For the International Arts Carnival (IAC), a summer arts festival organised by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, the Korean art group HADDANGSE will present its signature multimedia theatre production "Waiting!" this year. The award-winning performance was warmly received by audiences of all ages when performed at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In its coming debut in Hong Kong, the performance features a heartwarming story paired with dazzling visual effects, bringing laughter and surprises.
 
     The story of "Waiting!" begins with a young girl, Bada, who longs to reunite with her fisherman father and unexpectedly embarks on an exciting and hilarious deep-sea adventure. After setting out alone to find her dad, Bada is swallowed by a whale, which takes her to its dark belly where she dances with various glowing underwater creatures.
 
     Using cardboard props and blacklight effects, the programme is set against the backdrop of a magnificent ship and vast ocean. With lively and humorous performances by the cast, the amazing show is full of fun and imagination without the need for words.
 
     Korean art group HADDANGSE, established in 2008, dedicates itself to creating imaginative and community-oriented theatrical works. The group emphasises audience participation, inviting viewers to become co-creators of the performance and experience the magic of immersive theatre. "Waiting!" has won the 2024 International Association of Theatre & Performing Arts for Children & Young People Seoul Children's Theatre Grand Prize and Best Director Award.
 
     "Waiting!" will be staged at 7.30pm on August 1, 11am and 3pm on August 2, and 3pm on August 3 at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Studio Theatre. Tickets priced at $280 and $340 are now available at URBTIX (www.urbtix.hk). For telephone bookings, please call 3166 1288, or use the mobile ticketing app "URBTIX".
 
     For programme enquiries and concessionary schemes, please call 2370 1044 or visit the IAC website (www.hkiac.gov.hk).
 
     This year's IAC will run from July 11 to August 17, featuring a wide array of fun-filled educational programmes by overseas, Mainland and local art groups and artists. In addition to martial arts, acrobatics, dance, music, theatre and multimedia, the IAC will also offer film screenings, parent-child workshops, an online programme, an outreach performance and an exhibition.

      

The following is issued on behalf of the Judiciary:

     The Judiciary today (June 23) announced that starting from June 30, the integrated Court Case Management System (iCMS) will be extended to the High Court, beginning with civil appeal cases.

     To prepare for the rollout of the iCMS in the High Court, the Judiciary has been proactively reaching out to law firms handling a relatively high volume of civil appeal cases in the past year to offer dedicated technical support, with a view to facilitating their early migration to the iCMS during the initial period. The Judiciary also welcomes any law firms to approach it early for assistance in this regard.

     The iCMS is an integral part of the Judiciary's Information Technology Strategy Plan. It aims to facilitate the handling of court-related documents and payments electronically across various court levels. Major electronic services under the iCMS include sending case-specific court documents to the courts, receiving such documents from the courts, inspecting or searching filed documents and other case-related information held by the courts, searching cause books, and making payments for court services.

     The iCMS is being progressively implemented across various court levels. It currently covers personal injury actions, tax claim proceedings, civil action proceedings and employees' compensation cases in the District Court, summons cases in the Magistrates' Courts, as well as bulk claims in the Small Claims Tribunal. 

     For the High Court, the iCMS will initially be rolled out to civil appeal cases in the Court of Appeal on June 30, and will then incrementally cover 10 additional case types, including commercial actions, intellectual property cases, construction and arbitration proceedings, personal injuries actions, civil actions, probate actions, miscellaneous proceedings of the Court of Appeal, Magistracy appeals, miscellaneous proceedings (criminal) and intended actions. 

     The Judiciary aims to mandate the use of the iCMS for all legally represented litigants for case types where the electronic mode has been made available, starting in 2026. 

     Some new enhancement features will be introduced in the iCMS in the High Court:

     (a) "Generate Originating Document"
     This requires all iCMS users to create standard originating documents through e-fillable forms (instead of uploading scanned image of such documents) to facilitate the capturing of structured data.
 
