Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Wong Kam-sing, on Feed-in Tariff after attending the special meeting of the Legislative Council Finance Committee today (April 17):
 
Reporter: Mr Wong, how likely the new scheme, will, you know, lead to an increase in electricity tariff?
 
Secretary for Environment: As said earlier, we estimated that the implication on tariff should be acceptable and minimal. On one hand, we see the limitation on internal space for renewable energy application in Hong Kong, given our high density context. While we are going to introduce the Feed-in Tariff that will be conducive to more applications, the overall impact on the tariff is estimated to be minimal. At the same time, we introduce the renewable energy certificate that would help to reduce the burden on the overall tariff, and would like to see more low carbon transformation in Hong Kong. So we would like to see more people to apply for the Feed-in Tariff. At the same time, based on our earlier consultation with the public, the majority response was that they would be able to accept, say, around 5 per cent increase in the tariff, or even some would support a 10 per cent increase. But based on our latest estimate, the tariff implication will be far lower than that, probably less than 1 per cent. So based on the public opinion, I think it should be acceptable.
 
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript)

     The Immigration Department (ImmD) on December 6 conducted a sting operation codenamed “Snare 1205” by deploying an officer in disguise to meet with a bogus marriage intermediary. During the operation, four core syndicate members were arrested, including a mastermind, and the syndicate was successfully smashed. The 54-year-old mastermind pleaded guilty to one count of incitement to commit conspiracy at Shatin Magistrates’ Courts and was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment today (April 17).

     The ImmD has been very concerned about non-Hong Kong residents obtaining residency by means of contracting bogus marriages with Hong Kong residents, and has been aware that criminal syndicates have continually published via newspapers, instant messaging software and social networking mobile applications to induce young people to engage in bogus marriage for huge remuneration. After intelligence analysis, a syndicate which recruited young people to engage in bogus marriages was identified. By deploying an officer in disguise to meet with a bogus marriage intermediary to collect evidence, ImmD successfully smashed the syndicate.  During investigation, investigators seized a number of bogus marriage-related documents and mobile phones from the premises of the mastermind and the three core syndicate members. After in-depth investigation, the syndicate was believed to have arranged around 100 bogus marriages.

     “While investigating into the bogus marriage syndicate, as at April 16, a total of 41 Hong Kong and Mainland residents (21 males and 20 females) aged 20 to 65 were arrested, including the four Hong Kong resident core members of the syndicate. Among the 41 arrestees, three were charged. One of them was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment, one was pending sentencing by court and the remaining one was pending court trial. In addition, apart from the mastermind who pleaded guilty to one count of incitement to commit conspiracy at Shatin Magistrates’ Courts and was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment today, the cases of the other three core members of the syndicate are under active investigation. The operation is ongoing and more arrests may be made. In addition, relevant Mainland authorities have been notified about the cases of the Mainlanders,” the spokesman said.

     “The ImmD will continue to spare no effort in combating bogus marriages and other related illicit activities. For people who have obtained their residence in Hong Kong by fraudulent means, their Hong Kong identity card and residence status will be invalidated according to the laws of Hong Kong. They will also be subject to removal back to their place of origin,” the spokesman said.

     The spokesman urged the public not to defy the law by participating in activities related to bogus marriages anywhere and not to make a false oath before immigration officers for the purpose of procuring a marriage in Hong Kong. Those directing others to contract a bogus marriage may also be guilty of the offence of conspiracy to defraud.

     Under the laws of Hong Kong, it is an offence to make false representation to Immigration Officers. Offenders are liable to prosecution and to a maximum fine of $150,000 and imprisonment for 14 years. Aiders and abettors are also liable to prosecution and the same penalties.

     Any person who for the purpose of procuring a marriage, or a certificate or license for marriage, knowingly and wilfully makes a false oath or makes or signs a false declaration shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to, upon conviction, imprisonment for seven years and a fine, and anyone who commits the offence of conspiracy to defraud is liable to prosecution and, upon conviction, the maximum penalty is imprisonment for 14 years.

     Following is the speech by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, at the Heep Hong Society 2018 Charity Dinner “Growing Potential Shining Tomorrow” today (April 17):

Mr Peter Wan (Chairman of the Board of Directors of Heep Hong Society), Ms Nancy Tsang (Chief Executive Officer of Heep Hong Society), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

     Good evening. I feel deeply honoured to join you all tonight to celebrate the 55th anniversary of Heep Hong Society (Heep Hong).

