Tag Archives: China

     A man who went missing in Tin Sum has been located.      Lam Chi-wang, aged 29, went missing after he left his residence in Sha Kok Estate in the small hours of December 15, 2019. His guardian m… read more

     Following is a question by the Hon Alice Mak and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan, in the Legislative Council today (January 15):
 
Question:
 
     Since the 2011-2012 financial year, the Hospital Authority (HA) has employed non-locally trained medical practitioners who have been approved by The Medical Council of Hong Kong for limited registration. Persons employed as Service Residents under limited registration must possess qualifications comparable to the Intermediate Examinations of the constituent Colleges of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine (HKAM) (Qualification One), while persons employed as Associate Consultants under limited registration must be certified or registered as a specialist in relevant specialty in the country of practising medicine or possess equivalent qualifications, and the certification or registration system of the specialist status concerned must be nationally or officially recognised in the country of practising medicine (Qualification Two). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
 
(1) whether it knows, among the non-locally trained medical practitioners employed by HA in each of the past five financial years, the respective numbers of those with Qualification One and those with Qualification Two;
 
(2) whether it knows, in each of the past five financial years, the number of non-locally trained medical practitioners employed by HA who received training offered by HKAM (broken down by specialty);
 
(3) whether it knows HKAM’s considerations in determining the number of training places; the number of specialist training places offered by HKAM to locally trained medical practitioners in each of the past five financial years, and whether HKAM reduced the number of such places as a result of provision of training for non-locally trained medical practitioners;
 
(4) whether it knows, among the non-locally trained medical practitioners who sought employment with HA in each year since the 2011-2012 financial year, the number of those who did not possess Qualification One or Qualification Two; and
 
(5) as it has been reported that the constituent Colleges of HKAM will no longer require non-locally trained medical practitioners who receive their training to possess Qualification One, whether it knows if HA will correspondingly adjust the conditions for employment as medical practitioners under limited registration; if HA will, how HA ensures that the quality of public healthcare services will not deteriorate?
 
Reply:
 
President,
 
     My reply to the question raised by the Hon Alice Mak is as follows:
 
(1) Under the Limited Registration Scheme of the Hospital Authority (HA), applicants for the position of Service Resident under limited registration must possess qualifications comparable to the Intermediate Examinations of the constituent Colleges of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine (HKAM) (Qualification One), while applicants for the position of Associate Consultant under limited registration must be certified or registered as a specialist or equivalent in relevant specialty in the country of practising medicine, and the certification or registration system of the specialist status must be a nationally or officially recognised system (Qualification Two).
 
     The respective numbers of Service Residents and Associate Consultants employed by the HA under limited registration in the past five years are tabulated below:
 

	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
Service Resident	10	12	12	9	18
Associate Consultant	0	0	0	1	4

Note: The figures were the number of non-locally trained doctors employed by HA as at December 31 of that year under limited registration for relieving manpower shortage.
 
(2) As at December 31, 2019, the HA employed 22 non-locally trained doctors under limited registration to serve in departments with manpower shortage, including anaesthesia, accident and emergency, cardiothoracic surgery, family medicine, medicine, neurosurgery, paediatrics, pathology, radiology and surgery.
 
     As regards the provision of specialist training for non-locally trained doctors working in Hong Kong, the HA has been discussing with various stakeholders, including the HKAM and the Medical Council of Hong Kong (MCHK), to allow those doctors recruited with limited registration to continue their specialist training in Hong Kong. Currently, a number of colleges under HKAM have admitted these doctors to continue their specialist training in Hong Kong.
 
(3) With the increasing number of local medical graduates, about 420 of them who have completed internship with full registration by the MCHK are available for employment by the HA each year since 2018-19. Correspondingly, the HA has increased the number of Resident Trainee posts in order to recruit all qualified local medical graduates and provide them with specialist training. This also enables the HA to fill the existing vacancies and supports the implementation of new service programmes for the year. In other words, the HA did not reduce the number of specialist training places for local medical graduates to make places for training non-locally trained doctors.
 
