Tag Archives: Secretary

Hong Kong: Chief Secretary for Administration leads Hong Kong Business Delegation to visit Sichuan

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The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Henry Tang, will lead a Hong Kong business delegation to visit Chengdu on December 7 to promote exchange between the business and services sectors of the two places and support the post-quake economic recovery of Sichuan.

While in Sichuan, the delegation will attend the Hong Kong-Sichuan Business Cooperation Symposium, call on leaders of the provincial government, visit enterprises and related commercial projects in Chengdu and understand the progress of economic recovery of Sichuan.

The delegation comprises Permanent Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Mr Joshua Law; Permanent Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Miss Yvonne Choi; Executive Director of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, Mr Fred Lam; as well as around 80 representatives from major business associations and sectors in Hong Kong.

Mr Tang will return to Hong Kong on December 9.During his absence, Secretary for Education, Mr Michael Suen, will be acting Chief Secretary for Administration.

Hong Kong: SCMA speaks to media after radio programme

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The Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Mr Stephen Lam, spoke to the media after attending a radio programme this morning (November 21). Following is the transcript of his answer to a media question:

Reporter: The Government likes to describe Hong Kong as Asias World City, yet 20 years after the Handover there is still no guarantee of full democracy that was being promised. Is Hong Kong being incapable of organising it after two decades, or is Beijing putting in roadblocks to slow us down. Whose choice is it?

Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs : Its actually very clear how Hong Kong can attain universal suffrage. The decision made by the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress in December 2007 makes it abundantly clear that by 2017 Hong Kong can attain universal suffrage for returning the Chief Executive, and by 2020 we can attain universal suffrage for returning all Members of the Legislative Council. Its very important now that we should take a step forward in 2012 so as to pave the way for universal suffrage in subsequent years.

There are political parties and individual members of the legislature who have an inclination to resign and to go for by-election. I would also like to take this opportunity to emphasise that the views of Hong Kong people for early introduction of universal suffrage have already been reflected to Beijing back in 2007, and that decision taken by the Standing Committee has already taken into account these views. Also, the Legislative Councillors have a constitutional responsibility to deal with the package of reforms for 2012. We would respect the decision to be taken by any individual political parties or legislators. As far as the Hong Kong Government is concerned, we will comply with the law and organise by-elections, if necessary, in the months ahead. This will involve, we believe, a budget of something like HK$150 million.

Thanks very much.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Hong Kong: SHA presents commendation to 96 distinguished people (with photos)

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The Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Tsang Tak-sing, today (November 20) presented commendation certificates to 96 distinguished people for their contributions to community building and social services.

Speaking at the Secretary for Home Affairs Commendation Scheme Presentation Ceremony, Mr Tsang said todays ceremony was meant to commend these distinguished people for their long-term service to the community and their exemplary work as well as advocating the ideal of working together with one heart in times of difficulty.

He said unity and cohesiveness was the cornerstone of a harmonious society. He wished the awardees would keep on caring for the community and seeking benefits for the residents and breaking new ground together.

I also hope they will continue to play their bridging role proactively and work together with the District Officers to facilitate the implementation of various government policies at the district level and to make more contributions to Hong Kong, he said.

The Secretary for Home Affairs Commendation Scheme was introduced in 2002 with the aim of recognising individuals with outstanding contributions to community building, community service as well as the development of sports, culture and the arts. A total of 957 distinguished people have been awarded Certificates of Commendation over the past seven years.

Secretaries of SLFP, JVP hold special talks

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General Secretary, Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), Maithiripala Sirisena and the General Secretary of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Tilvin Silva held special talks last week on issues related to the current political situation in Sri Lanka and the political actions to be taken in the future, political sources in Colombo said. The talks had taken place only between the general secretaries of the two political parties, the sources added.

It is also said that Basil Rajapakse, the brother and senior advisor to President Mahinda Rajapakse, had held several talks with the JVP parliamentarian, Anurakumara Disanayake prior to the special talks mentioned above.

The possibility of JVP joining UNP in support of the common candidate in the presidential election may have triggered the special talks between the two general secretaries, the sources said.

Source: TamilNet

Hong Kong: SFH on flu vaccination

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Following is the transcript of remarks (English portion) made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, at a stand-up media session after attending a radio programme today (November 14):

Reporter: There are concerns that people may not be very keen to get vaccines…… and million dollar of public money will be wasted. How would you address this concerns?

Secretary for Food and Health: In fact, we have talked to the private sector and it is going to provide certain services for the elderly as well as for the patients with chronic illness. The idea is try to have as much subsidy from the Government as possible and that is the reason why we are subsidising both the vaccines as well as the $ 50 vaccination fees so that most of them do not need to charge or do not need to charge any much extra. That is the rationale. Of course, I have to appeal to the private doctors that they should take into the benefit of the community and also the importance of wider coverage of the vaccines rather than making use of that as a means of making extra money. Although I know that some of the clinics may have a slightly higher overhead compared with others, I think this is an important campaign and also an exercise to protect our community. I think they should consider not charging extra on the patients.

