Tag Archives: China

     The Labour Department (LD) will hold a public talk entitled “Occupational health series for office workers (I): Health hints on the use of computer” on July 5 (Friday). The talk will briefly introduce the Occupational Safety and Health (Display Screen Equipment) Regulation, as well as the occupational health hazards and preventive measures associated with prolonged use of computers, so as to enhance employees’ occupational health awareness.
 
     The talk will be given by the LD’s occupational hygienist and occupational health nurse at 3pm in the Lecture Hall of the Hong Kong Space Museum, 10 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui. It will include demonstrations and practice of workplace exercise.
 
     The LD will hold another talk entitled “Occupational safety and health (OSH) for confined space workers” on July 12 (Friday). To enhance workers’ OSH awareness in confined spaces, the talk will explain the related OSH hazards as well as their preventive measures.
 
     The talk will be given by the LD’s occupational hygienist, occupational safety officer and occupational health nurse at 3pm in Activity Room 1, Hong Kong Central Library, 66 Causeway Road, Causeway Bay.
 
     Both talks will be conducted in Cantonese. Admission is free. For enquiries or registration, please call 2852 4040. read more

     The Government Property Agency is inviting tenders for a three-year tenancy of Shop No. 4 outside the Departure Hall on the first floor of the Passenger Terminal Building, Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point, New Territories.

     The premises should only be used for general retail purposes (excluding fast food shop, restaurant, godown, residential use and office use, and excluding sale of any goods or commodities that are subject to export control under laws of Hong Kong, any regulations made thereunder and any amending legislations).

     The tender notice was uploaded today (June 28) to the Agency’s website: www.gpa.gov.hk. Tender documents are available for collection at the Government Property Agency, 31/F, Revenue Tower, 5 Gloucester Road, Wan Chai, during office hours (8.30am to 5.45pm from Mondays to Fridays). The documents can also be downloaded from the Agency’s website.

     Interested tenderers who wish to inspect the site should make prior appointment with the Government Property Agency by calling 2594 7697 on or before July 16 this year.

     Tenderers must submit their tenders by placing them in the Government Logistics Department Tender Box situated on the Ground Floor, North Point Government Offices, 333 Java Road, North Point, before noon on August 1 this year. Late tenders will not be accepted. read more

     The Government published the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes (Amendment) Bill 2019 (the Amendment Bill) in the Gazette today (June 28).
 
     Specifically, the Amendment Bill seeks to amend the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Ordinance (Cap. 485) and relevant subsidiary legislation to:
 
(a) give the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority (MPFA) explicit power to set up a wholly owned subsidiary as the legal entity to build, own and operate the eMPF Centralised Platform (CP) for more efficient administration of Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) schemes; and
 
(b) enable the MPFA to charge MPF approved trustees the statutory Annual Registration Fee (ARF) at a level of 0.03 per cent of the net asset value (NAV) of an MPF scheme starting from January 1, 2020.

     “The CP will facilitate the standardisation, streamlining and automation of MPF scheme administration processes to create room for reduction of MPF management fees, and to create a predominantly paperless MPF experience. After taking into account various considerations and the views of the industry, we consider that tasking a subsidiary under the MPFA to implement the CP project is the optimal institutional arrangement,” a spokesman for the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau said.
 
     The MPFA has completed a Request for Information exercise to collect market information and is now preparing for the tendering exercise and the next-phase legislative proposal. The current target of the Government and the MPFA is to complete the development of the CP in 2022 and implement it in phases thereafter.
 
     As for the ARF, it is the Government’s policy that the MPFA should be self-financing by recovering from approved trustees its costs of exercising and performing its functions with respect to MPF registered schemes. However, due to various reasons, the MPFA has never charged trustees the statutory ARF. As such, the ARF level has been set at 0 per cent of the NAV of a registered scheme since the commencement of the operation of the MPF regime in 2000.
   
     “To protect the interests of scheme members, trustees will be prohibited from charging any constituent fund of a registered scheme, any registered scheme or any scheme member any ARF-related fee. With such prohibition, the Government suggests adopting an incremental approach by starting with a lower level of 0.03 per cent of the NAV of a registered scheme for the first six years to allow room for trustees to adjust to the new expenses. The ARF level will be revised with effect from the seventh year after review with a view to achieving cost recovery from then,” the spokesman added.
 
     The Amendment Bill will be introduced into the Legislative Council for first reading on July 3. 
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     The Department of Health (DH) today (June 28) announced that applications for hospital licences under the Private Healthcare Facilities Ordinance (Cap. 633) (the Ordinance) will be accepted from July 2. The Director of Health has also issued the Code of Practice for Private Hospitals, which will take effect on the same date. The relevant notices were gazetted today.
 
     The Private Healthcare Facilities Bill was passed by the Legislative Council on November 15, 2018, and the Ordinance was gazetted on November 30, 2018. The new Ordinance will further protect patient safety and rights through the introduction of a new regulatory regime for private healthcare facilities (PHFs).
 
     Four types of PHFs will be subject to regulation, namely hospitals, day procedure centres, clinics and health services establishments. The regulatory regime will be implemented in phases based on the types of PHFs and their risk levels.
 
     From July 2 to December 31, 2019, operators of existing private hospitals currently regulated under the Hospitals, Nursing Homes and Maternity Homes Registration Ordinance (Cap. 165) and scheduled nursing homes listed in Schedule 10 to the Ordinance may apply to the DH for a hospital licence under the Ordinance. Operators of new private hospitals which have not yet commenced operation may also submit their applications for a licence under the new Ordinance starting from July 2. 
 
     Hospital licences issued under the Ordinance will take effect on January 1, 2021. By then, the regulation of private hospitals will have migrated to the new regime under the Ordinance and the repeal of the Hospitals, Nursing Homes and Maternity Homes Registration Ordinance will take effect on the same date.
 
     Applications for licences for day procedure centres under the Ordinance will be accepted from January 2020. Details will be announced in due course. The dates for the applications for licences of clinics and health services establishments and requests for the letter of exemption in respect of clinics will also be announced later.
 
     For more details of hospital licence application, please visit the website of the DH’s Office for Regulation of Private Healthcare Facilities (www.orphf.gov.hk).
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     The Government announced today (June 28) that the Chief Executive has appointed and re-appointed the following persons to the Board of the Ocean Park Corporation (OPC) for a period of two years from July 1, 2019, to June&n… read more