Tag Archives: China

The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:      Regarding an earlier announcement on a cluster of patients confirmed to be carriers of Multi-drug Resistant Acinetobacter (MDRA) in medical wards, the spokesperson… read more

     The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, accompanied by the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Caspar Tsui, visited the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups (HKFYG) youth hostel, PH2, in Tai Po today (June 8) to learn about its operation and latest developments.

     Mr Cheung and Mr Tsui first received a briefing on PH2 by the Executive Director of the HKFYG, Mr Andy Ho, and then toured the hostel’s units and various facilities. They also exchanged views with frontline youth workers and a youth tenant to learn about their respective experiences and stories of operating and living in PH2 in the past year. Mr Cheung expressed his gratitude to the HKFYG for their care in running PH2. In addition to providing a comfortable living space for youth tenants, the HKFYG also assists them in learning diverse life skills and financial planning through a wide variety of activities to help enable their upward mobility and realisation of aspirations.

     Mr Cheung said, “The current-term Government vigorously pushes forward youth hostel projects. Apart from the Tai Po youth hostel, which was the first to be completed, the one in Ma Tin Pok, Yuen Long, by Po Leung Kuk is the largest project in scale so far and will be opened next year to provide 1 680 hostel places. Five other projects being implemented will also provide more than 1 600 hostel places altogether. Among them, the Sheung Wan project by Tung Wah Group of Hospitals and the Jordan project by the Hong Kong Girl Guides Association have been granted funding approval by the Legislative Council Finance Committee in April this year for commencement of main construction works. The Government will continue to play an active role in assisting non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with a view to providing more youth hostel units as soon as possible.”

     The Government implements the Youth Hostel Scheme with the aim of encouraging NGOs to unleash the potential of development sites so as to achieve optimal land use and to meet the aspirations of working youths in having their own living spaces. The Government will fund the full capital costs of youth hostel projects carried out by participating NGOs. Upon completion, NGOs will run the youth hostels on a self-financing basis. read more

The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
 
     The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) today (June 8) unveiled “Fintech 2025”, its new strategy for driving fintech development of Hong Kong.
 
     In his opening remarks for a fintech seminar organised by the Hong Kong Association of Banks, the Chief Executive of the HKMA, Mr Eddie Yue, outlined the new fintech strategy, which aims to encourage the financial sector to adopt technology comprehensively by 2025, as well as to promote the provision of fair and efficient financial services for the benefit of Hong Kong citizens and the economy. The five focus areas put forward by the strategy are:
 

1. All banks go fintech

     Leveraging the solid foundation for fintech adoption established by the Smart Banking Era Strategy announced in 2017, the HKMA will continue to promote the all-round adoption of fintech by Hong Kong banks and encourage them to fully digitalise their operations, from front-end to back-end. To take this forward, the HKMA will roll-out a Tech Baseline Assessment to take stock of banks’ current and planned adoption of fintech in the coming years, to identify fintech business areas or specific technology types which may be underdeveloped, and would benefit from the HKMA’s support. The HKMA will issue further supervisory guidance to facilitate the uptake of novel technologies and continue to “walk the talk” by digitalising its supervision of banks through the use of advanced technologies.
 

2. Future-proofing Hong Kong for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs)
    

The HKMA will strengthen its research work to increase Hong Kong’s readiness in issuing CBDCs at both wholesale and retail levels. In addition to the continued effort on wholesale CBDCs, the HKMA has been working with the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub Centre in Hong Kong to research retail CBDCs and will begin a study on e-HKD to understand its use cases, benefits, and related risks. The HKMA will also continue to collaborate with the People’s Bank of China in supporting the technical testing of e-CNY in Hong Kong with a view to providing a convenient means of cross-boundary payments for both domestic and mainland residents.

3. Creating the next-generation data infrastructure

     To unleash Hong Kong’s potential for the next generation of banking, the HKMA will take the lead in enhancing the city’s existing data infrastructure and building new ones, including Commercial Data Interchange, digital corporate identity, and DLT-based credit data sharing platform, to facilitate consent-based data sharing.
 

4. Expanding the fintech-savvy workforce

     To increase the supply of fintech talent, the HKMA aims to collaborate with various strategic partners to groom all-round fintech talent, both students and practitioners, through various initiatives, including developing fintech-specific training programmes and qualifications, as well as promoting joint projects between the industry and the academia. An example of such initiatives is the Industry Project Masters Network scheme. It will be piloted this September to provide internship opportunities to postgraduate students to work on banks’ fintech projects on federated learning and other artificial intelligence technologies.
 

5. Nurturing the ecosystem with funding and policies

     A new Fintech Cross-Agency Co-ordination Group will be established by the HKMA and various industry key players to formulate supportive policies for the Hong Kong fintech ecosystem. In addition, the HKMA will continue the preparatory work for the Hong Kong Growth Portfolio, which seeks to reinforce Hong Kong’s status as a financial, commercial and innovation centre. It will also enhance its Fintech Supervisory Sandbox and is exploring with the Innovation and Technology Commission the possibility of providing funding support to qualified fintech projects.

     “Fintech is, without doubt, a key growth engine for the financial industry in the post-pandemic era, and now is the right time to double down on our efforts to grasp the opportunities. ‘Fintech 2025’ sets out our vision in this regard. I urge all stakeholders to join forces with the HKMA. Together, we can take our city’s fintech ecosystem to new heights.” Mr Yue said.

