The following is issued on behalf of the Legislative Council Secretariat:

     The Legislative Council (LegCo) Finance Committee (FC) will hold two sessions of meeting tomorrow (April 12) in Conference Room 1 of the LegCo Complex to examine the Estimates of Expenditure 2019-2020. The arrangements of the meeting will be as follows:

     (i) Session on Welfare and Women of the special FC will start at 3.30pm and;

     (ii) Session on Labour of the special FC will start at 6pm.

     â€‹The Director-General of Investment Promotion, Mr Stephen Phillips, today (April 11) commenced his visit to Paris, France to promote Hong Kong as the favourable global business platform in the Asia-Pacific Region.
      
     Mr Phillips will meet with corporate leaders in various sectors including financial and professional services, innovation and industrial and more. During the visit, he will also attend a business luncheon hosted by the Department of Justice and speak at a reception jointly held by the Department of Justice and Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK) to update French companies about the latest business environment in Hong Kong. In 2018, France was the fourth largest source of assisted companies in InvestHK’s portfolio.
      
     Mr Phillips said, "The number of French companies in Hong Kong has been growing steadily over the past few years. At the same time, French companies are eyeing broader investment in Mainland China. As an international city of China and given its geographical location, Hong Kong has been a crucial gateway via which French investment and other foreign investment go into Mainland China."
      
     "In addition, the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area sets out clearly Hong Kong's multiple roles, amongst other things, as an international financial city, a global innovation hub and the centre for international legal and dispute resolution services in the Asia-Pacific region. These areas of work are all conducive to developing Hong Kong further as an international metropolis with enhanced competitiveness. Hong Kong will offer an even more favourable business platform for foreign companies that aim to develop a reliable foothold in the Asia-Pacific region and have access to the massive Greater Bay Area market."
      
     The Greater Bay Area covers nine cities in Guangdong Province, namely Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing, as well as the two Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macao. It is an enormous market with a population of 71 million and a gross domestic product of US$1.6 trillion.
      
About InvestHK
         
     InvestHK is the department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government responsible for attracting foreign direct investment and supporting overseas and Mainland businesses to set up or expand in Hong Kong. It provides free advice and customised services for overseas and Mainland companies. For more information, please visit www.investhk.gov.hk.

     Renowned Greek dance theatre director Dimitris Papaioannou will bring his dance work "The Great Tamer" to Hong Kong for its local debut in June. In view of the overwhelming response to the two shows on June 14 and 15, an extra show will be presented. Details are as follows:

Date and time: June 13 (Thursday), 7.45pm
Venue: Grand Theatre, Hong Kong Cultural Centre
Tickets: $200 to $580

     In 2017, Papaioannou staged his first internationally co-commissioned work "The Great Tamer". This dreamlike production focuses on ancient and modern myths, conjuring a masterpiece of visual art based on the most powerful of creators: death. It features 10 performers whose flawless collaboration looks into the deepest, darkest parts of the human soul. This presentation is part of an international tour.

     Tickets for the extra show will be available at URBTIX (www.urbtix.hk) from Wednesday (April 17). For telephone credit card bookings, please call 2111 5999. For programme enquiries and concessionary schemes, please call 2268 7323 or visit www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/Programme/en/dance/programs_732.html. Please note that the programme contains loud noise and nudity scenes and is recommended for people aged 16 and above.

     A post-performance talk to be conducted in English will be held on June 14 (Friday) with Dimitris Papaioannou as the speaker. Members of the audience are welcome to stay behind for the session.

     Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan, after attending the special meeting of the Legislative Council's Finance Committee today (April 11):

Reporter: Do you think the Hong Kong Medical Council should approve the … as soon as possible and they should abandon the secret ballot?

Secretary for Food and Health: The Food and Health Bureau welcomes any measures that will increase the attractiveness to overseas doctors to come back to work in Hong Kong because we face manpower shortage. The Medical Council would be discussing in the upcoming meeting those proposals that they had proposed last time about waiving the internship requirement for overseas doctors. The Food and Health Bureau welcomes those proposals, but as I have said before, I think this is only one small step. For other measures that would improve or increase the attractiveness of getting more overseas doctors to come back to work in Hong Kong, we are now working very closely together with the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine, the Hospital Authority, the Department of Health and also the key stakeholders of medical associations in order to come together to work out some improvement measures.

Reporter: Are you positive about it, because they have already voted down once?

Secretary for Food and Health: According to media reports, actually many doctors' associations and stakeholders are disappointed about the result. I think that is why the Hong Kong Medical Council has decided to very quickly discuss the proposals. I am confident that they will come up with some proposals that would achieve the purpose.

Reporter: Is there anything that the Government can do to monitor the Hong Kong Medical Council better and to step up their role in this matter?

Secretary for Food and Health: The Hong Kong Medical Council is a statutory and independent body. Of course we do have government representatives but the number is small. But in any case, our government members would obviously voice their concern, opinions and suggestions. I think what the Hong Kong Medical Council is proposing is one but a small step in attracting overseas doctors. We will pursue other measures such as providing more resources to the Hospital Authority to hire more doctors under Limited Registration. Those doctors may not be specialists, but they may be at intermediate level and also doctors at different levels. I think we should introduce measures to attract those people as well.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

     Hongkong Post announced today (April 11) that, as advised by the postal administration of the United States, due to mail backlog at the Chicago mail processing centre, all mail delivery services to Chicago (postcodes 400XX to 799XX) are subject to delay.