     For over half a century, Heep Hong has grown from strength to strength. It was established in 1963 by a group of caring ladies to offer post-hospital rehabilitation services to children who suffered from Poliomyelitis. Today, Heep Hong has become a leading education and training organisation for children and youth. It commands enormous respect from the community for its commitment to unleashing the potential of these young people and helping them integrate into society. 

     Heep Hong’s 900-strong team of professionals including psychologist, therapists, teachers, nurses and social workers provides professional assessment, guidance, training and family support to more than 10 000 families every year at over 40 service units, as well as numerous mainstream kindergartens, primary and secondary schools across the territory. 

     The theme of tonight’s charity dinner is “Growing Potential Shining Tomorrow”.  It is indeed a perfect reflection of Heep Hong’s mission to maximise the potential of children with special needs, empower their families and facilitate their inclusion into the community for a fulfilling life.
     
     To achieve this laudable goal, Heep Hong has pioneered a host of innovative services over the years. These include:

• establishment of mixed mode centres to help children with special educational needs  such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), dyslexia and ADHD;
• extension of support services at kindergartens and nursery schools, primary and secondary schools through the “Supportive Learning Project” to help students integrate into mainstream education;
• launch of the Academy for Professional Education and Development  to provide a full spectrum of training courses for practitioners and parents;
• establishment of the first-of-its-kind Jockey Club STAR Resource Centre to provide one-stop service for ASD children, youth and their families; and
• introduction of the Pilot Project on Strengthening Support for Persons with Autism and their Parents/Carers to support youth in meeting challenges at different life stages.

 
     The Government shares Heep Hong’s admirable vision and has introduced various policy measures to enable children with special needs to acquire necessary training in the prime training period. We have regularised the Pilot Scheme on On-site Pre-school Rehabilitation Services so that interdisciplinary service teams formed under the Pilot Scheme can provide on-site rehabilitation service and training to more children who are awaiting subvented services from the Social Welfare Department. We have earmarked $460 million a year in government recurrent expenditure to increase the service places from about 3 000 to 7 000 in two years. Heep Hong as in the past is a staunch supporter of Government’s initiative for children with special needs and is offering 475 training places under the Scheme.

     To avoid prolonged delay of treatment for children who are queuing for subvented pre-school rehabilitation services, we have introduced the Training Subsidy Programme to provide non-means tested training subsidy to these children for treatment from recognised service providers. I am glad to note that Heep Hong takes an active part in this programme and 34 of its service units have been approved to be recognised service providers providing a total of 733 training places.

     We are also mindful of the support that disadvantaged children may need at different development stages. To allow primary schools to start planning in advance and prepare appropriate services for these children to facilitate their integration into primary education, the Education Bureau and Social Welfare Department have developed a mechanism to transfer the progress reports of pre-school children with special education need from on-site pre-school rehabilitation services and other subvented rehabilitation services to designated public-funded primary schools.

     In line with the principle of “intervention before assessment”, the Education Bureau has further implemented the “Early Identification and Intervention Programme for Primary One Students with Learning Difficulties” in all public sector primary schools to identify students with learning difficulties so that they can be provided with timely and suitable intervention at an early stage.

     To meet the special needs of these children when they move from childhood to adulthood, we will regularise the Pilot Project on Strengthening Support for Persons with Autism and their Parents/Carers from this October. Multi-disciplinary teams with clinical psychologists, social workers and occupational therapists are formed under the Project to help young persons with high-functioning autism to cope with different challenges during their transition into adulthood. The teams also provide support services to parents and carers of persons with autism, in addition to professional support and training for subvented rehabilitation service units serving persons with autism.

     Ladies and gentlemen, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government is determined to build a harmonious and inclusive society. However, government’s effort alone is not enough. We need the support of relevant sectors of the community along the road to meet this ambitious objective. I am most pleased to have the unfailing support from the Heep Hong Society over the past 55 years to help our children with special needs to integrate into our community.

     I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Ms Nancy Tsang, Chief Executive Officer of Heep Hong Society, for her outstanding leadership over the years. While this may be the last time for Nancy to attend this charity dinner in the capacity of the Chief Executive Officer of the Society, I am most certain that she will continue to contribute her expertise and support to the well-being of our next generation in different capacity in the years ahead. 

