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A 06/07-34
Legislative Council
Agenda
Wednesday 27 June 2007 at 11:00 am
I. Tabling of Papers
| 1. | No. 97 | - | Clothing Industry Training Authority
Annual Report 2006
| (to be presented by Secretary for Education and Manpower)
| | 2. | No. 98 | - | Airport Authority Hong Kong
Annual Report 2006-2007
| (to be presented by Financial Secretary)
| | 3. | Report on Elderly in Poverty by the Subcommittee to Study the Subject of Combating Poverty
| (to be presented by Hon Frederick FUNG, Chairman of the Subcommittee)
| | 4. | Report of the Bills Committee on Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2006
| (to be presented by Hon SIN Chung-kai, Chairman of the Bills Committee)
| | 5. | Report of the Bills Committee on Tsing Sha Control Area Bill
| | (to be presented by Hon LAU Kong-wah, Chairman of the Bills Committee)
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II. Questions
1. Hon Ronny TONG Ka-wah to ask: (Translation)
Given that Articles 45 and 68 of the Basic Law respectively provide that the ultimate aims are the selection of the Chief Executive and the election of all the members of the Legislative Council by universal suffrage, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ("HKSAR") Government has set up any standing mechanism for regularly reporting to the Central People's Government ("Central Government") on the progress of achieving the above aims, according to the actual situation of HKSAR's democratic development; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
| | (b) | whether the HKSAR Government will, before consulting the public on the Green Paper on Constitutional Development, consult the Central Government on the proposals in the Green Paper concerning the implementation of Articles 45 and 68 of the Basic Law; if it will, when it will consult the Central Government and by when the Central Government is requested to provide a reply; if not, the reasons for that; and
| | (c) | how the HKSAR Government will deal with the views received during the public consultation on the Green Paper, and of the criteria and means for formulating the ultimate direction of constitutional development; whether it will take into account the Central Government's views in the process; if it will, of the weighting given to such views; if not, how it will deal with the Central Government's views?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Constitutional Affairs
2. Hon LEE Cheuk-yan to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the qualification for candidacy of the Chief Executive ("CE") to be selected by universal suffrage, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it knows if the Central Authorities currently agree to the following views put forward in an editorial published on 2 February 1944 in Xinhua Ribao, which was then under the charge of a late Premier, that whether the right to elect can be exercised thoroughly, fully and effectively has an inseparably close relationship with whether the right to be elected is unreasonably restricted and deprived of......for a true system of election by universal suffrage, not only should the right to elect be "universal" and "equal", the right to be elected should also be "universal" and "equal"......if a pre-determined qualification is prescribed for candidates, or certain people are even designated by the official authorities as candidates, then electors will only become tools for casting votes, even if the right to elect is not restricted;
| | (b) | given that Article 45 of the Basic Law provides that candidates for the selection of CE by universal suffrage should be nominated in accordance with "democratic procedures", whether the Government has examined if the qualification for nomination as a candidate should be determined in accordance with the principles of "universal" and "equal", and no person should be given differential treatment or subject to unreasonable restriction in respect of his qualification for nomination as a candidate on grounds of his background, his being poor or rich, and his political or other convictions; and
| | (c) | as some members of the Commission on Strategic Development have proposed that candidates for the selection of CE by universal suffrage should be screened by the Nominating Committee according to the preference of the Central Authorities, whether the Government has assessed if this is consistent with the provision of Article 45 of the Basic Law that candidates should be nominated in accordance with democratic procedures?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Constitutional Affairs
3. Hon Alan LEONG Kah-kit to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the remarks made by the Secretary for Constitutional Affairs ("SCA") on 12 April this year after attending the ninth meeting of the Committee on Governance and Political Development of the Commission on Strategic Development ("CSD"), will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | as SCA's mentioned on that day that quite a number of CSD members agreed that the selection of the Chief Executive ("CE") by universal suffrage should be implemented first, before dealing with the election of all Members of the Legislative Council ("LegCo") by universal suffrage, whether the Green Paper on Constitutional Development to be published in the near future will include the option of concurrently implementing election by universal suffrage of both CE and all Members of LegCo;
| | (b) | given SCA's remark on that day that the difference among CSD members was whether the functional constituencies ("FC") seats of LegCo should be abolished immediately in one go or progressively, whether this implies that the Green Paper will not include any options which seek to retain a certain number of FC seats in the end; and
| | (c) | since SCA said on that day that he hoped that the options put forth would have wide support among the public, how, in deciding whether individual options should be included in the Green Paper, it will assess if these options will be widely supported by the public, when members of the public do not know and have not yet discussed those options; and of the method to be used for assessing the level of public support for the various options in the Green paper and details of such an assessment method?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Constitutional Affairs
