Currently, the Joint Office (JO) set up by the Buildings Department and the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department is responsible for handling cases of inter-floor water seepage in buildings as well as coordinating investigations into and law enforcement actions about the relevant complaints. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council…
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…
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.
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…
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)…
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…