     I would also like to express my sincerest gratitude to all staff, parents and practitioners for your enthusiastic support for integrated education and pre-school rehabilitation services in Hong Kong.

     On this happy note, I wish Heep Hong continuous success in the years ahead and all of you an enjoyable and memorable evening. Thank you.

     Following is the opening remarks (English translation) by the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Wong Kam-sing, at the special meeting of the Legislative Council (LegCo) Finance Committee today (April 17):
 
Chairman,
 
     I would like to brief Members on the part of the Estimates relating to the Environment Bureau (ENB) and the key foci of our work in the new financial year.
 
     In the 2018-19 financial year, ENB and departments under my portfolio are allocated with about $17 billion, which is about 26 per cent or $3.5 billion more than the revised estimate for 2017-18. Of the total allocation, recurrent expenditure accounts for about $9.4 billion, up $1.5 billion or 18.4 per cent from the revised estimate for 2017-18. The additional allocation is mainly for taking forward various initiatives including meeting the operation fees of various additional waste facilities such as WEEE·PARK and Phase 1 of Organic Resources Recovery Centres (ORRCs), taking forward the Producer Responsibility Schemes, preparation for the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Charging scheme, setting up outreach teams on waste reduction, reduction of food waste, operation of Community Green Stations, handling public fill, implementation of initiatives of strategic landfill extensions, implementing various nature conservation and biodiversity initiatives, setting up a Countryside Conservation Office (CCO) to co-ordinate conservation projects of remote countryside areas, implementing various air pollution control programmes, implementing the initiatives in relation to combating climate change, promoting renewable energy (RE) and energy efficiency, taking forward measures to enhance the quality of coastal waters of Victoria Harbour and step up marine refuse cleansing services for mitigating marine refuse problem and improving sewage treatment facilities. As regards the number of posts, there will be a net increase of 211 posts in the ENB and the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) in 2018-19, representing an increase of 11 per cent.
 
     In addition, provision for projects under Capital Works Reserve Fund, non-recurrent expenditure and capital account in 2018-19 is about $7.6 billion, representing a net increase of $2.1 billion or 36.9 per cent over the revised estimate for 2017-18. The increase is mainly for meeting the expenses of various capital works projects under the Environment portfolio, including the integrated waste management facilities phase 1, ORRC phase 2 (Cat B), facilitating the sustainable development of the recycling industry, Southeast New Territories Landfill extension, enhancement works for Kwun Tong sewage pumping station and expansion of Sha Tau Kok Sewage Treatment Works – phase 1 (Cat B), implementing energy saving projects in government buildings, etc..
 
     I will now give a brief outline of the work priorities of ENB in the coming year.
 
     On combating climate change, ENB shall continue to coordinate the efforts of various bureaux and departments in implementing the climate change work plan under the Steering Committee on Climate Change chaired by the Chief Secretary for Administration. The Government has set a target to reduce our carbon intensity by 65 to 70 per cent by 2030 compared with the 2005 level, which is equivalent to an absolute reduction of 26 to 36 per cent and resulting in reduction in per capita emissions from around 5.7 tonnes in 2015 to 3.3 to 3.8 tonnes in 2030. Pursuant to the Paris Agreement, Parties should strive to formulate and communicate by 2020 their long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies. To this end, the Government has invited the Council for Sustainable Development to conduct a Public Engagement exercise in 2018-19 financial year, so as to tap and gauge the views of the community for developing Hong Kong’s long-term decarbonisation strategies up to 2050.
 
     ENB shall continue its publicity efforts to raise public awareness of the importance of combating climate change, and highlight the key measures that the Government will undertake itself and in conjunction with various stakeholders. To enhance publicity, a total of $15 million has also been earmarked under the Environment and Conservation Fund in 2017-18 financial year and 2018-19 financial year to subsidise non-profit-making organisations to carry out public education work and demonstration projects on climate change. ENB will also launch a low carbon living calculator in the second quarter this year. The calculator helps the public assess and learn how to reduce their carbon emissions in respect of clothing, food, living and travel in daily life, thereby promoting behavioural change towards low-carbon living.
 
