The stocks, futures and derivatives markets of Hong Kong will trade as normal tomorrow (January 29) after the Chinese New Year holiday.

     In view of the latest situation of the novel coronavirus infection in Hong Kong, the Financial Secretary met with financial regulators and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited this morning (January 28). The Financial Secretary was briefed on the contingency arrangements, preparedness and coordination of the relevant institutions for market open tomorrow.
 
     The Financial Secretary appealed to financial organisations to make special work arrangements for their employees as far as practicable, so as to work together to reduce the risk of the spread of the novel coronavirus in the community.

     To push ahead smart city development, the Government has been actively bolstering the Wi-Fi.HK service to provide free public Wi-Fi service with better user experience for local residents and visitors. Over 36 000 hotspots under the Wi-Fi.HK brand are now in town with an extensive coverage to locations such as the airport, tourist attractions, restaurants, shopping malls and stores, banks, youth service centres and study rooms as well as 3 000-plus buses and taxis and the Airport Express that are on the move. The Wi-Fi.HK service has been further extended to the sitting-out areas of 185 public rental housing estates and all public hospitals.

     Currently, more than 1 200 government venues are installed with Wi-Fi.HK hotspots. These include all public libraries, most museums, public markets and cooked food centres, sports, cultural and recreational venues, parks, promenades, land boundary control points and the cruise terminal. Having completed various enhancement works at government venues like upgrade of technology standard and full replacement of copper wires with fibre links, the Wi-Fi.HK service is now much faster and stable. The connection speed for hotspots under the Wi-Fi.HK brand has increased significantly to reach over 20 megabits per second (Mbps) on average, enabling smooth viewing of online videos.

     The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer has also set up high-speed access points at ten popular tourist attractions with a view to enhancing visitors' travel experience in Hong Kong. These access points with access speed of up to 100 Mbps are located at Kowloon Visitor Centre at Star Ferry Concourse in Tsim Sha Tsui, Temple Street Pai Lau in Jordan, Tai Kwun, Peak Road Garden, Hong Kong Wetland Park Visitor Centre, Repulse Bay Beach, Stanley Promenade, Golden Bauhinia Square, Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Hong Kong Port and Ngong Ping Road Interchange.

     The Department of Management and Marketing of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University conducted user experience surveys on Wi-Fi.HK in the past two years. According to the survey completed at the end of last year, 70 per cent of the respondents have given a score of 5 or above (on a 7-point scale) on the overall satisfaction to service performance, while the mean score of connection speed has increased from 4.9 in 2018 to 5.1 in 2019. Over 87 per cent of the respondents indicated that they would continue to use Wi-Fi.HK service and more than 90 per cent would recommend the service to their friends.

     Dr Ken Wong who was in charge of the survey said that the survey results reflected the Government's good efforts in promoting the Wi-Fi.HK brand. The respondents are generally satisfied with the Wi-Fi.HK service, giving a satisfaction rating similar to those for telecommunications services in other advanced cities and regions.

     Local residents and visitors can enjoy free Wi-Fi.HK service without any registration. They may download the Wi-Fi.HK mobile app or visit Wi-Fi.HK website (www.wi-fi.hk) to search for nearby hotspots and service details.

    

     To tie in with the response level under the "Preparedness and Response Plan for Novel Infectious Disease of Public Health Significance" being raised to Emergency Response Level and avoid people from gathering, the Planning Department announces today (January 28) to close City Gallery from tomorrow (January 29) until further notice. All educational activities and docent services will be cancelled during the closure period.

     For enquiries, please call the City Gallery on 3102 1242.

     To tie in with the response level under the "Preparedness and Response Plan for Novel Infectious Disease of Public Health Significance" being raised to Emergency Response Level and avoid people from gathering, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) announced today (January 28) that all recreation and sports programmes will be temporarily suspended from tomorrow (January 29) until further notice. Programmes include training courses, fun days, carnivals and healthy exercises held in LCSD as well as non-LCSD venues such as housing estates and sheltered workshops.

The following is issued on behalf of the Office of The Ombudsman:

     To reduce the risk of the spread of the novel coronavirus in the community, the Office of the Ombudsman announced today (January 28) that the Office will not open until February 3. The Office will review the situation before then.

     Members of the public may contact us for enquiry or complaint through email, fax, hotline voice message or online form.