The effective exchange rate index for the Hong Kong dollar on Monday, March 10, 2025 is 106.5 (up 0.1 against last Saturday's index).
​The effective exchange rate index for the Hong Kong dollar on Saturday, March 8, 2025 was 106.4 (same as last Friday's index).
​Hongkong Post announced today (March 10) that, as advised by the airlines, due to the impact of the local strike at the airports, mail delivery services to Germany are subject to delay.
In response to the Japanese Government's plan to discharge nuclear-contaminated water at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Station, the Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene issued a Food Safety Order which prohibits all aquatic products, sea salt and seaweeds originating from the 10 metropolis/prefectures, namely Tokyo, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Miyagi, Chiba, Gunma, Tochigi, Niigata, Nagano and Saitama, from being imported into and supplied in Hong Kong.
For other Japanese aquatic products, sea salt and seaweeds that are not prohibited from being imported into Hong Kong, the Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department will conduct comprehensive radiological tests to verify that the radiation levels of these products do not exceed the guideline levels before they are allowed to be supplied in the market.
As the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water is unprecedented and will continue for 30 years or more, the Government will closely monitor and step up the testing arrangements. Should anomalies be detected, the Government does not preclude further tightening the scope of the import ban.
From noon on March 7 to noon today (March 10), the CFS conducted tests on the radiological levels of 301 food samples imported from Japan, which were of the "aquatic and related products, seaweeds and sea salt" category, in the past three days (including last Saturday and Sunday). No sample was found to have exceeded the safety limit. Details can be found on the CFS's thematic website titled "Control Measures on Foods Imported from Japan" (www.cfs.gov.hk/english/programme/programme_rafs/programme_rafs_fc_01_30_Nuclear_Event_and_Food_Safety.html).
In parallel, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) has also tested 150 samples of local catch for radiological levels. All the samples passed the tests. Details can be found on the AFCD's website (www.afcd.gov.hk/english/fisheries/Radiological_testing/Radiological_Test.html).
The Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) has also enhanced the environmental monitoring of the local waters. No anomaly has been detected so far. For details, please refer to the HKO's website
(www.hko.gov.hk/en/radiation/monitoring/seawater.html).
From August 24, 2023, to noon today, the CFS and the AFCD have conducted tests on the radiological levels of 121 234 samples of food imported from Japan (including 79 568 samples of aquatic and related products, seaweeds and sea salt) and 28 028 samples of local catch respectively. All the samples passed the tests.
Following are the remarks by the Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, Professor Sun Dong, at a media session after attending the Donation Ceremony of Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation and Sino Group in Support of AI Development in Hong Kong today (March 10):
Reporter: On the $200 million donation, could you elaborate on what specifically they will be used on? We heard about how it will be used for a continuous development of HKGAI or you said it would be used for "港話通" for example. Is that a translation thing? What would that be used for if it's a mobile application? How is that different to a search engine if it is used on medical context? That sort of questions on specific uses. The second question is on previously you said there will be guidelines on applications and development of AI. Do you have a more concrete timeline? Thank you.
Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry: Thank you for this question. I think this donation will mainly support InnoHK Centre to establish a market-driven platform to provide service to Hong Kong citizens. This money will be mainly used for establishing a platform such as manpower, as well as computing power support, because when you try to run a service system to the general public, you must have enough resources to support its platform, including human power and computing power as well. I think this is the main purpose of this donation. I believe, I also hope, that the new mobile version of the large language model of HKGAI will serve Hong Kong people as soon as possible, hopefully in the next several months. The service can go into the market. Thank you.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the remarks.)
The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (March 10) that in view of a notification from the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) about an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in Herefordshire County in the United Kingdom (UK), the CFS has instructed the trade to suspend the import of poultry meat and products (including poultry eggs) from the area with immediate effect to protect public health in Hong Kong.
A CFS spokesman said that according to the Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong imported about 910 tonnes of chilled and frozen poultry meat, and about 1.34 million poultry eggs from the UK last year.
"The CFS has contacted the British authority over the issue and will closely monitor information issued by the WOAH and the relevant authorities on the avian influenza outbreak. Appropriate action will be taken in response to the development of the situation," the spokesman said.