     (b) "Judiciary Cloud"
     This seeks to progressively provide organisation users of the iCMS (starting from 20GB of storage space per organisation) with a temporary storage area to support the submission of documents exceeding the file size limit of 50MB when performing electronic filing.
 
     (c) "Deposit Account"
     This is an additional electronic payment option that allows organisation users to make non-interest-bearing prepayments for settling subsequent payments for transactions without the hassle of paying for each individual transaction. The Deposit Account will be available for use upon payment of an initial deposit of at least $3,000, which should be maintained (through top-ups where necessary) as the minimum account balance in the Deposit Account for each organisation.

     Details will be available on the dedicated webpage on e-Courts at the Judiciary website.
 
     Upon the rollout of the iCMS in the High Court, any party choosing to file or submit a document in paper format for an iCMS-enabled case type must also provide an electronic copy of the document to facilitate the creation and maintenance of a complete set of e-filing records for e-inspection. Litigants-in-persons (LiPs) can use the self-service kiosks located at the Resource Centre for Unrepresented Litigants in the High Court Building to scan and upload their documents to the iCMS. Non-LiPs, including law firms, are required to prepare the electronic copy of their documents on their own (outside the court building) and then use the kiosks solely for uploading the scanned documents to the iCMS. Parties may refer to guidance leaflets on using the self-service kiosks to upload documents. For law firms, this is the final transitional arrangement before the mandatory use of the iCMS.
           
     Case parties, particularly law firms, are strongly advised to register and start using the iCMS to avoid the hassle of paper filing and to enjoy the convenience of digital filing and payment anytime, anywhere. To encourage migration to the iCMS, a 20 per cent concession is offered to iCMS users for three years on fee items of the High Court that are primarily or directly related to electronic handling of court documents.
 
     Eligible users need to register for a user account to access the full range of services under the iCMS. Eligible users include parties of ongoing or new e-proceedings and their legal representatives (if any), the Hong Kong Bar Association, the Law Society of Hong Kong, law firms, government departments, law enforcement agencies and statutory bodies. Registration is free of charge.
 
     Unregistered members of the public may also use certain types of iCMS services, mainly related to searching for electronic documents that are open to public inspection.
           
     Regarding technical requirements, the iCMS can be accessed using personal computers or mobile devices with an Internet connection, commonly used operating systems and browsers.
 
     The iCMS operates around the clock, except during system maintenance. Any e-filing and e-payment received under the iCMS after the registry and the accounts office are normally closed to the public (i.e. after 5.30pm on a working day) will be deemed to be received at the start of the normal opening hours of the registry and the accounts office on the following working day.
 
     For more details about the iCMS, including its enhancement features and technical requirements, please visit the dedicated webpage on e-Courts of the Judiciary website at www.judiciary.hk/en/e_courts/index.html upon the rollout of the iCMS in the High Court on June 30.
 
     For enquiries, please call the general enquiry hotline at 2477 1002 or the technical helpline at 2886 6474, email to enquiry@judiciary.hk or visit the Help Centre at 5/F, Wanchai Tower, 12 Harbour Road, Wan Chai.

     The Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC) is inviting applications for projects jointly funded by Guangdong and Hong Kong and projects jointly funded by Shenzhen and Hong Kong under the Mainland-Hong Kong Technology Cooperation Funding Scheme (MHKTCFS) from today (June 23) until August 22.
 
     All applications must fit the specific themes/topics, and be submitted simultaneously by the Hong Kong and Mainland applicant organisations to the ITC and relevant Mainland authorities respectively.
 
