Council Meeting (Agenda) 22, 23 & 24 November 2023

(1)

of the number of inbound tour groups in each month since January this year and, among them, the number of those which entered Hong Kong via land boundary control points ("BCPs"), and set out by month in a table the following statistical information in respect of the latter: BCPs used for immigration clearance, places of departure, average tour fares, and average per capita spending of tour group members;

(2)

as it is learnt that the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Hong Kong Port, Shenzhen Bay Port and Heung Yuen Wai Control Point are the major land BCPs used by inbound tour groups, of the design passenger handling capacity, tour group receiving capability and upper limit in hardware provision of coach parking spaces of these three BCPs; whether it has projected the trend of these three BCPs in receiving inbound tour groups and their division of work; and

(3)

of the current provision of software and hardware ancillary facilities at the three BCPs mentioned in (2) to facilitate immigration clearance of inbound tour groups, and the measures to be put in place at these BCPs in the future to further facilitate immigration clearance of inbound tour groups?

(1)

as it is learnt that some employers have not complied with the Code or have devised guidelines on their own, making it necessary for general employees who are originally not required to report for duty to report for duty when the aforesaid weather warning signals are in force or extreme conditions exists, whether it has assessed if such arrangement involves variation of employment contracts; if so, how the authorities ensure that the rights and interests of the employees concerned are protected; as the Code has no legal effect, how the authorities ensure compliance with the relevant guidelines by employers;

(2)

given the absence of legislation at present to regulate the arrangements for employees to work under extreme weather or extreme conditions, whether the Government will study enacting legislation to strengthen the protection for employees when they commute to or from work under such circumstances; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and

(3)

whether it will review if the scope of protection of employees' compensation insurance policies taken out by enterprises that operate as usual during the period when the aforesaid weather warning signals are in force or extreme conditions exist has comprehensively covered situations in which employees encounter accidents and are injured or die in their entire journey to or from work and in the course of work under such circumstances?

(1)

whether it has analysed the causes of youth suicide in recent years; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;

(2)

whether it has compiled statistics on the number of students among young people who have attempted suicide in recent years; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;

(3)

whether it has conducted studies and surveys on the phenomenon of the increasing number of suicides among young people in recent years; if so, of the main causes of suicide in order of importance; if not, the reasons for that;

(4)

whether it has compiled statistics on the number of cases of suicide attempts by students in recent years which were successfully prevented by the "early identification and intervention" approach; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and

(5)

of the resources (both personnel and funding) allocated by the Government in the past three years to organizations/professionals such as schools, teachers, counsellors and social workers for the prevention of student suicide; whether the Education Bureau has urged schools to formulate corresponding measures in view of the continuous increase in the number of student suicide cases, including organizing courses on the prevention of student suicide, conducting seminars and enhancing counselling services; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

(1)

as a survey has been reported to have pointed out that the overall Hong Kong Consumer Confidence Index in the third quarter has fallen by 2.3% quarter-on-quarter, and also in view of the craze for going north for spending among Hong Kong people, how the Government will, in response to the changes in the consumption demand of members of the public, take corresponding actions in respect of consumption supply to enhance Hong Kong people's consumption confidence and make them stay and spend in Hong Kong; how the Government will assist enterprises in re-positioning themselves in the market to meet the demands of consumers;

(2)

given that in September this year, Shenzhen published the Shenzhen Municipality's Certain Measures on Promoting Consumption which contains many measures facilitating Hong Kong people to go to Shenzhen for spending, whether the Government will, in the light of the very high savings rate of Mainland residents, launch similar facilitation measures to attract Mainland residents to come to Hong Kong to unleash their huge spending power, so that Hong Kong's economy can benefit therefrom; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and

(3)

as there are views pointing out that although Hong Kong's economy enjoys the strong support of the motherland, our country currently needs to face problems such as the debt problems in relation to Mainland real estate companies, and it has been reported that an IMF report has adjusted downward the projected growth of China, and also in view of the withdrawal of some foreign capital from the Hong Kong market due to geopolitical issues, it is necessary for Hong Kong to explore more sources of foreign capital, and while Hong Kong is exploring the Middle East market, Hong Kong businessmen may not be familiar with the business environment there, how the Government will assist Hong Kong businessmen in expediting their entry into the Middle East market; of the new strategies put in place by the Government to attract enterprises from other countries or regions to develop their business or invest in Hong Kong?