     The numbers of Resident Trainee posts for recruitment in the past five financial years are tabulated below:
 

	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19
Total	326	432	393	382	477

 
(4) Every year, the HA receives a certain number of applications from non-locally trained doctors under the Limited Registration Scheme. However, not all of these applicants were employed for most of them did not meet the qualification requirements while some declined the appointment offer due to personal reasons. Take, for example, the financial year 2018-19, in which 154 applications were received under the scheme. Among those applicants, 30 were assessed to be eligible (including attaining Qualification One or Qualification Two) and considered suitable for appointment after interview by relevant clinical departments. Of the remaining 124 applicants, 118 were assessed to be ineligible and six withdrew their applications for personal reasons.
 
(5) Regarding the provision of specialist training for non-locally trained doctors, a number of colleges of the HKAM currently admit these doctors for continuation of their specialist training in Hong Kong. The HKAM and its relevant colleges are discussing and working out the implementation details. Upon finalisation of the details, the HA will update the recruitment requirements for doctors with limited registration accordingly, and submit relevant applications to the MCHK for approval.
 
     As for the standard of doctors with limited registration, the HA has set up a Task Force on Limited Registration Scheme for vetting the qualifications and eligibility of applicants to ensure that the doctors to be appointed have attained the required medical standard. Members of the Task Force comprise the Deans of the two Faculties of Medicine, the President of the HKAM, representatives of the HA Board and the Chief Executive of the HA. The selection process includes scrutinising the applicants’ specialist qualifications by the relevant colleges of the HKAM, and examining the applicants’ qualifications and clinical experience by the Co-ordinating Committees of respective specialties and user departments of the HA. Upon completion of the final interview, the HA will submit relevant applications to the MCHK for approval. read more

     Following is a question by the Hon Holden Chow and a reply by the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Lau Kong-wah, in the Legislative Council today (January 15):

Question:
 
     Some academics have pointed out that quite a number of people have recently been misled by wrong messages into identifying with and even advocating Hong Kong independence. They suggest that the Government should step up publicity and education efforts within the Government and among education institutions at various levels and the various youth uniformed groups, so that more people will understand the constitutional status of the Hong Kong SAR under the “one country, two systems” as well as the national conditions. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council if it knows:
 
(1) the number of complaints received by the various youth uniformed groups since June last year alleging that their members had participated in unlawful public activities, or openly made remarks which were secessional or discredited the “one country, two systems”; whether such groups have taken disciplinary actions against those members found to have misconducted themselves; if so, of the details; if not, how the Government prevents illegal acts and messages advocating Hong Kong independence from propagating within such groups; and
 
(2) whether the various youth uniformed groups provided training in each of the past five years for their members on understanding the country’s Constitution, the Basis Law and the national conditions; if so, set out the details of the relevant programmes in a table; if not, whether the Government will require such groups to offer such programmes?
 
Reply:
 
President,
 
     Uniformed groups (UGs) are major partners of the Government in promoting youth development. At present, the Home Affairs Bureau (HAB) provides recurrent subvention to 11 UGs in the community to support their provision of informal education and training to young people for helping them foster positive values, strengthen leadership skills and attain whole-person development. The total number of members in the 11 UGs has now exceeded 110 000.
 
     My reply to various parts of Hon Holden Chow’s question is as follows:
 
(1) The HAB has signed with each of the subvented UGs in 2014 a Memorandum of Administrative Arrangements (MAA) requiring the annual submission of year plan, budget, financial report and annual report in relation to youth activities for the HAB’s scrutiny and monitoring. UGs are not required to annually submit detailed information on all relevant youth activities to the HAB. Operating effectively, we would review the reports submitted by UGs to ensure prudent use of public resources.
 
     In addition to recurrent subvention from the HAB, UGs are also encouraged to proactively seek donations from other bodies or the general public for expanding their services and enabling further benefits to more young people. According to records, the HAB’s recurrent subvention accounted for about four per cent to 62 per cent of the operating income of the respective UGs in the 2016-19 financial years.
 
     UGs implement diverse youth development activities and trainings, having regard to their own background, vision and characteristics. The MAA provides that a UG shall be autonomous in the management and control of its operations and activities. All along, UGs are not required to submit information about complaints to the HAB. Therefore, the HAB has neither maintained information about complaints nor participated in their internal discussions or decisions.
 
