and advantages, has a world-class business environment, and has great potential and glory in the process of comprehensively promoting the building of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation through Chinese-style modernization, and we are full of confidence in Hong Kong's bright future.
●Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Chan Kwok-ki, concludes his three-day visit to the Greater Bay Area. Concluding the visit, he said that with the promulgation of the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) on its fifth anniversary, the HKSAR Government, Guangdong Province and the governments of the Greater Bay Area will work together to accelerate the synergistic and integrated development of education, technology and talent in the Greater Bay Area, so as to add new momentum and make new contributions to the high-quality development of the Greater Bay Area and the country.
● Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration, Cheuk Wing-hing, posted on social platforms yesterday that since the "Policy Address" announced the distribution of HK$20,000 in newborn baby incentives on October 25 last year, a total of 4,682 eligible applications have been received as of the 8th of this month. He said that the proposal to give a newborn baby incentive of HK$20,000 is a major breakthrough in the policy of the SAR government.
● Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration, Cheuk Wing-hing, said in a radio programme yesterday that since taking office more than one year ago, the "Government Campaign to Combat Hygiene Black Spots" has been launched, and about 700 hygiene black spots have been identified in Hong Kong, and another 4,000 public places need to be cleaned more intensively.
●In early May last year, the Hong Kong Police Force adjusted the entry requirements for Police Constables, Probationary Inspectors and Auxiliary Police Officers. The Secretary for Security, Mr Tang Ping-keung, said at a Legislative Council meeting yesterday that the average number of applicants per month in the eight months after the adjustment has increased by 50 per cent to 90 per cent compared with before the adjustment, which is a very significant increase. Mr Tang mentioned that since 2022, Hong Kong students from the Mainland have been recruited to join the Force, and they have travelled to Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan and Guangdong to arrange selections, with nearly 3,000 Hong Kong students from the Mainland participating, and as of the end of December last year, 23 have successfully applied to join the Force through the scheme.
●The Secretary for Health, Professor Lo Chung-mau, visited the Accident & Emergency Department of Caritas Medical Centre yesterday to learn more about the operation process and services, and to communicate with frontline healthcare workers. Mr Lo said that the Accident and Emergency Department (A&E) of public hospitals is a valuable medical resource for patients in need of emergency services, rather than for treating minor cases. The Government and the HA are reviewing services with serious imbalances in resource allocation and considering enhancing the fee arrangement.
●Starting from 10am yesterday, the HKTB launched the second batch of 100,000 "Hong Kong Night Eat" Local Residents' Edition Dining Vouchers for free online, covering about 110 merchants and over 600 QTS Approved Restaurants and Bars in Hong Kong. Members of the public can preview the list of merchants on the official website of the event or at the end of the report.
● The case of Jimmy Lai, the founder of Next Digital, and three related companies of "Apple Daily" on suspicion of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces entered the ninth day of trial yesterday. According to the investigation, Jimmy Lai transferred a total of more than HK$20.42 million to Nikkei, Li Yuxuan, Civic Party, Democratic Party, Labor Party, Social Democratic Union and Au Nok Hin through LAIS Hotel Properties Limited, and his assistant Mark Simon transferred HK$184 million to his account between 2013 and 2020.
● Acting Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Liu Zhen said yesterday that there are proposals in the community to resume the "one visa, multiple entry scheme" measure for Shenzhen residents and expand the relevant policies to other cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, while the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has been in communication with the Mainland ministries and commissions on the relevant arrangements and the way forward.
● The National Security Department of the Police yesterday investigated the family members of Cheng Man-kit, who had fled overseas and were wanted, and went to Tuen Mun District in the morning to bring Cheng's parents and two sisters to help investigate whether they still had contact with Cheng and had money dealings; the Police reiterated that the National Security Department attaches great importance to the case and believes that it will continue to investigate the contacts or agents of the remaining wanted persons in Hong Kong and thoroughly investigate the culpability of the relevant persons.
●Recently, the organisation concerned has decided to withdraw from the operation and terminate the service due to the personal reason that the team leader is not eligible for the post of District Councillor. In an exclusive interview with the newspaper, the Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs, Ms Mak Mei-kuen, said that members of the Care Team are not "for money" and should not link the seats to the Care Team, emphasising that serving as a member of the Care Team is not for money or fame.
● According to the Education Bureau, the number of teachers lost in Hong Kong has been rising in recent years, with a total of 6,748 teachers lost in the last school year in kindergartens, public sector and Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) primary and secondary schools and special schools under the Kindergarten Scheme, an increase of two and a half percent year-on-year. In a written reply to a question raised by a member of the Legislative Council yesterday, the Secretary for Education, Choi Yuk-lin, said that the main reasons for the loss of teachers include retirement, further study, transfer to other types of schools, other professions, and other personal reasons for resignation.
●The first and second readings of the Legislative Council amendment bill on streamlining compulsory auctions. The Government has proposed four legislative amendments, including the reduction of the threshold for compulsory auction applications from the current 80 per cent to 6 per cent or 70 per cent for private properties in designated districts with buildings aged 50 years. The Secretary for Development, Mr Hen Hon-ho, said that redevelopment could not be done by the URA alone, and it was equally important to make good use of market forces.
●The President of the University of Chinese and Hong Kong, Rocky Tuan, recently resigned from the Council and will step down in January 2025. Three CUHK councillors met with the media yesterday morning to emphasise that their resignation was a personal choice and that they respected Tuan's decision.
