The 2019 Rural Ordinary Election will be held in January next year. The nomination of candidates will start tomorrow (November 9) and end on November 22, both days inclusive.
         
     There are two types of village representatives, namely Indigenous Inhabitant Representatives (IIRs) and Resident Representatives (ReRs). For the IIR Election, a candidate must be an indigenous inhabitant as well as an elector of an Indigenous Village/Composite Indigenous Village and ordinarily reside in Hong Kong.
         
     For the ReR Election, a candidate must be a resident of an Existing Village and have resided there for six years immediately preceding the nomination. He or she must also be an elector of the Village.
         
     For the Kaifong Representative Election, a candidate must be a resident of the relevant Market Town (Cheung Chau/Peng Chau) and have resided there for six years immediately preceding the nomination. He or she must also be an elector of the relevant Market Town.
         
     All candidates must be Hong Kong permanent residents aged 21 or above and must be nominated by at least five registered electors from that Village/Market Town. No person is allowed to stand as a candidate in both the Village Representative Election and the Kaifong Representative Election or in more than one village, while each elector can make nominations not exceeding the number of Village Representatives/Kaifong Representatives for the respective Village/Market Town.
         
     Nomination forms are available at the Home Affairs Department and the Home Affairs Enquiry Centres of New Territories District Offices, and the Rural Representative Election website (www.had.gov.hk/rre).
         
     Nomination forms must be submitted in person to the Returning Officers between 9am and 5pm from Mondays to Fridays, and from 9am to noon on Saturdays, except general holidays.
         
     A gazette notice on valid nominations will be published within 14 days after the nomination period. Each validly nominated candidate will be informed separately.
         
     For enquiries, please call 2152 1521 or visit the Rural Representative Election website.

The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Film Development Council:

     The local premiere of a new film subsidised by the Film Production Grant Scheme (FPGS) under the Film Development Fund (FDF), "Napping Kid", will be held this evening (November 8).

     The film, directed by Amos Why and starring David Siu, Ng Siu-hin and Cecilia So, is about a blackmail case in which the blackmailer sends a ransom email to an international investment bank and threatens to disclose its client's confidential files to the public if the bank refuses to pay the ransom. The bank secretly seeks assistance from a police officer to pursue an investigation and it is gradually revealed that the case is not as simple as it appeared to be.

     The Chairman of the Hong Kong Film Development Council, Mr Ma Fung-kwok, said, "This film was adapted from a mystery novel of the same name written by a Hong Kong novelist. It was a challenge for the production team to bring the rich content of the mystery novel to the screen, and the film crew devoted great effort to develop the plot in the film for audiences to feel its tense atmosphere."

     He added, "The Government will continue to boost the production volume of local films and encourage more quality film productions through the FDF, so that creative film production talents can produce more films to attract audiences."

     The FPGS aims at providing financial support for film productions in order to encourage more commercial investment in small-budget film productions. The scheme was launched in November 2015 on a pilot basis and ended in February 2018. During the pilot period, 13 film projects were approved with total funding of about $22.66 million. The production budget for "Napping Kid" was around $6.89 million, with the government subsidy amounting to about $1.37 million.

The following is issued on behalf of the Major Sports Events Committee:

     November will be an exhilarating month for major sports events. The Major Sports Events Committee (MSEC) has awarded "M" Mark status to the following major sports events that will be held in November, namely the Yonex-Sunrise Hong Kong Open Badminton Championships 2018, which is part of the HSBC BWF World Tour Super 500 (November 13 to 18); the Everbright Sun Hung Kai Hong Kong Squash Open 2018 (November 19 to 25); the Honma Hong Kong Open 2018 (November 22 to 25) and the 2018 CGSE·Million Tinkle World Men Championships (November 23 to December 5).

     The Chairman of the MSEC, Mr Karl Kwok, said today (November 8) that these events, like all "M" Mark events, will add colour and vibrancy to Hong Kong and help attract more visitors.

      "'M' Mark events showcase Hong Kong's capability to host world-class events and reinforce its position as the events capital of Asia," Mr Kwok said.

      "'M' Mark events also help generate economic benefits for Hong Kong by attracting tourists. They also instil a sustainable sporting culture in the community, and help foster a sense of pride and social cohesion," he added.

     The "M" Mark System was launched in 2004 to help local national sports associations organise more major sports events and nurture them into sustainable undertakings. Sports events meeting the assessment criteria will be granted "M" Mark status by the MSEC. Funding support will also be provided to some of the event organisers.

     The number of recognised "M" Mark events increased from four in 2005 to 12 in 2018. So far, around $124.3 million has been approved to support recognised "M" Mark events.

     For details of other "M" Mark events, please visit www.mevents.org.hk. The "M" Mark applications for smartphone users are available for downloading from iTunes as well as Google Play.

     Hong Kong Customs and Marine Police today (November 7) conducted an anti-smuggling joint-operation and detected a suspected smuggling case using fishing vessel in the Southeast waters of Hong Kong. A large batch of suspected smuggled goods including office equipment, musical instruments and sports gears with an estimated market value of about $700,000 were seized.
      
     Officers from Customs Marine Joint Task Force, Marine Police Small Boat Division, Marine Police Regional Task Force and Marine Harbour Division spotted a suspicious fishing vessel in the Southeast waters of Hong Kong this morning and later intercepted the vessel off Ninepin Group. The batch of suspected smuggled goods were seized onboard the vessel.

     In the operation, a 53-year-old male coxswain and a 44-year-old male crew member were arrested. The fishing vessel involved was also detained for further investigation.

     Investigation is ongoing. 

     Smuggling is a serious offence. Under the Import and Export Ordinance, any person found guilty of importing or exporting unmanifested cargo is liable to a maximum fine of $2 million and imprisonment for seven years.

     Hong Kong Customs and Marine Police will continue to take stringent enforcement action to combat sea smuggling activities.

     Members of the public may report any suspected smuggling activities to Customs' 24-hour hotline 2545 6182 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk).

    

     The Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, met the Secretary of the CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee, Mr Peng Qinghua, at Government House this evening (November 7).

     Mrs Lam welcomed the visit to Hong Kong by Mr Peng and his delegation to attend a series of events of the second Sichuan‧Hong Kong‧Macao Cooperation Week. She said this year's Cooperation Week is the first large-scale event of Sichuan Province and Hong Kong to enhance co-operation in various areas between the two places since she and Mr Peng co-chaired the First Plenary of the Hong Kong-Sichuan Co-operation Conference in Sichuan in May this year. Noting that the Cooperation Week covers a wide variety of events, Mrs Lam said she and Mr Peng attended a promotional conference on logistics co-operation between Sichuan and Hong Kong and added that she was pleased to witness the signing of a framework agreement on enhancing development of logistics channels between the governments of both sides to strengthen co-operation in areas including transport development, logistics business and related talent and technology. She said she and Mr Peng will also attend an economic and trade co-operation forum of the Cooperation Week and the opening ceremony of Sichuan Week 2018 of Ocean Park tomorrow morning, and she wished the Cooperation Week every success.
 
     Mrs Lam said the recent commissioning of the Hong Kong Section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, as well as the upcoming opening of the new land-based Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point, will strengthen Hong Kong's participation in the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and its future overall advancement. Mrs Lam said she has learnt about Sichuan's new airport construction and infrastructure development for a sea-land channel and expressed the hope that both places would leverage on each other's geographical advantages to explore further co-operation between Sichuan and Hong Kong in areas including airport management, air transport and logistics, nurture of related talent and e-commerce.