The Secretary for Justice, Mr Paul Lam, SC, attended the 2026 Hainan Free Trade Port Legal Week (Hainan Legal Week) in Hainan today (October 16) to promote Hong Kong's advantage in professional services and deepen co-operation in legal and dispute resolution services between Hong Kong and Hainan, driving the two places to contribute to the high-quality development of the country by leveraging the synergy of "connection of the two ports". 

     This year's Hainan Legal Week is themed "Law-based Free Trade Port‧ Connect with the World". Speaking at the opening ceremony, Mr Lam said that Hong Kong and Hainan have maintained close relationships with close personal ties and business connections. During the National 15th Five-Year Plan period, Hainan will strengthen the construction of foreign-related rule of law and position the Hainan Free Trade Port as a preferred destination for resolving international commercial disputes. Meanwhile, Hong Kong will deepen its development into an international legal and dispute resolution services centre, leverage its strengths in professional services to assist Mainland enterprises in going global, and develop into an international hub for the pooling of high-calibre talent. He stated that the talent pooled in Hong Kong can make the most of their strengths to serve Hainan's needs, supporting Hainan to optimise its business environment governed by the rule of law. Also, Hainan shoulders the national strategic role of developing commercial aerospace as a strategic emerging industry. Hong Kong can provide tailored legal and professional services to support the commercialisation of aerospace development. Mr Lam encouraged aerospace enterprises from Hainan and across the country to adopt Hong Kong law as the applicable law in their contracts and choose Hong Kong as a venue for diversified dispute resolution.

     During the ceremony, Mr Lam and the Director-General of the Department of Justice of Hainan Province, Mr Qiu Lijun, signed a co-operation arrangement in the area of legal services, with a view to deepening co-operation between the Department of Justice and the Department of Justice of Hainan Province, including promoting legal services co-operation, foreign-related legal talent training, and mutual exchanges between Hong Kong and Hainan. Mr Lam then attended an exchange session on advancing the implementation of the co-operation arrangement and met with leaders of the Department of Justice of Hainan Province and representatives of the Hainan Lawyers Association.

     Mr Lam will return to Hong Kong this evening.

     The Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) released today (October 16) the results of the Quarterly Business Tendency Survey for the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2026.

Business Situation

     For all surveyed sectors taken together, the proportion of respondents expecting their business situation to be better (14%) in Q4 2026 over the preceding quarter is higher than that expecting it to be worse (9%). 

     When compared with the results of the Q3 2026 survey round, the proportion of respondents expecting a better business situation in Q4 2026 is 14%, higher than the corresponding proportion of 10% in Q3 2026. On the other hand, the proportion of respondents expecting a worse business situation had decreased from 14% in Q3 2026 to 9% in Q4 2026.

     Analysed by sector, respondents in most of the surveyed sectors expect their business situation to increase on balance or remain broadly unchanged in Q4 2026 as compared with Q3 2026. In particular, more respondents in the accommodation and food services and financing and insurance sectors expect their business situation to be better in Q4 2026 as compared with Q3 2026. On the other hand, in the transportation, storage and courier services sector, more respondents expect their business situation to be worse, as compared to those expecting it to be better.

     The results of the survey should be interpreted with care. In this type of survey on expectations, the views collected in the survey are affected by the events in the community occurring around the time of enumeration, and it is difficult to establish precisely the extent to which respondents' perception of the future accords with the underlying trends. The enumeration period for this survey round was from September 1, 2026 to October 6, 2026. 

Volume of Business / Output

     Respondents in most surveyed sectors expect their volume of business/output to increase on balance or remain broadly unchanged in Q4 2026 as compared with Q3 2026. In particular, more respondents in the accommodation and food services, manufacturing, financing and insurance and retail sectors expect their volume of business/production/sales to increase in Q4 2026 over Q3 2026. 

Employment

     Respondents in a number of the surveyed sectors expect their employment to remain broadly unchanged in Q4 2026 as compared with Q3 2026. Nevertheless, more respondents in the accommodation and food services and real estate sectors expect their employment to increase in Q4 2026 over Q3 2026. On the other hand, more respondents in the information and communications and construction sectors expect their employment to decrease, as compared to those expecting it to increase.

Selling Price / Service Charge

     Respondents in most of the surveyed sectors expect their selling prices/service charges to increase on balance or remain broadly unchanged in Q4 2026 as compared with Q3 2026. In particular, more respondents in the accommodation and food services and transportation, storage and courier services sectors expect their prices of food provided/charges for services rendered to go up in Q4 2026 over Q3 2026. However, more respondents in the construction sector expect their tender prices to go down in Q4 2026 over Q3 2026.

Commentary

     A Government spokesman said that the overall near-term business outlook among large enterprises for the fourth quarter of 2026 strengthened notably, registering a net positive balance of enterprises that expected their business situation to improve over the previous quarter, the first time in ten quarters. Most sectors saw improvements in their outlook. The overall hiring appetite also improved slightly.

     Looking ahead, continued solid growth in the Hong Kong economy will render support to local business outlook. Nonetheless, uncertainties remain in the external environment, which may affect near-term sentiment. The Government will continue to closely monitor the situation.

Further Information

     The survey gathers views on short-term business performance from the senior management of about 570 prominent companies in various sectors in Hong Kong with a view to providing a quick reference, with minimum time lag, for predicting the short-term future economic performance of the local economy.