4. Hon CHEUNG Man-kwong to ask: (Translation)
The Government has decided to adjust the starting salaries of most grades in the civil service upwards by one to five pay points and increase the salary of civil servants by about 5% this year. Regarding the pay adjustments for staff in the institutions funded by the University Grants Committee and those under the Vocational Training Council ("subvented institutions"), will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether additional funding will be provided to the subvented institutions for them to increase the salary of their staff; if so, of the respective amounts of additional funding to be provided to each subvented institution in respect of the above two adjustments;
| | (b) | whether it knows if the pay adjustments for staff in subvented institutions will be the same as those for the civil service; if they are not the same, of the reasons for that; and
| | (c) | how it ensures that subvented institutions will use the additional funding entirely for pay adjustments of their staff?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education and Manpower
5. Hon James TO to ask: (Translation)
At the Seminar in Commemoration of the 10th Anniversary of the Implementation of the Basic Law held on 6th of this month, the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress ("NPCSC") remarked that "the high degree of autonomy of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ("HKSAR") was not inherent to Hong Kong but granted by the Central Authorities......the HKSAR has as much power as that granted by the Central Authorities......the question of so-called residual power does not exist", while a law academic from the Mainland pointed out that "balanced participation should remain an important consideration when we discuss the issue of constitutional development. Everyone, be they rich, of the middle class or poor, should have opportunities to participate". In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:
| (a) | it has sought clarification from the Central Authorities if the remarks made by the NPCSC Chairman mean that the Central Authorities may, at any time, take back the power that has already been granted to the HKSAR; if it has, of the response received;
| | (b) | it has assessed if the remarks made by the NPCSC Chairman will undermine Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy; if it has and the assessment result is in the affirmative, of the remedial measures; if the assessment result is in the negative, the reasons for that; and
| | (c) | it has assessed if the existing political system provides the rich with more opportunities to participate in politics than the middle class and the poor, and hence the principle of balanced participation has not yet been implemented; if it has and the assessment result is in the affirmative, of the improvement measures; if the assessment result is in the negative, the justifications for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Constitutional Affairs
6. Hon TAM Yiu-chung to ask: (Translation)
Phase I of the EcoPark in Tuen Mun was originally scheduled for commissioning at the end of last year, but it was not until May this year that the Environmental Protection Department awarded three tenancy contracts. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the types of business to be operated by the aforesaid tenants, the number of people they will employ, and the anticipated time when they will commence operation;
| | (b) | of the anticipated time when all the lots in Phases I and II of the EcoPark will be leased out and put to use, the percentage of the final area to be rented out in the total area, the ultimate number of tenants, and the number of people they will employ; and
| | (c) | whether it will adopt measures to increase the number of jobs to be created by the EcoPark, including providing lots of smaller sizes to enable smaller recyclers to operate at the EcoPark and introducing "number of jobs to be provided" as one of the conditions for awarding tenancy contracts; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works
*7. Dr Hon David LI to ask:
In September 2006, the Government soft launched a new Internet portal, GovHK (web site address: www.gov.hk), to provide the public with one-stop access to government services, as one of the aims. However, it is noted that members of the public who wish to renew their driving licences through the Electronic Service Delivery ("ESD") life web site, to which the portal offers convenient access, may do so only if they are holders of a digital certificate (such as the e-Certs issued by the Hongkong Post), and the relevant application forms are unavailable on the ESD life web site for downloading. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the retention rate to date for the e-Certs embedded in the smart identity cards upon the expiry of the relevant free usage periods;
| | (b) | whether it will consider, by making reference to the e-Tax Password system adopted by the Inland Revenue Department, permitting members of the public, whose identity have been authenticated by a password of their choice, to access various government services on the Internet; and
| | (c) | whether it will consider providing on the ESD life web site the relevant forms for downloading to give members of the public the choice of applying for government services through the post, thus saving the payment for and the trouble of using the digital certificates?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology
*8. Dr Hon YEUNG Sum to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that the number of people undergoing Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (commonly known as "balloon angioplasty") has increased in recent years. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether the number of people diagnosed with coronary and other heart diseases has been on the rise in recent years and whether there is a trend of occurrence of the diseases at a younger age; if so, of the details; whether it will conduct a large-scale survey to find out the cardiac health of the Hong Kong population;
| | (b) | of the respective expenditures on the prevention, examination and treatment of various heart diseases by the public healthcare system in each of the past three years; and