(1)

regarding the implementation of the Plan, whether the authorities have assessed and projected the demand for environmental professionals, and in the light of the relevant outcome, formulated policy initiatives to nurture locally and attract from overseas the relevant talents, so as to expand the talent pool for environmental professionals; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;

(2)

whether the authorities will proactively collaborate with the industry to improve the professional qualifications framework and continuing professional development for environmental professionals in Hong Kong, and elevate the status of the relevant professional societies; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and

(3)

given that the Government has since 2020 launched the Graduates Subsidy Programme under the Green Employment Scheme to provide opportunities for graduates who are interested in environment-related fields to enter the industry and nurture "green professionals" by subsidizing enterprises to employ graduates in environment-related fields, whether the authorities will consider improving and regularizing the subsidy programme to attract the new generation to join the environment profession; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

(1)

whether it knows the number of patients of each of the aforesaid three selected disease areas who have participated in the Programme since its introduction, and the percentage of the number of participating patients of each disease area in the total number of patients enrolled in the Programme;

(2)

given that at present, the Chinese Medicine Clinics cum Training and Research Centres participating in the Programme provide out-patient follow-up services to discharged patients under the Programme at a fee of $120 per visit, and that the relevant fee will be waived for recipients of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance, whether it knows the respective numbers of patients who have been granted fee waivers and are required to pay the fee since the introduction of the Programme (as well as the total amount of fees paid by the patients), together with a breakdown by the aforesaid three selected disease areas;

(3)

whether it knows the financial expenditure incurred by the Programme since its introduction, and whether the authorities will consider increasing the amount of funding for the Programme in order to provide fee waivers to patients enrolled in the Programme, so that patients will not be deterred from participating in the Programme due to economic factors; and

(4)

whether it knows if the authorities have reviewed the effectiveness of the Programme and taken measures to enhance its popularity, and whether the authorities will consider extending the service scope of the Programme to cover all public hospitals and healthcare institutions in Hong Kong; if the authorities will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

(1)

whether it has considered implementing HKeToll in government car parks; if so, of the details and timetable;

(2)

whether it will consider inviting operators of private car parks to adopt HKeToll as an additional payment means and a way to enter and leave car parks;

(3)

whether it will study replacing parking meters provided on the roadside with HKeToll; and

(4)

as many motorists have relayed that they have received deceptive SMS messages purportedly sent from HKeToll claiming that they have outstanding payments and luring them into clicking on the link to a fraudulent HKeToll webpage to carry out transactions, whether the authorities will step up efforts to educate motorists, so as to remind them of the official channels for paying outstanding tunnel tolls?

(1)

of the existing legislation regulating electrical products sold in Hong Kong; whether cross-border e-commerce platform EPs are likewise required to comply with the requirements of such legislation; if not, of the reasons for that;

(2)

whether it has found cases in which cross-border e-commerce platform EPs have not complied with the requirements of the legislation mentioned in (1); if so, of the number of relevant cases in each of the past five years and the details of the law enforcement actions taken (set out in a table); if not, whether it will conduct investigations;

(3)

whether it has received reports of incidents happening to cross-border e-commerce platform EPs in the past five years; if so, of the number of cases in each of those years, with a tabulated breakdown by type of incidents;

(4)

whether the Consumer Council and the Government have received complaints involving cross-border e-commerce platform EPs in the past five years; if so, of the number of cases in each of those years, with a tabulated breakdown by type of complaints; and

(5)

whether it has reviewed and taken measures to improve the situation of cross-border e-commerce platform EPs not complying with the requirements of the legislation mentioned in (1); if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

(1)

whether it has assessed the effectiveness of Cross-boundary WMC, the problems encountered and the challenges faced since its launch; if so, of the details and main conclusions;

(2)

as the financial regulatory authorities of the Mainland, Hong Kong and Macao announced on 28 September this year that Cross-‍boundary WMC will be further enhanced (including expanding the scopes of participating institutions and eligible investment products, as well as refining the eligibility criteria of investors), of the relevant details and timetable; and

(3)

whether it will consider exploring with the Mainland authorities the extension of Cross-boundary WMC to other Mainland cities once its operation has matured?