     The survey covers 10 major sectors in Hong Kong, namely manufacturing; construction; import / export trade and wholesale; retail; accommodation and food services (mainly covering services rendered by hotels and restaurants); transportation, storage and courier services; information and communications; financing and insurance; real estate; and professional and business services sectors.

     Views collected in the survey refer only to those of respondents on their own companies rather than those on the respective sectors they are engaged in, and are limited to the expected direction of quarter-to-quarter change (e.g. "up", "same" or "down") but not the magnitude of change. In collecting views on the quarter-to-quarter changes, if the variable in question is subject to seasonal variations, respondents are asked to provide the expected changes after excluding the normal seasonal variations.

     Survey results are generally presented as "net balance", i.e. the difference between the percentage of respondents choosing "up" and that choosing "down". The percentage distribution of respondents among various response categories (e.g. "up", "same" and "down") reflects how varied their business expectations are. The "net balance", with its appropriate sign, indicates the direction of expected change in the variable concerned. A positive sign indicates a likely upward trend while a negative sign indicates a likely downward trend. However, the magnitude of the "net balance" reflects only the prevalence of optimism or pessimism, but not the magnitude of expected change, since information relating to such magnitude is not collected in the survey. 

     Furthermore, owing to sample size constraint, care should be taken in interpreting survey results involving a small percentage (e.g. less than 10%) of respondents in individual sectors.

     Chart 1 shows the views on expected changes in business situation for the period Q4 2025 to Q4 2026.

     Table 1 shows the net balances of views on expectations in respect of different variables for Q4 2026. 

     The survey results are published in greater detail in the "Report on Quarterly Business Tendency Survey, Q4 2026". Users can browse and download the publication at the website of the C&SD (www.censtatd.gov.hk/en/EIndexbySubject.html?pcode=B1110008&scode=300).
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     Users who have enquiries about the survey results may contact the Business Expectation Statistics Section of the C&SD (Tel: 3903 7263; E-mail: business-prospects@censtatd.gov.hk).

     ​The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) announced today (October 16) that stalls at the 2027 Che Kung Festival (CKF) Fair will be put up for open auction on October 30 (Friday).

     A spokesman for the FEHD said that the annual CKF Fair will be held for 18 consecutive days from February 3 to 20, 2027, at Chui Tin Street Soccer Pitch in Sha Tin. A total of 48 dry goods stalls will be put up for auction, with an upset price of $2,770.

     The open auction will be held at the Assembly Hall, 2/F, Lai Chi Kok Government Offices, 19 Lai Wan Road, Lai Chi Kok, Kowloon, on October 30 starting from 9am until the completion of the auction.

     Bidders for the CKF Fair stalls must be at least 18 years old and ordinarily reside in Hong Kong. Bidders can bid for more than one stall. A bidder must pay the bid price and register in person with his/her own name as the licensee of the stall immediately after successfully bidding for a stall. The bidder is also required to sign at once a licence agreement with the FEHD; otherwise, he/she will forfeit the rights to operate the stall.

     The CKF Fair site will be made available to the licensees two days in advance of the fair (February 1 and 2, 2027) for the setting up of stalls. In the event of any unforeseeable incident that will cause a reduction of the whole licence period (including the duration for setting up stalls and the business period of the fair), the Government has the right to postpone the commencement date and shorten the duration of the period. The bidding price (licence fee) paid will be refunded to the successful bidder on a pro-rata basis without interest.

     The FEHD reminds licensees that the stalls are solely for the purpose of selling and promoting the sale of the permitted commodities, and no other activities are allowed in the licensed area. If the FEHD considers that any activity conducted by the licensee to publicise, promote, display, show, sell or gift any permitted commodities in the venue is unlawful, contrary to the interest of national security, immoral or incompatible with the object of the CKF Fair, the FEHD is entitled to direct the licensee to stop conducting such activity and the licensee must immediately comply with such direction.

     Stall licensees must not destroy, damage or abandon any unsold commodities at or in the vicinity of the stall. They must completely remove the stall structure and all paraphernalia, together with all refuse, debris and unsold commodities (whether damaged or otherwise), from the licensed area before 10pm on February 20, 2027.

     According to the licence agreement, licensees must not keep, store or use any compressed helium cylinders in the licenced area. Sales of floating LED glowing balloons and aquarium fish by stall licensees are prohibited at the CKF Fair.

     In addition, as stated in the licence agreement, the height of dry goods stalls must not exceed 3 metres from ground level. Also, each corner and anchor point of the marquee (if any) shall be securely fastened using appropriate ballast weights, such as sandbags or purpose-designed marquee water weights. During the period when the Strong Monsoon Signal is in force or is to be issued, the licensee shall immediately inspect the stall and adopt reinforcement measures as necessary.

     Successful bidders shall comply with all the stipulations and provisions as set out in the licence agreement. Otherwise, the department is entitled to terminate the agreement and the licensee shall immediately vacate the stall.

     Details of the 2027 CKF Fair, such as the public notice, the location and layout of the fair venue, commodities allowed for sale at the fair stalls, open auction arrangements and related rules, as well as a sample of the licence agreement, are available on the FEHD website (www.fehd.gov.hk). Interested bidders may visit the website or contact the FEHD's Sha Tin District Environmental Hygiene Office (2634 0134) for enquires.