| | (c) | whether it will, following other countries' practice, consider launching large-scale community-wide campaigns and implementing corresponding measures for improving the cardiac health of the public, such as setting target morbidity and mortality rates of the diseases, allocating resources for the examination, early diagnosis and treatment of the diseases, as well as strengthening health education and promotional activities to avoid excessive intake of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol by the public, thereby reducing their risks of developing the diseases?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
*9. Hon LAU Wong-fat to ask: (Translation)
Many District Council ("DC") members, whose constituencies have public housing estates ("PHEs"), and charitable organizations have pointed out that over the years, they have often conducted activities under the meet-the-public scheme (including distributing DC members' work reports and collecting signatures) as well as charity sales in shopping malls of PHEs, but after The Link Management Limited ("The Link") has taken over the management of shopping malls of PHEs, it forbids them to conduct the above activities in such malls. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it knows which shopping malls of PHEs under The Link's management still allow such activities to be conducted therein, and list the names of such shopping malls according to the types of activities (i.e. charity sales or activities under the meet-the-public scheme); and
| | (b) | before handing over the management of shopping malls of PHEs to The Link, how the Government ensured that The Link would fulfill its corporate responsibility and foster community harmony in managing the shopping malls concerned, particularly when processing applications in relation to the above two types of activities often held in the shopping malls of PHEs?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands
*10. Dr Hon Fernando CHEUNG to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the management and information about the residents and staffing position of the existing 37 private residential care homes for the disabled ("PRCHDs") in the territory, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it knows the breakdown on the number of PRCHD residents by their characteristics set out below:
| Type of PRCHD |
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| | Number of residents |
| Five PRCHDs
which have
successfully
joined the
Government's
Voluntary
Registration
Scheme ("VRS")
| 10 PRCHDs
which are
carrying out
improvement works
| 22 PRCHDs
which have
withdrawn their
applications or
refrained from
joining VRS
| Gender:
Male
Female
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| Age group:
Below 18
18 to 44
45 to 60
Above 60
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| Type of disability:
Mildly mentally handicapped
Moderately mentally handicapped
Severely mentally handicapped
Psychosis
Physical disability
Visually impairment
Hearing impairment
Others
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| Type of service received:
Home-based training and support service
Community rehabilitation day service
Sheltered workshop service
Day activity centre service
Integrated Vocational Rehabilitation service
Skills training
Others
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| | (b) | how the Government monitors the drug management of the above PRCHDs; and whether there were any incidents of wrong dispensation of medicines by these PRCHDs in the past three months; if so, of the details and remedial measures;
| | (c) | whether the Government has monitored the meal arrangements in the above PRCHDs; if it has, please provide the menu and the nutrition information for a day of the above five PRCHDs which have successfully joined VRS; whether these PRCHDs have any residents who have swallowing difficulties or need help when drinking or eating; if they have, of the number of such residents and how PRCHDs assist them in drinking and eating;
| | (d) | of the existing numbers of staff (including both part-time and full-time) in each of the above PRCHDs which have successfully joined VRS, and the respective manpower ratios of social workers, nurses and other nursing staff to PRCHD residents; and
| | (e) | of a breakdown, by the type of PRCHDs in item(a) above, of the number of work injuries in the above 37 PRCHDs as well as the number of in-patient and accident and emergency attendances of PRCHD residents in the past five years?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
*11. Hon Abraham SHEK to ask:
It has been reported that a baby boom is anticipated in the current Year of the Pig (i.e. from mid-February 2007 to early February 2008), and it is expected that there will be a sharp rise in the number of children reaching the minimal age for studying at Primary One level in 2013. Given that more primary schools will continue to be closed down under the consolidation policy, will the Government inform this Council of the measures it will adopt to provide sufficient primary school places for school-aged children from 2013 onwards?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education and Manpower
*12. Hon Audrey EU to ask: (Translation)
Regarding poaching activities carried out by illegal entrants, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it has found, since last year, any illegal entrants trespassing on the Mai Po Nature Reserve to poach fish or migratory birds; if so, of the measures taken by the Government to tackle such activities;
| | (b) | whether the relevant government departments have sent staff to patrol the mudflats at the Mai Po Nature Reserve in view of the above activities; if so, of the details; and
| | (c) | of the number of cases in the past three years in which illegal entrants were prosecuted for poaching fish or migratory birds at the Mai Po Nature Reserve?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works
*13. Hon LEUNG Yiu-chung to ask: (Translation)
The serious incident on the 11th of this month in which a cabin of the Ngong Ping 360 cable car system crashed to the ground has aroused my concern about the safety of other major infrastructures in Hong Kong, such as the road tunnels, major bridges and mass transit carriers. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it has:
