Tag Archives: China

     The Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Algernon Yau, spoke at a discussion session entitled “Fostering Sustainable and Inclusive Trade in the Region, and other issues” at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting in Detroit, the United States, today (May 26, Detroit time).
 
     Mr Yau stressed that Hong Kong sees the need to ensure that trade could benefit all in a sustainable manner and is committed to ensuring its policies are green and sustainable in the face of climate change and other challenges.
 
     “To this end, to accelerate our development to becoming an international green technology and finance centre, Hong Kong will set up a Green Technology and Finance Development Committee to formulate an action agenda for future endeavours,” he said.
 
     He added that Hong Kong is also developing an active market for green and sustainable debt, including both bonds and loans, with the total amount issued in Hong Kong increased by over 40 per cent from 2021 to US$80.5 billion in 2022.
 
     On inclusive development, Mr Yau said Hong Kong is stepping up support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to help them grow, innovate and embrace future opportunities. Those support measures include funding programmes to support SMEs’ brand building, operation upgrading and export marketing activities as well as their adoption of innovation and technology. Besides SMEs, Hong Kong is also strengthening support for the development of women and youth.
 
     Mr Yau also shared his insights on how to achieve a resilient transition to a more sustainable and inclusive regional economy.
 
     “The collective efforts in deepening economic integration, embodied by comprehensive regional undertakings such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, hold great promise for overcoming divisions and bolstering connectivity,” he added. He also called on member economies to keep up the momentum and accelerate discussion on the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific.
 
     On the margins of the meeting, Mr Yau held a bilateral meeting with the Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism of Peru, Mr Juan Carlos Matthews Salazar, to discuss various trade and economic issues.
 
     Mr Yau will return to Hong Kong on Sunday morning (May 28, Hong Kong time).

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     Following is the speech by the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Algernon Yau, at the discussion session entitled “Fostering Sustainable and Inclusive Trade in the Region, and other issues” at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade (MRT) Meeting in Detroit, the United States (US), today (May 26, Detroit time):

     Good afternoon, Chair and fellow colleagues.

     As an economy highly dependent on trade, Hong Kong, China (HKC) sees the need to ensure that trade could benefit all in a sustainable manner. HKC is committed to ensuring that our policies are green and sustainable in the face of climate change and other challenges. To this end, to accelerate our development to becoming an international green technology and finance centre, HKC will set up a Green Technology and Finance Development Committee to formulate an action agenda for future endeavours. We are also developing an active market for green and sustainable debt (including both bonds and loans), with the total amount issued in HKC increased by over 40 per cent from 2021 to US$80.5 billion in 2022. Earlier this year, we successfully issued more than US$100 million of tokenised green bond, the first of its kind issued by a government globally.

     Meanwhile, on inclusivity, we are stepping up support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to help them grow, innovate and embrace future opportunities. To facilitate access of SMEs to the resources they need to succeed at different stages of development, we have been expanding our funding programmes to help them obtain financing in support for their brand building, operation upgrading and export marketing activities. We are also providing funding to support their adoption of innovation and technology. We have set up a dedicated team to strengthen capacity building services to enable SMEs to leverage digital solutions, formulate ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) business strategies and enhance their competitiveness. Besides SMEs, we are also strengthening support for women’s development by setting aside over US$12 million this year. In supporting our youth’s development, our Youth Development Blueprint, released last December, also outlined concrete measures to provide young people with entrepreneurship training and opportunities.

     I share the above examples to underscore HKC’s dedication to prioritising sustainability and inclusivity in our policies and measures, and our eagerness to join hands with all economies to achieve more for our shared future. I believe APEC is where we can pool ideas to orchestrate a resilient transition to a more sustainable and inclusive regional economy, and there are certainly two areas that should be placed high on the agenda.