     Further details of the initiatives under the “Fintech 2025” strategy will be announced by the HKMA in due course. read more

     The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Patrick Nip, visited the office of PricewaterhouseCoopers Hong Kong (PwC) in Central today (June 8). During the visit, he and the Chairman of PwC Asia Pacific and China, Mr Raymund Chao, jointly viewed the administering of a COVID-19 vaccine to staff members of the enterprise as arranged by the Government’s outreach vaccination service.   

　　More than 370 staff members of the global professional services enterprise were administered with the BioNTech vaccine today.This marked the highest number of doses administered at an enterprise in a single day since the launch of the outreach service. The staff members of the enterprise, after receiving the vaccination, were granted vaccination leave. 

　　”I am very grateful for the enthusiastic support for the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme from various sectors of the community. The Civil Service Bureau (CSB) is proactively promoting the outreach vaccination service in a bid to help staff members of more enterprises and groups to get vaccinated in a convenient manner,” Mr Nip said. 

　　”Employees can protect themselves and their families by receiving COVID-19 vaccines. Such a move is also very important for the enterprises and organisations, as it can help safeguard the health of their employees and maintain normal business operations. While the COVID-19 virus is raging across the globe, staff members of global professional services enterprises have frequent overseas trips for work and meetings. As such, it is particularly important for them to get vaccinated.” 

　　Mr Nip called on various sectors and industries to join the Government in promoting the “Early Vaccination for All” campaign and encourage their employees to receive vaccination so as to help build an immune barrier in Hong Kong as soon as possible by significantly raising the vaccination rate during the three-month-long critical period from now until the end of August, thereby restoring normality to society sooner rather than later. 

　　He said should enterprises and organisations have a sufficient number of employees who would like to receive vaccination and a suitable venue with sufficient space, they can make use of the outreach vaccination service so that their employees can get vaccinated in a more convenient way. Enterprises and groups can call the hotline for the outreach vaccination service at 3904 1490 from Monday to Friday, from 9am to 6pm, for arrangements. 

　　There has been enthusiastic support for the outreach vaccination programme since it was launched by the CSB. Having provided the outreach vaccination service to the Hong Kong Sports Institute, global professional services enterprises and the construction industry, the CSB is now proactively in discussion with enterprises and groups from various sectors, including financial institutions, post-secondary institutions, public utilities and theme parks and the like on the feasibility of providing the service to them. 

　　Mr Nip thanked PwC for its support for the outreach vaccination programme. He also expressed his gratitude to the medical team and administrative support staff of the Community Vaccination Centre at Tung Chung Community Hall for providing the outreach service today. 

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     The Home Affairs Department will open 19 temporary night heat shelters tonight (June 8) for people in need of the service.
      
     The shelters will be open from 10.30pm until 8am tomorrow.
      
     For further information, please call the department’s hotline before midnight on 2572 8427.
      
     The 19 night heat shelters are located at:
 
Hong Kong Districts:
———————
 
Central and Western –
Sai Ying Pun Community Complex Community Hall
3/F, Sai Ying Pun Community Complex
2 High Street, Sai Ying Pun
 
Eastern –
Causeway Bay Community Centre
3/F, 7 Fook Yum Road, Causeway Bay
 
Southern –
Wah Kwai Community Centre
Wah Kwai Estate, Kellett Bay
 
Wan Chai –
Wan Chai Activities Centre
LG/F, Wan Chai Market, 258 Queen’s Road East, Wan Chai
 
Kowloon Districts:
——————
 
Kowloon City –
Hung Hom Community Hall
1/F, Kowloon City Government Offices
42 Bailey Street, Hung Hom
 
Kwun Tong –
Lam Tin (West) Estate Community Centre
71 Kai Tin Road, Lam Tin
 
Sham Shui Po –
Shek Kip Mei Community Hall
G/F, Block 42, Shek Kip Mei Estate, Sham Shui Po
 
Wong Tai Sin –
Tsz Wan Shan (South) Estate Community Centre
45 Wan Wah Street, Tsz Wan Shan
 
Yau Tsim Mong –
Henry G Leong Yaumatei Community Centre
60 Public Square Street, Yau Ma Tei
 
New Territories Districts:
————————–
 
Islands –
Tung Chung North Park (Zone B) Activity Room
29 Man Tung Road, Tung Chung
 
Kwai Tsing –
Kwai Shing Community Hall
Podium, Block 6, Kwai Shing West Estate, Kwai Chung
 
North –
Cheung Wah Community Hall
Cheung Wah Estate, Fanling
 
Sai Kung –
King Lam Neighbourhood Community Centre
King Lam Estate, Tseung Kwan O
 
Sha Tin –
Lung Hang Estate Community Centre
Lung Hang Estate, Sha Tin
 
Tai Po –
Tai Po Community Centre
2 Heung Sze Wui Street, Tai Po
 
Tsuen Wan –
Lei Muk Shue Community Hall
G/F, Hong Shue House, Lei Muk Shue Estate, Tsuen Wan
 
Tuen Mun –
Butterfly Bay Community Centre
Butterfly Estate (near Tip Sum House), Tuen Mun
 
Yuen Long –
Long Ping Community Hall
Long Ping Estate, Yuen Long
 
Yuen Long –
Tin Yiu Community Centre
Tin Yiu Estate, Tin Shui Wai
 
     The temporary night heat shelters will resume their functions as either community centres or community halls in the daytime for hire by the local community and cannot continue to be open as heat shelters. People may choose to take refuge from the heat during the daytime in the common areas in any of the 22 designated community centres or community halls. Their opening hours are from 9am to 10pm. For the addresses of the community centres and community halls, please browse the following document: www.had.gov.hk/file_manager/en/documents/public_services/emergency_services/List_CH_CC_Day_E.pdf. read more