     In fact, we have been encouraging UGs to take part in activities that help youth cultivate their “sense of national identity” and “international perspective”. The work on youth development and the provision of various programmes and activities by UGs will be detailed in the following part of my reply.
 
(2) The current-term Government strives to address young people’s concerns about education, career pursuit and home ownership, and encourage their participation in politics as well as public policy discussion and debate. Our vision is to instil among them a positive outlook on life, a commitment to society, a sense of national identity, a love for Hong Kong and an international perspective. In collaboration with non-governmental organisations (NGOs), we support diverse development of young people, provide them with opportunities to participate in community affairs and to serve the community, and encourage them to broaden their horizons and enhance their understanding of national and world affairs.
 
     Through various funding schemes, including the Funding Scheme for Youth Exchange in the Mainland and the Funding Scheme for International Youth Exchange under the Youth Development Commission (YDC), we support local NGOs to provide young people with opportunities to take part in exchanges on the Mainland and overseas for enabling their understanding of the prevailing economic, social and cultural landscape at the national and international levels, and for promoting their acceptance of different cultures through exchanges with young people from the Mainland and overseas. For details of the above two funding schemes, including the list of funded organisations (comprising UGs) and projects, members may refer to the website (Note) of the YDC.
 
     In the past five years, through the funding schemes under the YDC, a total of about 55 exchange programmes on the Mainland or overseas have been provided to the youth members of UGs for enhancing their understanding of “one country, two systems”, the Basic Law and national affairs, and for broadening their international perspective as well. Exchange locations included Beijing, Guangdong Province, Sichuan Province, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, etc. In addition, according to our regular communication with UGs, we understand that they have provided various training programmes on promoting the understanding of the Constitution, the Basic Law and national affairs for members’ participation.
 
     Looking ahead, we will work closely with UGs to support their ongoing youth work for collaborative efforts to help young people build a positive outlook on life and develop into a new generation with a commitment to society, a sense of national identity, a love for Hong Kong and an international perspective.
 
Note: For the Funding Scheme for Youth Exchange in the Mainland (www.ydc.gov.hk/en/programmes/ep/ep_fundingscheme.html)
For the Funding Scheme for International Youth Exchange
(www.ydc.gov.hk/en/programmes/ep/ep_fundingschemeinternational.html) read more

     Following is a question by the Hon Chu Hoi-dick and a written reply by the Acting Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Joseph Chan, in the Legislative Council today (January 15):
 
Question:
 
     The Chief Executive indicated in the Policy Address delivered on October 10, 2018 that the Government would introduce the following measures (the new measures) which sought to enhance the protection of the employment terms and conditions as well as labour benefits of non-skilled workers engaged under government service contracts that relied heavily on the engagement of non-skilled workers (contracts): (A) a worker with no less than one year’s continuous service under a Standard Employment Contract of the contract would be entitled to a contractual gratuity being 6 per cent of the total wages earned, (B) a worker with no less than one month’s service would be entitled to statutory holiday pay, and (C) a worker who works when Tropical Cyclone Warning Signal No. 8 or above is in force would be entitled to no less than 1.5 times of the wages. Such measures would be applicable to contracts tendered from April 1, 2019 onwards. As for contracts at the tendering stage or already awarded during the period between the day on which the relevant measures were announced in the aforesaid Policy Address and March 31, 2019, transitional arrangements would be put in place by the Government: the new terms would be incorporated into the relevant contracts having regard to the actual circumstances to enable the workers concerned to benefit from the measures, and the Government would provide service contractors (the contractors) with top-up payments in this regard. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
 
(1) of the number of cleansing and security service contracts, as at December 31, 2019, which were signed between the four major procuring government departments (i.e. (i) Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, (ii) Leisure and Cultural Services Department, (iii) Government Property Agency, and (iv) Housing Department) and the contractors which were still valid, and set out in Table 1 a breakdown by the financial year into which the tender invitation dates fell (i.e. (a) 2018-2019 or before, and (b) 2019-2020 or after);
 
Table 1

Financial year	Cleansing service					Security service					Total
	(i)	(ii)	(iii)	(iv)	Sub- total	(i)	(ii)	(iii)	(iv)	Sub-total
(a)
(b)
Total