     The Government continues taking the lead to apply RE on a wider and larger scale, and creating the conditions to enable the private sector and the community to consider adopting RE. In the 2017-18 financial year, we earmarked $200 million for bureaux and departments to implement RE projects. About $100 million have been approved for relevant departments to conduct these projects. In order to install RE facilities at more government premises, we will increase the funding by $800 million from $200 million to $1 billion. The Government is also implementing various large scale RE projects, including the successful pilot schemes of floating photovoltaic systems at the Shek Pik Reservoir and the Plover Cove Reservoir. Apart from government projects, we will also introduce new measures under the post-2018 Scheme of Control Agreements (SCAs) signed with the power companies to further promote the development of distributed RE in a broader horizon, including the introduction of the Feed-in Tariff Scheme (FiT) and RE Certificate Schemes. Our main objective of introducing FiT is to provide incentives to develop distributed RE. After careful consideration of the outcome of an independent consultancy study, we have decided to set the FiT rates at $3, $4 and $5 per unit of electricity having regard to the generation capacity of the RE system concerned. We believe that the level of FiT rates would help drastically reduce the payback period of most RE systems to about 10 years and in turn facilitate more proactive consideration by individuals or organisations of the installation of RE systems at their places. In addition, power companies will also sell RE Certificates, through the purchase of which the organisations and the public can support the development of RE in Hong Kong. At the same time, the revenue from such sale can alleviate the tariff impact of the introduction of FiT. We have already submitted the relevant paper to the LegCo Panel on Environmental Affairs, and will provide more details of the aforementioned schemes next week.
 
     Furthermore, the Energy Saving Plan for Hong Kong’s Built Environment 2015~2025+ has a target to reduce energy intensity by 40 per cent by 2025 using 2005 as the base. The Government will continue to lead by example and promote energy efficiency and conservation (EE&C) as well as green building. To achieve the 5 per cent electricity saving target for government buildings from 2015-16 to 2019-20, at least $600 million has been earmarked so far to help bureaux and departments implement energy saving projects. To further encourage EE&C in private buildings, we propose that the tax deduction period be shortened from the current five years to one year for capital expenses on RE and building energy efficiency installations. To encourage the public to use energy-efficient electrical appliances, we aim to complete the legislative amendment process of Phase III of the Mandatory Energy Efficiency Labelling Scheme in mid-2018.
 
     The power companies also play an important role in the promotion of energy saving. Under the post-2018 SCAs, power companies will introduce a series of measures to promote EE&C and we will brief the LegCo Panel on Environmental Affairs on the details of these programmes next week. In gist, under the aforementioned SCAs, the existing energy efficiency funds and incentive schemes in relation to energy saving will be considerably expanded. The power companies will also establish Community Energy Saving Funds with funding from ploughing back over half of the incentives earned as a result of promoting energy saving to assist disadvantaged groups and for the community to further promote energy saving.
 
     Improving air quality has all along been one of our key priorities. Apart from ongoing initiatives such as phasing out progressively pre-Euro IV diesel commercial vehicles by the end of 2019 and strengthening the control of emissions from petrol and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vehicles, we continue to waive in full the first registration tax (FRT) for electric commercial vehicles, electric motor cycles and electric motor tricycles until March 31, 2021 to promote the use of electric vehicles (EVs) as replacements of their conventional counterparts. As for electric private cars, on the one hand, the Government has to control the growth of private cars to avoid causing traffic congestion and aggravating roadside air pollution; on the other hand, we hope to encourage car owners to go for EVs as far as possible when purchasing private cars. Hence, apart from continuing with the current FRT concession of up to $97,500 till March 31, 2021, we will also launch a new One-for-One Replacement Scheme to allow eligible private car owners who buy a new electric private car and scrap an eligible old private car to enjoy a higher FRT concession of up to $250,000.
 
     On air pollution caused by vessels emission, we are drafting a new regulation to mandate vessels within the waters of Hong Kong to use compliant fuel (including low sulphur fuel with sulphur content not exceeding 0.5 per cent) starting from January 1, 2019 to tie in with the control at the domestic marine emission control area of the Pearl River Delta region. Besides, we are preparing the drafting of an amendment regulation to tighten the emission standards of non-road vehicles operating at specified locations such as the airport, container terminals, etc. to bring them in line with the latest statutory emission standards for newly registered vehicles. Over the years, we have been collaborating with the Guangdong government and set reduction targets for emissions of four major air pollutants to improve regional air quality.
 
     Chairman, I am aware that the public are concerned about our work on various aspects.