Some members of the business sector have relayed to me that the shortage of international school places in the Hong Kong, in particular primary school places on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon, has deterred quite a number of talents interested in developing their career in Hong Kong from doing so as they are worried of being unable to find suitable schools in Hong Kong for their children. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council…
Monthly Archives: November 2013
Will the Government inform this Council of the respective numbers and total values of the transactions of private residential properties acquired by non-Hong Kong permanent residents and those acquired in the name of a company in each month between January and October this year, with a breakdown by transaction price of property…
The Hong Kong Planning Standards and Guidelines stipulate that a standard parking space for private cars shall be 5 metres (m) in length, 2.5 m in width and 2.4 m in height. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council: (a) of the current respective numbers of private car parking spaces in private and public car parks in Hong Kong…
President, since Hong Kong follows a policy of simple tax rates, its financial management system is relatively simple and clear. We in the business sector have no objection to a reasonable tax regime, but we often find that public funds derived from tax revenue are not put to good use after redistribution.
According to the Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014 of the World Economic Forum (the Report), Hong Kong’s position in the overall rankings of the Global Competitiveness Index among 148 countries/economies has advanced by two places to the seventh this year. Despite the advancement in overall ranking, Hong Kong ranked significantly low in several areas (e.g. Hong Kong’s enrollments for primary and secondary education remained at low rankings of 89th and 93rd respectively). The report recommended that Hong Kong needed to improve on higher education (ranked 22nd) and innovation (ranked 23rd)…
At a meeting today (13 November), the Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong (BPA) presented the Chief Executive, Mr Leung Chun-ying, and the Financial Secretary, Mr John Tsang, with more than 200 proposals that were centred around the theme of “promoting upward social mobility”. These included, among other, expanding the middle-class, encouraging creativity, enhancing skills , raising competitiveness and developing green infrastructure, all of which are critical to a better and brighter future in Hong Kong.
It has been reported that the Suicide Prevention Services (SPS), which provides dedicated services specifically for suicide prevention, received in 2012-2013 more than 34 000 calls for assistance, a record high in recent three years. Meanwhile, the media have recently reported suicide cases from time to time, in which some of the victims were students still at school. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council…
It has been reported that the mainland authorities have conducted investigations into the alleged use of means such as hospitality, etc. by foreign-funded pharmaceutical manufacturers to entice healthcare personnel into prescribing to patients pharmaceuticals made by the pharmaceutical manufacturers concerned. It has also been reported that some healthcare personnel on the Mainland accepted money from milk powder companies for distributing their formula products to new-born babies so that the babies will get used to taking the formula products of such brands. Some members of the public have relayed to me their concern about the aforesaid situation happening in local healthcare institutions…