     To facilitate participating institutes and companies in submitting funding applications, the Mainland-Hong Kong Joint Funding Scheme and the Guangdong-Hong Kong Technology Cooperation Funding Scheme have been merged as the MHKTCFS to support and encourage collaboration among universities, research institutes and technology enterprises in Hong Kong and Mainland China. There are three categories of projects under the MHKTCFS:
 

1. Projects jointly funded by the Mainland and Hong Kong (jointly solicited with the Ministry of Science and Technology);
2. Projects jointly funded by Guangdong and Hong Kong (jointly solicited with the Department of Science and Technology of Guangdong Province); and
3. Projects jointly funded by Shenzhen and Hong Kong (jointly solicited with the Science, Technology and Innovation Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality).

 
     Application details for projects jointly funded by the Mainland and Hong Kong will be announced in due course.
 
     Further information on the MHKTCFS is available on the ITF website (www.itf.gov.hk/en/funding-programmes/supporting-research/mhktcfs/index.html). For enquiries, please contact the ITF Secretariat (Tel: 3655 5678; email: enquiry@itf.gov.hk).

     Following are the remarks by the Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs, Miss Alice Mak, at a media session after attending ICAC's Building Management Summit today (June 23):
 
Reporter: First of all, regarding the Joint Property Management which was just launched this month, are there any feedback from the owners' corporation (OC) or how does the Bureau think about the implementation which has been going on? Secondly, the Building Management (Amendment) Ordinance will be implemented next month, earlier you just said it will only target those irresponsible individuals and it hopes to increase transparency. Can you use English to speak a few words about as to how it could increase the transparency? Also, are you worried that the penalty would create some sort of concern among overall owners that this may also affect them and how would the Bureau address such a concern?
 
Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs: First of all, about the Joint Property Management pilot scheme, it is a scheme that the society has been longed for. No matter legislators or people working or serving at the districts, they have been advocating this Joint Property Management Scheme. We aim to help those old single block buildings or some "three-nil buildings" to engage professional property management companies to provide them with professional services in managing their own properties. We hope through this scheme, those owners of these old single block buildings and "three-nil buildings" can have a platform and channel to engage professional property management companies to help them carrying out the daily operation and management work of their own buildings. Also, when there is any building order from different government departments, they can have some professionals to help enforce and implement measures to cater for these building management orders. I urge all owners of those old single block buildings and "three-nil buildings" to join this Joint Property Management Scheme. People may not totally understand how this scheme can help them, and for us, both the Bureau and the Department, we will work with the district councilors and also our Care Teams members to let owners understand more about this Joint Property Management Scheme, so that the shop owners and the residential flat owners will know by joining this scheme, they can engage professional companies to help them manage their valuable assets, that is their shops and residential flats. We hope more owners will join this scheme so we can work together and the Government will give them all the support they need to join this scheme and to manage their own properties.
 
     For the amendment of the Building Management Ordinance which will be in effect next month, as I have said earlier, this amendment aims at protecting those who are genuinely helping and serving their own buildings. The amendment is to act against those irresponsible OC members or other owners or any parties. We aim to protect those responsible owners and members of the OCs. We have introduced new measures on procurement and declaration of interest. We hope through these new amendments; our responsible members of the OCs will have clearer regulations to follow when they carry out their daily operation work of the OCs and management work of their own building. I encourage members of the public and owners of those buildings to understand more about our amendments and to work with the Government to participate in the operation of the OCs. We will work together to improve the management of all these buildings in Hong Kong. Thank you.
 
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the remarks.)

     Police today (June 23) appealed to the public for information on a woman who went missing in Kwai Chung.

     Li Shimin, aged 25, went missing after she left her residence in Hong Yam House, On Yam Estate on June 19 morning. Her family made a report to Police yesterday (June 22).

     She is about 1.57 metres tall, around 86 kilograms in weight and of fat build. She has a round face with yellow complexion and short brown straight hair. She was last seen wearing a black shirt, black pants and white shoes.

     Anyone who knows the whereabouts of the missing woman or may have seen her is urged to contact the Regional Missing Persons Unit of New Territories South on 3661 1173 or 9078 1880 or email to rmpu-nts-2@police.gov.hk, or contact any police station.