updated Fri. March 8, 2024
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The Drinks Business
April 12, 2018
About 200 people joined a protest outside of the Hong Kong government office in Admiralty on 8 April against a government proposal that will drastically raise the liquor license application fee by as much as 15 times its current rate, calling the proposal “discriminatory” and “punitive” to the city's vibrant barÃâà...
South China Morning Post
April 12, 2018
Tien said some government venues such as the Hong Kong Coliseum and Queen Elizabeth Stadium allowed up to 80 per cent of tickets to be reserved for such purposes, leaving very few tickets for the public, which would encourage scalping. He suggested that venues lower the cap to 49 per cent, citingÃâà...
Sun.Star
April 12, 2018
Acknowledging that it might take time to heal the wounds and repair the strained ties between the Philippines and Hong Kong, Duterte said all he could do is to apologize for the deadly hostage crisis. "Let me, for the first time (address) the Chinese government and the people of China. I've always beenÃâà...
South China Morning Post
April 12, 2018
Hong Kong's current government came into office declaring that it would give top priority to solving the city's housing problems. As it approaches the end of its first year in power, we are likely to hear more criticism that our top officials have not done enough. It is understandable that people are frustrated atÃâà...
Hong Kong Free Press
April 12, 2018
The general public's evaluation of press freedom in Hong Kong has dropped to its lowest since the Hong Kong Journalists Association's (HKJA) annual survey began in 2013. The study – published on Wednesday – cited increasing pressure from the central government. Respondents gave the city a pressÃâà...
Hong Kong Free Press
April 12, 2018
A veteran engineer has suggested that the breakwater components at one of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge's artificial islands offer no protection at high tide, as they are underwater. However, a top government official has said there was a concrete wall to protect the island from waves, and that itsÃâà...
South China Morning Post
April 12, 2018
The Hong Kong government must “fight” for a bigger role in managing the mega bridge project linking the city to Zhuhai and Macau, a group of politicians and scholars said on Thursday, as new images showed part of a protective wall at one end of the bridge's western artificial island was completelyÃâà...
South China Morning Post
April 12, 2018
The pricing formula for government-subsidised flats may be reviewed to make them more affordable for a greater number of aspiring homeowners, according to Hong Kong's chief executive. Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor told the Legislative Council on Wednesday of her plan amid keen competition duringÃâà...
South China Morning Post
April 11, 2018
Safety concerns over Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge indicate gaps in government's public outreach ... The delays in completion (the bridge was supposed to open in 2016) and repeated budget blowouts have imposed a heavy economic burden on the Hong Kong government and taxpayers. Let us alsoÃâà...
South China Morning Post
April 3, 2018
Thirty-two Hong Kong social service groups supported by the government paid out more than HK$7.8 million in cash subsidies in the 2016-17 financial year to their top executives, whose basic salaries were often higher than civil servants of the same rank, a survey by a social workers' union has revealed.
South China Morning Post
April 3, 2018
The row over Tai's suggestion at a forum in Taiwan last month that the city could “consider becoming an independent state” some day in a “democratic China” intensified on Monday as Beijing mouthpiece People's Daily demanded the Hong Kong government take legal action against him under the city'sÃâà...
South China Morning Post
April 3, 2018
Although the submission, sent to the UN on March 29, covers many human rights issues as part of a UN five-year review, it is the first time a group in Hong Kong has adopted the global rights framework to push for action on the environment. They are asking the Hong Kong government to tackle air, soil andÃâà...
South China Morning Post
April 3, 2018
The Hong Kong government on Tuesday moved a step closer to regulating stem cell treatment and other “advanced therapy” products in the city as it launched a two-month consultation following recent cases of serious blunders in beauty salon procedures. In a statement, authorities proposed classifyingÃâà...
South China Morning Post
April 2, 2018
Nothing the Hong Kong government can, or wishes to, do can improve the chances of the working classes ever owning or affording to rent decent housing. The possible benefit for myself and others of my ilk – blue-collar proletarians earning a living by the sweat of our brow – is that one day my section'sÃâà...
South China Morning Post
April 2, 2018
The row over controversial academic Benny Tai Yiu-ting's independence remarks intensified on Monday as Beijing mouthpiece People's Daily demanded the Hong Kong government take legal action against him under the city's existing criminal law, even if it has yet to adopt national security legislationÃâà...