 
(2) whether it knows the number of non-skilled workers engaged by the contractors to fulfil their contracts mentioned in (1) (set out in a table of the same format as Table 1);
 
(3) whether it knows, among the contracts mentioned in (1)(a), the number of those to which the transitional arrangements are not applicable, and set out in Table 2 a breakdown by the financial year into which the expiry dates of the relevant contracts fell/will fall (i.e. (a) 2019-2020, (b) 2020-2021, (c) 2021-2022, and (d) 2022-2023 or after) and the government departments awarding the contracts;
 
Table 2

Financial year	Cleansing service					Security service					Total
	(i)	(ii)	(iii)	(iv)	Sub- total	(i)	(ii)	(iii)	(iv)	Sub-total
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Total

 
(4) whether it knows the number of non-skilled workers engaged by the contractors to fulfil their contracts mentioned in (3) (set out in a table of the same format as Table 2);
 
(5) whether it knows the respective to-date numbers of cleansing and security service workers who were granted benefits relating to the new measures under the transitional arrangements (set out in Table 3 by the aforesaid four government departments);
 
Table 3

Measures	Cleansing service					Security service					Total
	(i)	(ii)	(iii)	(iv)	Sub- total	(i)	(ii)	(iii)	(iv)	Sub- total
(A)
(B)
(C)

 
(6) of the respective total amounts of top-up payment made under the transitional arrangements to the contractors by the aforesaid four government departments in respect of each of the new measures (set out in a table of the same format as Table 3); and
 
(7) whether it has reviewed the effectiveness of the implementation of the new measures and the transitional arrangements in improving the employment terms and conditions as well as labour benefits of non-skilled workers; if so, of the criteria adopted for and the outcome of the review; if not, whether it will conduct such a review, as well as the relevant timetable?
 
Reply:
 
President,
 
     We have consulted the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD), Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD), Government Property Agency (GPA), and the Housing Department (HD) (being the executive arm of the Housing Authority (HA)). The reply to each part of the question is as follows:
 
(1) and (2) Information on the number of contracts that rely heavily on the deployment of non-skilled workers (service contracts) between the four major procuring departments and service contractors that were still in force on December 31, 2019, as well as the number of non-skilled workers involved, is set out at Annex 1.
 
(3) and (4) For the contracts covered in Part (1) and (2) of the reply, the number of service contracts awarded by the four major procuring departments in or before the 2018-19 financial year that are not covered by the transitional arrangements, as well as the number of non-skilled workers involved, are at Annex 2.
 
(5) and (6) Under the transitional arrangements, the number of non-skilled workers who had received payments from FEHD and LCSD in respect of the benefits of contractual gratuity, statutory holiday pay and additional remuneration for the work performed when Tropical Cyclone Warning Signal No.8 or above is in force, as well as the amount of top-up payments to the service contractors, are at Annex 3.
 
     HA will make reference to the Government’s practice and vary the relevant service contracts during the transitional period to provide top-up payments to service contractors in order to benefit the non-skilled workers involved. Since it concerns a number of service contracts involving divested estates with HA as the Deed of Mutual Covenant Manager, consent of other owners (such as owners of divested shopping centres) in divested estates has to be obtained before proceeding with contract negotiation, signing of supplemental agreements with service contractors and incorporating the new measures into the contracts. Therefore, HA has not yet entered into any agreement with service contractors. HD is now proceeding with the amendments for HA’s service contracts in full steam. As a result, HD has not provided any top-up payment under the transitional arrangements as at December 31, 2019.
 
     Relevant service contracts under GPA were all awarded before October 10, 2018. Hence, the transitional arrangements do not apply to these service contracts.
 
(7) The new measures are a major step forward in according better protection to non-skilled workers engaged by service contractors. The Government will keep in view the implementation of the transitional arrangements and the new measures, and will consider areas for further improvement on an ongoing basis.
 
     While the new measures, implemented since April 2019, have taken effect for less than one year, initial statistics reveal that the wage level of non-skilled workers engaged under the service contracts has increased under the new measures. read more

     â€‹Following is the transcript of remarks at a media session by the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Lau Kong-wah, after attending the Legislative Council meeting today (January 15): Reporter: Why did you cancel the Lunar… read more