(1)

whether it has analyzed and studied the following information on I&T enterprises operating in traditional business districts and industrial districts: (i) their numbers, (ii) the districts in which they are located, (iii) their specific I&T uses in the I&T industry chain (broken down by upstream (research and development), midstream (prototype or application development) and downstream (manufacturing)), and (iv) their scale; and

(2)

as it takes time to implement and construct new development areas to support I&T development, whether the Government will attract I&T enterprises to first set up operations in traditional business districts and industrial districts, and introduce policies and measures to ensure that the ancillary facilities in such districts meet the operational requirements of I&T enterprises; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

(1)

in relation to the recent cyberattacks on the Cyberport and the Consumer Council, whether the Government knows the major root causes leading to the data breaches and why such root causes were not found in previous security assessments;

(2)

of the number of systems (such as websites, apps and hosts) of government departments and other public organizations which were attacked by ransomware last year, and the number of such attacks not disclosed to the public;

(3)

of the number of systems mentioned in (2) which were covered by continuous security assessment and improvement programs (such as vulnerability disclosure program and bug bounty program); and

(4)

whether it has estimated the talent gap of cybersecurity talents required to be filled to address the needs of government departments and other public organizations for continuous security assessments and improvements?

(1)

given that quite a number of EM students have reflected that they have encountered difficulties in studying the Chinese Language Subject specifically designed for Chinese-speaking students, whether the authorities have looked into the learning situation of EM students, and whether they will enhance the measures to support their learning of Chinese;

(2)

of the current number and percentage of EMs appointed to the civil service, and whether more EMs will be recruited; and

(3)

as the Social Welfare Department launched a three-year EM District Ambassador pilot scheme in 2020-2021 to enhance EM services provided by district centres/service units in nine districts with higher EM population, whether the Government has evaluated the effectiveness of the scheme?

(1)

as the Financial Secretary indicated on 28 February this year that the Board of Directors of the Corporation had held in-depth discussion on issues such as the Corporation's corporate structure, governance, personnel arrangement, as well as administration and management, of the specific details of such discussion (in particular the standards and criteria considered in the aspects of corporate structure, governance, personnel arrangement and recruitment);

(2)

as the Government indicated in reply to a question raised by a Member of this Council on 31 May this year that the Board of Directors of the Corporation had "formulated the Corporation's investment strategies and criteria, and having regard to the different focuses of the funds under its management, devised appropriate strategies and asset allocation for investments in projects, corporates, funds, etc., as well as drawn up procedures and criteria in sourcing investment partners or targets", of the relevant specific details; and

(3)

of the following information on the Corporation since its establishment: the investment ratio and the expected internal rate of return, the performance indicators of the funds under its management, and the benchmark returns set; how the Government assesses the returns of the funds under the management of the Corporation and the performance of its management echelon?

(1)

of (i) the number of complaints received about the hygiene conditions of Shing Mun River, as well as the follow-up actions taken, and (ii) the numbers of inspections and cleaning operations carried out at Shing Mun River, as well as the manpower and expenditure involved, in each of the past three years;

(2)

whether it has regularly reviewed the effectiveness of the measures adopted to monitor the water quality of river channels and nullahs; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;

(3)

whether it has any long-term strategy to improve the water quality of river channels and nullahs; if so, of the details and timetable; if not, the reasons for that;

(4)

whether it has studied the introduction of more innovative technologies to monitor the water quality, hygiene conditions and drainage capacity of river channels and nullahs; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and

(5)

whether new education and publicity activities are in place to promote the public's attention and efforts towards maintaining the environmental hygiene of river channels and nullahs?

(1)

of the respective numbers of applications under the two aforesaid schemes in each of the past five years and, among such applications, the respective numbers of those made and approved on grounds of intra-company transfer;

(2)

in respect of the aforesaid applications made on grounds of intra-‍company transfer, whether the Government has studied the further streamlining or enhancement of the vetting and approval procedures of the relevant schemes, in order to facilitate the expeditious redeployment of talents to Hong Kong by enterprises; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and

(3)

whether, in addition to streamlining procedures, the Government has considered allocating to large-scale enterprises with good governance a certain percentage of quotas according to their total number of employees, with a view to allowing them to flexibly redeploy their staff to work in Hong Kong through internal procedures, thereby making up for the shortfall in local management and professional talents; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

(1)

given that the visa/entry permit for imported labour under the aforesaid schemes is valid for a period of 24 months or the full term of the Standard Employment Contract, whichever is shorter, whether the Government will study the extension of the maximum period and allow the renewal of work contracts upon their expiry; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;

