The Lands Department announced today (December 21) that the tender for a site, New Kowloon Inland Lot No. 6649 at Kai Tak Area 2A Site 4, Site 5(B) and Site 10, Kai Tak, Kowloon, has been awarded to the highest tenderer, Citypoint Investment Limited (parent company: CK Asset Holdings Limited), on a 50-year land grant at a premium of $8,703,000,000.

     The tenderers, other than the successful tenderer, in alphabetical order, with the name of the parent company where provided by the tenderer in brackets, were:
 

      
     New Kowloon Inland Lot No. 6649 has a site area of about 19 919 square metres and is designated for non-industrial (excluding godown, hotel and petrol filling station) purposes. The minimum gross floor area and the maximum gross floor area are 79 039 sq m and 131 732 sq m respectively. Both exclude the gross floor area of Government Accommodation, being two sets of residential care home for the elderly cum day care units, a parents/relatives resource centre and a residential child care centre, to be constructed by the purchaser under the Conditions of Sale.

     â€‹Hong Kong Customs today (December 21) seized about 7 kilograms of suspected cocaine with an estimated market value of about $6 million in Yau Tong. A man was arrested.

     During an anti-narcotics operation conducted in Yau Tong this morning, Customs officers spotted a suspicious medium goods vehicle and found the batch of suspected cocaine upon searching. A 39-year-old man in the vehicle was subsequently arrested.

     An investigation is ongoing.

     With the Christmas and New Year holidays approaching, Customs believes that the local demand for drugs will be increased. The department will therefore further step up enforcement action to fiercely combat different kinds of dangerous drug trafficking activities before the long holidays.

     Under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, trafficking in a dangerous drug is a serious offence. The maximum penalty upon conviction is a fine of $5 million and life imprisonment.

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

  

     K. H. Foundations Limited, Rich Mega Engineering Limited and Chun Hung Engineering Limited were fined $100,000, $60,000 and $80,000 respectively at Kowloon City Magistrates' Courts today (December 21) for violation of the Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance. The prosecutions were launched by the Labour Department. 

     â€‹The case involved a fatal accident that occurred on July 23, 2020, at a foundation site in Kai Tak. The ground on which piling equipment sat suddenly subsided, causing a site personnel member to fall together with the equipment into the subsided ground. As a result, the site personnel member was trapped by the equipment and died.

     A female owner and a female shopkeeper of a grocery store were convicted of operating a money service without a valid licence at Fanling Magistrates' Courts. They were fined $8,000 and $5,000 respectively.
 
     Customs officers conducted an investigation in June of last year and discovered that the female store owner and the female shopkeeper had been operating a remittance business at a grocery store in Yuen Long after the expiry of its Money Service Operator licence. They were suspected of operating a money service without a licence. The female store owner was fined $8,000 in June this year while the female shopkeeper was fined $5,000 today (December 21) after they were convicted at Fanling Magistrates’ Courts.
 
     Under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance, a person who wishes to operate a remittance or money changing service needs to first obtain a licence from the Customs and Excise Department. The maximum penalty for such operators without a valid licence upon conviction is a fine of $100,000 and imprisonment for six months.
 
     Customs reminds consumers to procure services from licensed money service operators. A register of licensees is accessible from the website of Customs' Money Service Operators Licensing System at eservices.customs.gov.hk/MSOS/wsrh/001s1?request_locale=en.
 
     Members of the public may report any suspected unlicensed money service operation to Customs' 24-hour hotline 2545 6182 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk).

The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     As at yesterday (December 20), a total of 4 143 patients who tested positive for COVID-19 were hospitalised for treatment. Among the hospitalised confirmed patients, 549 were new patients, 2 792 required isolation, 516 required oxygen therapy and 68 required ventilator support. There were 27 newly reported critical patients and 21 newly reported serious patients. There were a total of 136 patients in critical condition and 144 in serious condition, of which 35 critical patients were receiving intensive care. Moreover, there were 509 patients who had recovered, including 416 patients who had been discharged. In addition, 48 patients who passed away in public hospitals were reported.
 
     The overall occupancy of medical beds in acute hospitals is around 112 per cent.
 
     The Hospital Authority will maintain close contact with the Centre for Health Protection to monitor the latest developments and to inform the public and healthcare workers on the latest information in a timely manner.