BPAHK
BPA First Anniversary Dinner
The Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong (BPA) held its First Anniversary Dinner today (17 December). Mr John Tsang, Acting Chief Executive, and Mr Shen Chong, Director General of the Coordination Department, Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, attended as the officiating guests.
Question – Welfare benefits for Hong Kong elderly people residing in Guangdong and Fujian provinces (Christopher Cheung)
The Social Welfare Department launched the “Guangdong Scheme” in October this year, under which eligible Hong Kong elderly people aged 65 or above who choose to reside in Guangdong Province may receive a monthly Old Age Allowance (OAA) and they are not required to return to Hong Kong each year. I have learnt that at present, Fujian Province is the place of origin of about 1.2 million Hong Kong permanent residents, and more and more elderly people have chosen to reside in Fujian Province in recent years. Yet, the Secretary for Labour and Welfare told the media a few months ago that at this stage, the Government had no intention of extending the coverage of the Scheme to provinces other than Guangdong Province…
Small brokers only want fair competition, not cartel to fix prices (Christopher Cheung)
As the representative of the financial services sector in the Legislative Council, one of my duties is to give suggestions to the government to promote our unique status as an international financial hub.
Question – International school places (Jeffrey Lam)
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…
Question – Statistics on the transactions of private residential properties (Abraham Shek)
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…
Question – Monitoring compliance with dimensional standard of parking spaces for private cars (Andrew Leung)
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…
Speech – Reducing taxes across the board (Andrew Leung)
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.
Question – Hong Kong’s competitiveness (Abraham Shek)
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)…
BPA Gives Proposals on the 2014 Policy Address and Budget
“Creativity and Upward Mobility – Brightening Hong Kong’s Future”
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.