(2)

given the overwhelming response in the first round of applications under the Special Scheme, whether the authorities will increase the scheme quotas in the light of the usage of quotas under the scheme and the manpower needs of the trade concerned; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;

(3)

given that some public light bus associations have pointed out that importing Mainland drivers is costly, whether the Government will render assistance to employers importing drivers under the aforesaid scheme (e.g. exempting such employers from paying the Employees Retraining Levy); if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;

(4)

whether it will, by modelling on the aforesaid schemes for the construction and transport sectors, introduce labour importation schemes for other sectors experiencing labour shortages; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and

(5)

as the Government has earlier announced the enhancement of the coverage and operation of the Supplementary Labour Scheme ("SLS"), including suspending the general exclusion of the 26 job categories as well as unskilled/low-skilled posts from SLS for two years, of the number of applications received since the implementation of SLS and the number of workers involved, with a breakdown by job category; among such applications, the number of those involving the 26 job categories and the respective numbers of workers involved?

(1)

as it is learnt that many incoming calls from outside Hong Kong have appeared in the community, but the numbers of such incoming calls do not have a "+" sign and are 8-digit Hong Kong telephone numbers, and the callers impersonate government officers to defraud members of the public, of the measures currently put in place by the authorities to combat such deception cases, and whether they will consider adding, for example, a "*" symbol in the calling number display in respect of all telephone calls made by government departments and public organizations, or sending out voice alert in respect of such incoming calls, so as to facilitate identification and verification of incoming calls by members of the public; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;

(2)

(i) of the training programmes which the various disciplined services and relevant government departments provide for serving and newly-‍appointed officers to enhance their capability to combat deception cases, and (ii) whether the various disciplined services and relevant government departments will consider collaborating with post-secondary institutions (especially self-financing institutions) on offering more degree or continuing education programmes which are mainly for upgrading cyber security skills, with a view to nurturing more cyber security professional talents, thereby tackling the trend of technology-related deception cases becoming rampant; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and

(3)

as the Police indicated at the special meeting of the Panel on Security of this Council on 14 February this year that they had already liaised with a film production company and intended to produce a film with the theme of common deception tactics, of the progress and details of the relevant work, and whether they will draw reference from the Mainland's experience in producing anti-telephone deception films (e.g. No More Bets), with a view to achieving the effect of educating the whole community and going deep into people's hearts; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

(1)

whether it has compiled statistics on the respective percentages of successful and unsuccessful detection of toll tags by the detection system among the vehicles installed with toll tags since the implementation of HKeToll;

(2)

as some motorists have relayed that large sums of fine had been incurred due to repeated failures of the detection system in detecting the class tags, whether the authorities will set a cap on the amount of fine before the operation of the detection system becomes totally reliable, so as to provide motorists with a certain level of protection; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;

(3)

as it has been reported that tunnel tolls were charged to some motorists for vehicles parked in the car parks because the system had wrongly detected the passing of such vehicles through tunnels with HKeToll, whether it has compiled statistics on the number of such detection error cases since the implementation of HKeToll; of the number of related complaints handled by the toll service provider, and the details of the relevant handling mechanism; and

(4)

as the authorities have reduced the number of vehicle passing lanes at the toll plazas of the three RHCs after the implementation of HKeToll, there are views pointing out that with such an arrangement, traffic congestion which used to occur at the toll plazas has been extended to the upstream carriageways, whether the Government has examined if the capacities and vehicular flows of the three RHCs during peak hours after the reduction of vehicle passing lanes have caused traffic congestion in the upstream carriageways (e.g. whether the condition of the Cross-Harbour Tunnel has affected the traffic at Hong Chong Road, East Kowloon Corridor, Princess Margaret Road, etc.; the condition of the Eastern Harbour Crossing has affected the traffic at Lei Yue Mun Road, Island Eastern Corridor, Kwun Tong Bypass and Tseung Kwan O Road; and the condition of the Western Harbour Crossing has affected the traffic at Connaught Road West, etc.); if traffic congestion has occurred in the upstream carriageways as a result, of the details, as well as the improvement measures to be taken by the authorities?