● No one has been prosecuted for the JPEX fraud case on the virtual asset trading platform, and Commissioner of Police Siu Chak-yee said in an interview with online media that it still needs time to investigate the flow of victims' funds, and the police and the Securities and Futures Commission have set up a special working group to exchange intelligence at least twice a week to strengthen monitoring and investigation of related illegal activities.
●Since 2020, the HA has introduced new requirements for the use of construction robots in the assessment of tenders for new construction contracts, and has seen different types of construction robots working on public housing projects to enhance site safety, enhance productivity and quality of housing construction, and address problems such as manpower shortage. The Housing Authority told this newspaper that in the future, it will continue to explore the application and optimization of different construction robots to cover more projects and different construction site scenarios, strengthen site safety, give full play to the synergy effect of man-machine cooperation, and work with the industry to promote the transformation and upgrading of the construction industry.
● Cathay Pacific has recently canceled flights many times, which has attracted attention from all walks of life. Cathay Pacific said yesterday that it had completed the consolidation and cancellation procedures for flights in January and February to ensure that flights operated as usual during the Lunar New Year peak travel period, and apologized again to passengers and set up a task force to investigate the incident.
●On the afternoon of January 7th, the four-day Hong Kong tour of Shenzhen's original dance drama "Wing Chun" came to a perfect end, blooming an intoxicating martial arts poem, like a bright moon hanging high, once again illuminating the legendary heritage of Ip Man Wing Chun in Hong Kong. At the curtain call, the applause was thunderous, and the harvest was full of admiration, cheers and reluctance. If the chivalrous man waves goodbye, he leaves the lingering charm in the rivers and lakes.
● The Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department announced yesterday that the current trend index of business income of small and medium-sized enterprises rose from 44 in the contraction area in November last year to 45.5 in December last year, while the outlook for business income in the coming month (i.e. January this year) was 47.9. A spokesman for the Hong Kong government said that the overall business sentiment of SMEs improved slightly in December, and the overall employment situation remained broadly stable.
● Hong Kong Customs detected a drug trafficking case of a passenger concealing drugs with luggage at Hong Kong International Airport on the 9th, seized about one kilogram of suspected cocaine, with an estimated market value of about HK$1 million, and arrested a man. When he was cleared, Customs officers found the batch of suspected cocaine in the middle of the front and back cover of a book in his checked baggage and in a plastic bottle, and the man was arrested. Investigation is ongoing.
● The police cracked a drug production and drug trafficking case, Senior Inspector Ng Ka-ri of the East Kowloon Anti-Triad Action Group said yesterday that after days of intelligence gathering and in-depth analysis, a drug trafficking syndicate was targeted, using a hotel as a base, and using subdivided units and public housing flats as drug production workshops and storage centres to supply drugs to Kowloon. During the operation, drugs with a market value of about HK$2 million were seized, including about 2.4 kilograms of heroin, about 240 grams of methamphetamine, 2 telescopic sticks, 1 telescopic stick stun gun, 18 midazolam commonly known as "Smurfs", a batch of drug production and packaging tools, and 5 arrested persons are now being detained for investigation, and the investigation is still ongoing, and more arrests are not ruled out.
●The AFCD announced yesterday that African swine fever virus (ASFV) was detected in a pig sample from a pig farm in Yuen Long. The ASF case was detected under AFCD's new measures for the detection of dead pigs in local pig farms implemented since 3 January. For the sake of prudence, the department is arranging for the destruction of all over 1,700 pigs on the premises, which will commence this week.
●Citybus announced yesterday that it will add WeChat Pay HK (HKD wallet) and WeChat Pay (RMB wallet) to pay fares from 14 January. All of its bus routes, including Cityflyer, boundary control points and urban bus routes, will accept the new electronic payment methods.
● The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Research Project of the Hong Kong Institute of Economics and Business Strategy of the University of Hong Kong released a macroeconomic forecast for Hong Kong yesterday, pointing out that Hong Kong's economy grew by 4.5% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of last year, an acceleration of 0.4 percentage points quarter-on-quarter, mainly driven by domestic demand, while the forecast for the whole of last year was 3.3% year-on-year. In addition, it is said that by 2028, Hong Kong's health expenditure will grow faster than GDP growth.
● According to the information of the Inland Revenue Department, in December last year, the three spicy taxes (Special Stamp Duty (SSD), Buyer's Stamp Duty (BSD) and Ad Valorem Stamp Duty (DSD) amounted to about HK$332.4 million, up 49.19% month-on-month, and recorded 377 transactions, an increase of 45.56%.
● Yang Mingyi, senior co-director of the research department of Centaline Real Estate, said that the eight major rent indices rose together last year, among which the Centaline Urban Rent Index (CRI) rose by 7.37%, the largest year-on-year increase in the past nine years after 2014. The rental index of large housing estates in Centaline City (CRI Mass) rose by 7.41%, CRI (small and medium-sized units) increased by 7.59%, and CRI (large units) increased by 5.38%. In terms of districts, Hong Kong Island rose by 7.74%, Kowloon rose by 9.59%, and the two districts of the New Territories East rose by more than half.
Editor: Jianming
Reviewer: Zhuo Ling
審核:Oriole
Supervision: Amesugi