Hong Kong Free Press
April 2, 2018
The government hopes the manufacturing industry can contribute up to 5 per cent of Hong Kong's gross domestic product (GDP), having declined to 1.2 per cent in 2015 from 2.7 per cent in 2006. In 1977, the manufacturing industry accounted for 30 per cent of the territory's GDP and employed one millionÃâà...
Hong Kong Free Press
April 2, 2018
Here's a simple question: will Hong Kong's youth be developed following the establishment of Carrie Lam's Youth Development Commission. ... People who have served on government committees will tell you that the main role of the bureaucrats is to inform 'non-official' members why practically anyÃâà...
South China Morning Post
March 30, 2018
A liberal academic who was a key leader of the 2014 Occupy protests has earned an unusually strong public rebuke from the Hong Kong government for suggesting in Taiwan that the city could “consider becoming an independent state”. “The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government isÃâà...
South China Morning Post
March 30, 2018
After more than a decade of public pressure to get tough on telemarketers making cold calls, the government has proposed to set up a statutory do-not-call register managed by Hong Kong's privacy watchdog to screen out nuisance callers. The move implies telemarketers may be subject to legal sanctions ifÃâà...
The Star Online
March 25, 2018
WHILE the Hong Kong dollar plummets to its lowest value in three decades, the government announced last month that for the 14th year straight, the city ... The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is the governmental currency board and also the de facto central bank for Hong Kong and the Hong Kong dollar.
South China Morning Post
March 24, 2018
Each year the Hong Kong government budgets how much it will need to spend for each of its eight sectors, including education, security and infrastructure. The simple reason for the surplus in money is the conservative approach the city takes to spending. Officials are obliged to follow the rules on fiscalÃâà...
Hong Kong Free Press
March 23, 2018
The government has announced that around 2.8 million eligible Hongkongers are to receive HK$4,000 under a new scheme. The move comes after its annual budget was criticised for excluding cash handouts amid a predicted HK$138 billion surplus. Residents with ID cards who are over 18 by the end ofÃâà...
Hong Kong Free Press
March 18, 2018
But its hard to see how the co-option of youth into the governmental maze of bureaucracy—which is a big part of the problem, not a path to solutions—is ... If the Hong Kong government wants to win the trust of the younger generation, then it should stop disqualifying young, duly elected lawmakers from theÃâà...
South China Morning Post
March 18, 2018
Hong Kong's “playboy” property tycoon Cecil Chao Sze-tsung has called on the government to source more land to build affordable flats to ease the city's housing crisis, even at the cost of private developers' share of the pie. Speaking to the Post in his palatial 16,000-square foot house named HappyÃâà...
South China Morning Post
March 17, 2018
As a lawmaker in 2011, Chan once said it would be more than adequate for the city's fiscal reserves to be at 12 to 15 months of government expenditure. But on Friday, he was more cautious in spelling out a figure, beyond saying he now had a better grasp of the issues Hong Kong was grappling with nowÃâà...
South China Morning Post
March 17, 2018
The government has tightened the rules on who qualifies for free entry to Hong Kong's most important student exam, amending a policy first unveiled in last month's budget. Only school students will benefit from the exam fee waiver, to stop people taking the Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) examÃâà...
South China Morning Post
March 16, 2018
He called on Beijing and Hong Kong authorities to “ensure that the established constitutional framework for any change to the Basic Law (Hong Kong's mini-constitution) is respected”. Responding to media inquiries, a Hong Kong government spokesman said later on the same day: “Since the return to theÃâà...
South China Morning Post
March 15, 2018
The 2018-19 Hong Kong budget has earmarked HK$500 million for a steering committee under the chief secretary to strengthen support for ethnic minorities and enhance collaboration within the government. Hong Kong Unison suggests that part of the HK$500 million be used to develop a systematicÃâà...
South China Morning Post
March 15, 2018
The Hong Kong government has promised to enhance management of the Avenue of Stars on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront as it denied striking an “under-the-table deal” with a developer over the tourist spot's renovation. Since 2004, New World Development has managed the attraction on the KowloonÃâà...
South China Morning Post
March 13, 2018
Hong Kong developers and occupiers need to incorporate property technology to ensure the city's real estate remains attractive. At the start of the Year of the Dog, the Hong Kong Government unveiled the annual budget with a record-breaking surplus of HK$138 billion (US$17.7 billion). Land salesÃâà...