(1)

given that the facilities provided under GREEN@COMMUNITY include Recycling Stations, Recycling Stores and Recycling Spots, whether the authorities will set up more such facilities in various districts, especially those currently without Recycling Stations, in preparation for the implementation of MSW charging; if so, of the timetable; if not, the reasons for that;

(2)

whether more temporary recyclables collection points will be set up prior to the next Lunar New Year and the implementation of MSW charging, so as to cope with the large number of recyclables delivered by members of the public within a short period of time; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;

(3)

whether the amount of food waste collected so far under the trial scheme has met the expectations; as the Government has set a target to extend the trial scheme to cover a total of 100 blocks of PRH estates in 2023-2024, whether it will implement the trial scheme further at other blocks of PRH estates after the target has been met; if so, of the timetable; if not, the reasons for that; and

(4)

whether the Smart Food Waste Bins have been checked and cleaned regularly to ensure their proper functioning and prevent hygiene problems; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

(1)

whether it knows the daily attendance and average utilization rate of each of the general outpatient clinics ("GOPCs") in the Kwun Tong district in the past three months; whether the Government has plans to increase the provision of GOPC services in the Kwun Tong district in the coming two years; if so, of the details;

(2)

whether it knows the age distribution of GOPC patients mentioned in ‍(1), and set out a breakdown by the following age groups: aged below 18, 18 to below 35, 35 to below 45, 45 to below 65, and 65 or above;

(3)

whether it knows the channels through which GOPC patients mentioned in (1) booked their consultation appointments, and set out a breakdown by the following four channels and their respective proportions: (i) bookings made by chronic disease patients with clinics for regular follow-up consultations, (ii) telephone bookings, (iii) bookings made through the Hospital Authority ("HA") mobile application "HA Go" and (iv) bookings made through other channels; as it is learnt that follow-up consultations are required for more and more chronic disease patients, how HA copes with the need of patients with sudden illnesses or episodic diseases, and how consultation quotas can be evenly distributed among patients from different booking channels;

(4)

whether it knows the specific details of the United Christian Hospital ("UCH") expansion project in the coming three years (including the specific completion dates for various item of works and the enhanced services to be provided by the accident and emergency ("A&E") department and various specialist outpatient departments ("SOPDs") of the expanded UCH); whether UCH has plans for the next phase of expansion; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;

(5)

as it is estimated that the future population of KE will reach at least 1.3 million, whether the Government has further hospital construction plans to cope with population growth in KE, or whether measures are in place to encourage private organizations or private hospitals to provide healthcare services in KE; if so, of the details;

(6)

whether it knows the average and median waiting times of patients at the A&E department of UCH in the past three months, as well as the average waiting time for stable new case bookings at SOPDs; whether it has assessed if the waiting time for the relevant services will be shortened upon completion of UCH's expansion; if it has, of the targets; and

(7)

given that Prince of Wales Hospital is now the teaching hospital for the Faculty of Medicine of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, whether it knows if HA will consider launching a pilot scheme through collaboration between hospitals in the Kowloon East Cluster and the faculties of medicine of local universities, such that hospitals in the cluster will have priority in receiving medical interns, with a view to alleviating the problem of manpower shortage?

(1)

whether it knows the following information on (a) Urban Renewal Authority projects and (b) private redevelopment projects in each of the past 10 years: (i) the number of private housing units supplied, and (ii) the numbers of demolished private residential buildings and housing units involved;

(2)

given that in the Urban Renewal Strategy ("URS") promulgated in 2001, the authorities stated their aim to achieve the target of redeveloping some 2 000 ageing and dilapidated buildings through a 20-year urban renewal programme, but this target was removed from the new URS promulgated in 2011, whether the authorities will set a target afresh and include it in URS in order to expedite the redevelopment of old and dilapidated buildings; if not, of the reasons for that; and

(3)

how it will assess the effectiveness of urban renewal and the implementation of the new URS?

(1)

whether it has compiled statistics on the respective numbers of households and persons keeping dogs and cats as well as the numbers of dogs and cats involved, in each of the past five years (set out in a table); among such dogs, the number of those which have been microchipped;

(2)

of the number of animal carcasses collected by the refuse collection points of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department as well as the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department in each of the past five years, with a breakdown by animal type;

(3)

as it has been learnt that quite a number of animal hospice service operators are providing pet cremation services in industrial buildings, which involves breaches of land lease, whether the Government will consider reviewing the requirements for such operators in the relevant lease conditions; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;

(4)

of the number of complaints received by the Government relating to animal hospice service operators in each of the past five years; and

(5)

whether the Government will study the enactment of legislation to regulate the operation of animal cremation service operators so as to coordinate and manage premises for animal hospice services, and the establishment of a licensing mechanism for such operators; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?