The Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, today (October 24) started her visit to Beijing, where she attended the Hong Kong/Beijing Co-operation Conference and the Beijing-Hong Kong Economic Cooperation Symposium. She also met with the Minister of Finance, the Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee and the Mayor of Beijing.

     Accompanied by the Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan; the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Edward Yau; the Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Mr Patrick Nip; and the Director of the Chief Executive's Office, Mr Chan Kwok-ki, Mrs Lam met with the Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, Mr Cai Qi, and the Mayor of Beijing, Mr Chen Jining, in the morning. Noting that the two sides agreed to hold another plenary session of the Hong Kong/Beijing Co-operation Conference as soon as possible during her meeting with Mr Cai in February this year, she said that she was pleased that the meeting had been organised for today with the joint efforts of the governments of both sides. She thanked the Beijing counterparts for the arrangements and expressed the hope that the meeting would take their co-operation to a new level. With Hong Kong's active participation in the national Belt and Road Initiative, she said the Belt and Road Summit is held in Hong Kong yearly and Mr Cai and Mr Chen are most welcome to lead a delegation to attend the international summit next year.

     After the meeting, Mrs Lam and Mr Chen co-chaired the Fourth Plenary Session of the Hong Kong/Beijing Co-operation Conference, in which the two cities reached consensus on eight co-operation areas comprising the Belt and Road Initiative and economic and trade co-operation, services industries, innovation and technology, cultural and creative industries, education and training of civil servants, city management and public services, youth development and facilitation measures for Hong Kong people in the Mainland. Mrs Lam and Mr Chen also witnessed the signing of the memorandum of the Fourth Plenary Session of the Hong Kong/Beijing Co-operation Conference by Mr Paul Chan and Vice Mayor of Beijing Mr Yin Yong.

     In the afternoon, Mrs Lam and the other officials attended the opening ceremony of the 22nd Beijing-Hong Kong Economic Cooperation Symposium. The Symposium has been held annually since 1997 and the two cities alternate to host it. The theme of this year's symposium is collaboration between Beijing and Hong Kong in the Belt and Road Initiative. Addressing the ceremony, Mrs Lam said that Hong Kong has firmly established itself as the prime platform and a key link for the Belt and Road Initiative, and that Hong Kong will build up its pivotal position by leveraging its strengths to meet the country's needs. She expressed the hope that Beijing and Hong Kong will fully advance their exchanges and collaboration in different areas, and will play an active role in the developments of the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing's subsidiary administrative centre and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

     Mrs Lam, Mr Paul Chan, Mr Nip and Mr Chan Kwok-ki then had a meeting with the Minister of Finance, Mr Liu Kun. Mrs Lam said she was pleased to meet with the Minister in the capacity as the Chief Executive for the first time. She thanked the Ministry of Finance for its support for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, including the new policy it jointly promulgated with the Ministry of Science and Technology in accordance with the personal instruction of President Xi Jinping, allowing universities and research institutions in Hong Kong to apply for funding to undertake central fiscal science and technology projects and the use of the funding in Hong Kong. The new arrangement realised cross-boundary portability of research and development funding, which had been long-anticipated by the local technology sector, boosting the momentum of Hong Kong's innovation and technology development. Mrs Lam noted that the Ministry of Finance had also issued Renminbi and US dollar sovereign bonds, which promoted the development of Hong Kong's bond market. She said that Hong Kong will strive to develop the green bond market and that she looks forward to the participation of Mainland institutions. She added that the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area will increase the flow of people, goods, capital and information in the region and said she hopes the Ministry of Finance would provide support to facilitate the development of the Greater Bay Area.

     Mrs Lam will visit Hebei tomorrow morning (October 25).

                

    The Secretary for Security, Mr John Lee, visited the Hong Kong Port of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB) after it came into operation today (October 24) to observe the work of personnel of local law enforcement agencies (LEAs) on the first day of operation.
 
    Mr Lee first arrived at the Passenger Clearance Building (PCB), where he inspected the clearance procedures for passengers by staff of the Immigration Department and the Customs and Excise Department. He then called at the Police Reporting Centre at the PCB, and was briefed on the operation of the HZMB Hong Kong Port at the Joint Command Centre.
 
    Afterwards, Mr Lee visited the Hong Kong Port Police Base and the Fire Station cum Ambulance Depot to learn more about the policing work and handling of emergencies in the Hong Kong Port area.
 
    Mr Lee said he had every confidence that the personnel of local LEAs would carry out their duties with professionalism to ensure the safe and smooth operation of the HZMB control point.
 

        

     The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (October 24) that in view of a notification from the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) about an outbreak of low-pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza in Kandiyohi County, Minnesota, the United States (US), the CFS has instructed the trade to suspend the import of poultry meat and products, including poultry eggs, from the county with immediate effect to protect public health in Hong Kong.
      
     A CFS spokesman said that Hong Kong imported about 142 000 tonnes of frozen poultry meat and 240 million poultry eggs from the US in the first six months of this year.
      
     "The CFS has contacted the US authorities over the issue and will closely monitor information issued by the OIE on avian influenza outbreaks. Appropriate action will be taken in response to the development of the situation," the spokesman said.

     A vehicle owner was fined $5,000 by the Shatin Magistrates' Courts today (October 24) for being involved in a case in which someone illegally deposited waste from his goods vehicle, with the illegal act captured by Internet protocol (IP) cameras installed by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD).

     A spokesman for the FEHD said that the department's IP cameras recorded footage of someone driving a goods vehicle to Tai Po Tau Village Refuse Collection Point (RCP) in Tai Po and illegally depositing disused furniture outside the RCP from the vehicle on June 9, 2018. The goods vehicle owner was hence charged.

     To address the environmental hygiene problems caused by frequent illegal deposits of refuse and waste at black spots in various districts, the FEHD progressively extended the scheme on installation of IP cameras at illegal refuse deposit black spots to all districts in the territory starting from June this year, for enhanced monitoring of the situation on illegal dumping of waste and planning of more effective enforcement action so as to strengthen the effectiveness of evidence collection and law enforcement. Since the scheme was launched, the FEHD has instituted some 80 prosecutions.

     According to the Public Cleansing and Prevention of Nuisances Regulation (Cap 132BK), it is an offence to litter in public places. Offenders are liable to a maximum fine of $25,000 and imprisonment for six months upon conviction. The FEHD will continue to closely monitor the targeted black spots. Members of the public are urged not to litter and offenders will be prosecuted.

     A man and a woman were fined $10,000 each at the Kowloon City Magistrates' Courts today (October 24) for contravening the Hotel and Guesthouse Accommodation Ordinance.

     The courts heard that in March this year, officers of the Office of the Licensing Authority (OLA), the Home Affairs Department, inspected two suspected unlicensed guesthouses on Portland Street in Mong Kok. During the inspections, the OLA officers posed as lodgers and successfully rented rooms in these guesthouses on an hourly or daily basis.

     According to the OLA's records, these guesthouses did not possess licences under the Ordinance on the days of inspection. The man and woman responsible for managing the premises were charged with contravening section 5(1) of the Ordinance.

     A department spokesman stressed that operating or managing an unlicensed guesthouse is a criminal offence and will lead to a criminal record. Upon conviction, the offender is liable to a maximum fine of $200,000 and two years' imprisonment.

     The spokesman appealed to anyone with information about suspected unlicensed guesthouses to report it to the OLA through the hotline (Tel: 2881 7498), by email (hadlaenq@had.gov.hk), by fax (2504 5805) using the report form downloaded from the OLA website (www.hadla.gov.hk), or through the mobile application "Hong Kong Licensed Hotels and Guesthouses".