South China Morning Post
March 13, 2018
Hong Kong lawmakers on Tuesday said the government was asking the impossible by requesting they pass a bill to station mainland Chinese officers in the city for a rail checkpoint, because by voting for the law they would be breaching their vows to uphold the mini-constitution. The local legislature'sÃâà...
Xinhua
March 13, 2018
HONG KONG, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The Chief Executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced Tuesday that an Independent Review Committee on Hong Kong's Franchised Bus Service has been set up to review the operation and monitoring ofÃâà...
The Business Times
March 13, 2018
Mr Zen says he was driven to become more vocal about human rights after Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997. After becoming Bishop of Hong Kong in 2002, he fiercely opposed the local pro-Beijing government's anti-subversion bill the following year, which was shelved after hundreds ofÃâà...
The Business Times
March 12, 2018
Some democrats in the city of 7.3 million say these polls are crucial to redress the injustice of the disqualifications, and to safeguard Hong Kong's freedom and autonomy. "If we lose today, the government and the pro-establishment forces will get their way, and we won't see any system to speak of under theÃâà...
Staffing Industry Analysts
March 12, 2018
The Hong Kong government has lowered its Chinese language requirement for 22 types of government jobs so that it can recruit more ethnic minorities, according to Chief Secretary for Administration Matthew Cheung Kin-chung. The 22 newly adjusted civil servant posts include occupations such asÃâà...
South China Morning Post
March 11, 2018
Chinese language requirements for another 22 types of Hong Kong government jobs have been lowered to give ethnic minorities a better chance of qualifying for those positions, chief secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung said on Sunday. While this means 53 of the over 400 categories of civil serviceÃâà...
BloombergQuint
March 9, 2018
Just 70 percent of the 61,579 apartments sold last year were second-hand, according to data from Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. and Hong Kong's Lands Department. That share has fallen from 90 percent in 2010. Secondary market sales volumes have slumped 50 percent since the government beganÃâà...
South China Morning Post
March 9, 2018
To be chaired by Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, the new Youth Development Commission is expected to “enhance policy coordination within the government”. The commission will include three members aged between 18 and 35 recruited under a government scheme aimed to provide moreÃâà...
South China Morning Post
March 9, 2018
China's index of growth companies led the country's stock markets higher on Friday as investors took heart from recent government indications of support for smaller, entrepreneurial companies, while in Hong Kong shares rose on a report of a possible takeover move by a leading beer company.
South China Morning Post
March 8, 2018
The 2018 budget has made Paul Chan Mo-po the worst financial secretary in the history of Hong Kong. With a surplus of HK$138 billion, the government trumpeted the new budget as a giveaway; however, it has received a record low rating in the latest public opinion survey. People are taking a dig at ChanÃâà...
South China Morning Post
March 7, 2018
In addition, the 500 people surveyed by the University of Hong Kong's public opinion programme gave the budget 42.8 marks out of 100, meaning that satisfaction with the government's financial strategy plunged to a seven-year low. After announcing a record surplus of HK$138 billion (US$17.7 billion) lastÃâà...
South China Morning Post
March 7, 2018
In this regard, Chan's insight is highly appreciated. Though dishing out cash sweeteners may win a round of immediate applause, that is too short-sighted. Even though some Hong Kong people and political parties have suggested that the government distribute cash among all residents, it is wise of Chan toÃâà...
Hong Kong Free Press
February 27, 2018
The Hong Kong government will be provide a one-off grant of HK$2,000 to each student in need. The measure, announced in Wednesday's budget, will involve an expenditure of around HK$740 million. In Financial Secretary Paul Chan's second budget speech, he pledged HK$2 billion for “qualityÃâà...
South China Morning Post
December 31, 1999
“Even if the budget is passed, it is going to be passed with a low number of supporting votes ... which would affect the popularity rating of the government,” she said. Since finance chief Paul Chan Mo-po announced Hong Kong's record surplus of HK$138 billion (US$17.7 billion) last Wednesday and dishedÃâà...
South China Morning Post
December 31, 1999
Hong Kong's finance chief said on Saturday that the government was looking into using a care fund to help those people who missed out on benefits in his budget address. The remark by Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po, which raised a new round of concerns and criticism, came a day after lawmakersÃâà...
South China Morning Post
December 31, 1999
Developers are often criticised for hoarding land in the New Territories and not developing their plots to meet Hong Kong's housing shortage. Nothing could be further from the truth. Developers want to develop; that is their reason for being. Instead, the biggest problem is that the government puts obstaclesÃâà...