Reporter: Are you worried that they may choose not to get the vaccines……?

Secretary for Food and Health: I think people would choose to go to have vaccines particularly if they think they belong to the high-risk group. Whether there will be a big turnout or a low turnout will very much depend on the problem or the situation in December, because if we have a flu season coming early, then more people will of course go to have vaccination in December but if the flu season comes late, for example in February or March as usual, then we may not see the enthusiasm as early as December. But we would do as much as we can in terms of publicity and promotion.

Reporter: Medical services may have to be suspended when the vaccination programme commence……

Secretary for Food and Health: We will definitely deploy people in order to implement such a big exercise on vaccination and just like what happened last year when we dealt with the melamine incident, certain services may be suspended temporarily or may be postponed but the principle is not to affect those essential services and also those services affect people who are very sick.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript)

Hong Kong: SFH on human swine flu vaccine

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Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, at a stand-up media session at the West Wing lobby of Central Government Offices today (November 5) :

Reporter: Who will perform the inoculation of human swine flu vaccine? Regarding the discovery of human swine flu virus in pigs, is pork still safe for consumption?

Secretary for Food and Health: First of all, the details of the vaccination programme will be announced later this month.We probably will be using mostly the public resources, particularly our clinics and services of the Hospital Authority and the Department of Health right now.We should be also approaching the private sector to see in what capacity they can help us.Regarding the infection of pigs recently, first of all, it has been proven that this virus can be transmitted from humans to pigs in different countries, including Canada and United States as well as now in Hong Kong, and also reported on the same day is a case in Taiwan as well.We feel that this is actually not a new discovery, it is something that is already well established.It is not unusual.There is no additional risk to our population because I think human infection is already spreading in the community.As far as the eating of pork is concerned, I can reassure that pork is very safe especially when you eat pork, you usually cook them and the virus will be killed under a temperature of 70 degree Celsius or above.There is no worry of eating pork at all.

Reporter: Is it still safe to use Auxiliary Medical Service (AMS) staff for inoculation?

Secretary for Food and Health: We have not decided exactly the capacity of AMS in the whole programme.Of course, we will be using mostly our public resources, the existing resources in our public clinics.

Reporter: (about human swine flu vaccine)

Secretary for Food and Health: Our contract with Sanofi Pasteur S.A.will be based on what they have bid so far.We can be pretty assured that the vaccine will be arriving at the time that is being promised.

Reporter: Why not including young people in the vaccination programme?

Secretary for Food and Health: Regarding the group of young people, this is also the group that we think even though they may have susceptibility for infection, the chance of them developing into serious infection and also complication including mortality is much lower than the other groups.This is balancing the benefits of vaccination.We believe the five groups that I have mentioned should be vaccinated first.

Reporter: Is December too late for Hong Kong?

Secretary for Food and Health: Our flu season is usually about two months later than the other countries that are giving vaccination right now.We are roughly following the same type of pattern.We are also observing other countries as well.As I have mentioned earlier, normally our two peaks are separated apart for quite a long period.Summer peak is usually in July and August, but this year it extends to almost the end of September and early October.If our second peak starts at the same time, it will be around about February and March next year.But we are also preparing just in case it comes in January, we are still vaccinating the groups at risk much earlier in December instead.

Reporter: Will you have the shot yourself?

Secretary for Food and Health: I do not belong to the age group, but I consider myself partially a medical worker.In order to encourage all medical workers to have vaccination, I believe Ill have my vaccination first.

(Please also refer to the Chinese session of the transcript)

Cabinet Secretary to Inaugurate Workshops on Results Frameworks

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The Cabinet Secretary, K.M.Chandrasekhar , will be inaugurating on Tuesday the 3rd of November, the first in the series of 6 Workshops on Results Framework Documents for the Government of India departments. These Results Framework Documents, which are to be annual Performance Management tools, would set out the near term objectives of the departments, actions the department’s would take to achieve these objectives, and a system for monitoring the department’s progress through success indicators. The Prime Minister has approved the preparation of Results Framework Documents for all departments of the Government of India, as part of the comprehensive Performance Monitoring & Evaluation System(PMES). This path breaking move would set the tone for substantially improving the functioning of Government departments. 59 departments would be preparing Results Framework Documents, in the first phase of roll out of the Government of India’s Performance Monitoring & Evaluation System, which would subsequently be extended to cover in phases all the Government of India departments.

250 senior officers of the Government of India would be participating in these 6 workshops, that would be organized from the first to the third week of November. Performance Management Division of the Cabinet Secretariat would be leading this initiative.