​The Labour Department (LD) today (March 20) appealed to employers to have early discussions with employees on flexible arrangements concerning the statutory holiday of the Ching Ming Festival (April 4) so that their emp… read more
The Inter-departmental Counter Terrorism Unit (ICTU) conducted a counter-terrorism exercise today (March 20) at the Lok Ma Chau Spur Line Control Point. Codenamed "CATCHMOUNT", the exercise simulated an ope… read more
Having regard to the difficulties encountered by government outsourced cleaning service contractors in procuring masks and to protect the health of front-line cleaning workers and maintain environmental hygiene, the Chief Executive … read more
The Department of Health (DH) today (March 20) launched a newly produced promotional video with the theme “Say Ahh: Unite for Mouth Health” on YouTube to support World Oral Health Day (WOHD) and tie in with the FDI World Dental Federation’s global appeal to make a pledge to care for oral health.
The Consultant-in-Charge, Dental Services of the DH, Dr Wiley Lam, called on the public to make a pledge to care for their teeth by adopting good oral care habits to achieve holistic well-being, including keeping the mouth thoroughly clean, having regular dental check-ups, establishing a healthy eating habit and avoiding smoking and alcohol, as well as consuming less sugar.
The Oral Health Education Division (OHED) of the DH has promoted WOHD campaigns to the public during the past few years, stressing that oral health and general health are closely related, and has made the public aware that oral problems, such as dental decay and gum diseases, share many common risk factors with other non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer. These risk factors include poor personal hygiene, smoking and unhealthy eating habits.
The FDI designated March 20 each year as WOHD and called on the dental profession and community groups to hold events on that day for promoting oral health awareness to the public. This year, the OHED of the DH is carrying out a series of oral health promotion activities to disseminate the related oral health messages to the public, including launching the promotional video in its YouTube channel and promoting the theme “Say Ahh: Unite for Mouth Health” in radio broadcasts, bus stop advertisements and its Facebook page
For more information on oral health, please visit the OHED’s Toothclub webpage (www.toothclub.gov.hk), the Facebook fan page of “愛牙 Love Teeth HK” (www.facebook.com/LoveTeethHK/) and the YouTube channel (youtu.be/wgmc9DRy70c). read more
The Government published the Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2020 (the Bill) in the Gazette today (March 20).
The Bill aims to amend the Insurance Ordinance (Cap. 41) to provide for a new regulatory regime for the insurance-linked securities (ILS) business and expand the scope of insurable risks of captive insurers set up in Hong Kong. It will implement the policy initiative in the 2018 Policy Address and the 2019-20 Budget Speech.
“The Bill is important for maintaining Hong Kong’s competitiveness as an international insurance hub and risk management centre. It will also enable the insurance industry to capitalise on the new business opportunities arising from the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area development and the Belt and Road Initiative. Our target is to strive for early passage of the Bill so as to boost the financial services industry and the economy at large amidst the challenging times,” a spokesman for the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau said.
ILS are risk management tools that allow insurers/reinsurers to raise capital by offloading insured risks to the capital markets through securitisation. Given a rising trend of catastrophic events caused by climate change and urbanisation, the global issuance of ILS has grown substantially in recent years but currently the risk exposure of such ILS is mainly confined to the United States and Europe. It is necessary to make Hong Kong a more conducive domicile for ILS to capture potential business opportunities expected to arise in Asia.
A captive insurer is an insurance company set up by its parent company with the primary purpose of insuring and reinsuring the risks of the companies in the group to which the captive insurer belongs. Captive insurance provides multinationals with the ability to deploy a more holistic risk management strategy across their international business. With a sound regulatory regime and the availability of a wide range of professionals, Hong Kong is well-positioned to assist multinationals including Mainland enterprises going global to enhance their risk management.
The Bill will be introduced into the Legislative Council for first reading on March 25. read more