     The first area is to advance the work on environmental goods and services. The adopted APEC List of Environmental Goods and the APEC Reference List of Environmental and Environmentally Related Services collectively are prime examples of achieving sustainability goals through trade. HKC will continue to advocate for opening up and facilitating trade in environmental goods and services, and APEC should do so by reflecting market and technological changes, as well as integrating the needs of individual member economies to support the whole region in transiting towards a greener economy. I call on fellow member economies to advance discussions on developing a voluntary, non-binding Reference List of Environmental Goods with pragmatism and ambition for expanding sustainable trade.

     The second area is to grow regional trade connections. The collective efforts in deepening economic integration, embodied by comprehensive regional undertakings such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, hold great promise for overcoming divisions and bolstering connectivity. In this regard, HKC looks up to the refreshed conversation on the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) Agenda, focusing on developing coherent approaches to trade agreements for meeting the needs and challenges in the new global realities. We call on member economies to keep up the momentum and accelerate discussions on FTAAP.

     Climate change and inequitable distribution of economic benefits are profound threats that require our immediate attention. I would like to thank the US for bringing us all together today to rethink our approach to trade in the face of these major challenges, and let me conclude by reaffirming HKC’s commitment to collaborating with all member economies in supporting the much-needed transitions to make trade sustainable and inclusive for all. Thank you. read more

     Three charities have been issued Public Subscription Permits to hold flag sales from 7am to 12.30pm today (May 27). They are, on Hong Kong Island, Eternal Flame Action; in Kowloon, Love Family Charity Limited; and in the New Territories, Invision Charity Foundation Limited, a spokesman for the Social Welfare Department (SWD) said.
      
     Arrangements have been made with the charities to help people to distinguish among the three flag-selling activities.    
      
     Information on the three flag-selling organisations on May 27 is as follows:
 

Region	Name of organisation	Colour of collection bag	Colour of flag
Hong Kong Island	Eternal Flame Action	White	White
Kowloon	Love Family Charity Limited	Yellow	Yellow
New Territories	Invision Charity Foundation Limited	Red	Baby blue

     Details of the charitable fund-raising activities, including any updated information, covered by the issued Public Subscription Permits have been published on the GovHK website (www.gov.hk/en/theme/fundraising/search). Permits for flag days containing information on contact methods of the flag-selling organisations and the approved flag-selling activities have also been uploaded to the SWD’s website (www.swd.gov.hk/en/index/site_pubsvc/page_controlofc/sub_flagdays) for reference. For enquiries, please call the SWD’s hotline at 2343 2255, or the designated hotline of the 1823 Call Centre at 3142 2678.

     In the case of suspected fraudulent flag day activities, people should not make any donation and should immediately report the matter to the Police, the spokesman added. read more

     The male and female champions of the Bun Scrambling Final were decided in an exciting contest held early this morning (May 27) at the soccer pitch of Pak Tai Temple Playground, Cheung Chau. The event was the grand finale of the 2023 Bun Carnival. The female champion also won the “Queen of Queens” award.

     The event attracted around 1 400 spectators, who experienced the thrilling atmosphere of the competition. They witnessed 12 finalists scrambling up the bun tower to gather as many buns as they could within a three-minute time limit to vie for the championships.

     In addition, six local Cheung Chau organisations were invited to take part in the Bun Scrambling Invitation Relay. The three-member teams competed in the relay, which was held immediately after the individual competition.

     The results are as follows:

Individual contest                                                  Result
——————–                                                  ——-
Men 
Champion: Chung Yuk-chuen                                  954 marks
First runner-up: Yip Kin-man                                  804 marks
Second runner-up: Wong Chi-kit                             628 marks

Women
Champion: Wong Ka-yan                                        684 marks

Winner of “Queen of Queens”: Wong Ka-yan (three-time champion in the women’s division since 2016)

Winner of “Full Pockets of Lucky Buns”: Lai Wai-chun (Number of buns gathered: 121)

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     Subsequent to appealing to the public to think carefully before participating in mercy releases of animals yesterday (May 25), staff of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) were sent today (May 26)… read more