| (a) | regularly inspected the safety of the above-mentioned infrastructures; if it has, of the inspection standards adopted and the facilities inspected;
| | (b) | regularly updated the safety standards adopted for such infrastructures with the latest international standards; if it has, of the details; and
| | (c) | conducted, on a regular or irregular basis, risk assessment on such infrastructures, and formulated contingency measures in the light of the assessment results; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works
*14. Hon LEE Wing-tat to ask: (Translation)
Regarding medical services in North Lantau, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | given that in its reply to a Member's question at the Council meeting on 23 November 2005, the Government indicated that North Lantau Hospital ("NLH") would be commissioned in phases in 2011-2012 the earliest, of the latest progress of and the timetable for the construction and planning of NLH, and whether the hospital will be commissioned in phases in 2011-2012 as scheduled;
| | (b) | of the number of patient-trips taken by ambulances from Tung Chung to the accident and emergency departments of public hospitals in other districts in the past five years, broken down by triage categories;
| | (c) | of the additional manpower and annual funding which will be required for the provision of round-the-clock non-urgent medical services at Tung Chung Health Centre ("TCHC") seven days a week; and whether the Government will consider extending the service hours of TCHC before the commissioning of NLH; if so, of the relevant details and implementation timetable; if not, the reasons for that; and
| | (d) | of the number of attendances in the past five years for dental services provided by TCHC to civil servants and their dependents, and whether it will review the need for providing dental services at TCHC to the public?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
*15. Hon Fred LI to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that a study conducted by the Department of Microbiology of the University of Hong Kong ("HKU") in the local community in 2004 found that, among the women suffering from urinary tract infections caused by Escherichia coli ("E. coli") in the community, the bacteria in 7% of them were drug resistant. According to the findings of a study conducted jointly by the above department and the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department ("FEHD") in 2002, E. coli found in some food animals exhibited very strong drug resistance. Since the genetic sequencing of the E. coli found in the above two studies is exactly the same, it is likely that such bacteria have infected human beings through the food chain. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the details of the above study conducted by FEHD and HKU in 2002, and whether FEHD had taken any follow-up actions upon the completion of the study; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
| | (b) | whether it knows that certain countries (e.g. the United States) have set up mechanisms for monitoring the problem of food animals carrying drug-resistant bacteria, and of the details of the mechanisms concerned; and
| | (c) | whether it will consider setting up a similar monitoring mechanism in Hong Kong; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
*16. Hon LI Kwok-ying to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the Emergency Medicine Wards ("EMDs") set up by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Tuen Mun Hospital and Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital of the Hospital Authority, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
| (a) | the current average occupancy rates of the EMWs at the hospitals concerned, and whether there are plans to increase the number of these beds; if so; the implementation timetable; if not, the reasons for that;
| | (b) | whether the hospitals concerned have increased the number of healthcare staff for setting up these wards; if so, of the respective numbers of additional staff of each of these hospitals; if not, the reasons for that;
| | (c) | the current average waiting time for the patients of the Accident and Emergency Departments at the aforesaid hospitals, and how it compares with that prior to the setting up of the EMWs; and
| | (d) | the training and guidelines provided by the hospitals concerned for the healthcare staff working in these wards?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
*17. Hon CHOY So-yuk to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that it is a very common practice among taxi drivers to carry, at the same time, a number of passengers who do not know each other and charge them individually (commonly known as "taxi pooling"), and that such taxi drivers have serious speeding problems, recklessly endangering the lives of passengers and other road users. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the respective numbers of taxi drivers prosecuted (together with a breakdown by districts) and convicted, in each of the past 24 months, for engaging in the above-mentioned practice, and the penalty generally imposed on them by the court;
| | (b) | of the number of speeding cases and traffic accidents involving taxis engaged in taxi pooling over the past 24 months; and
| | (c) | whether it will step up enforcement actions to curb such a practice?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works
*18. Dr Hon KWOK Ka-ki to ask: (Translation)
The Planning Department is now conducting the New Central Harbourfront Urban Design Study, which includes public engagement. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the estimated expenditure of stage one public engagement;
| | (b) | of the number of publicity materials printed for this study and the distribution channels;
| | (c) | whether it has publicized this study by placing advertisements on newspapers and magazines, broadcasting Announcements of Public Interest in the electronic media, displaying advertisements on illuminated advertisement boxes and putting up posters; if it has, of the details of the promotion efforts, such as the relevant dates and names of the publications, as well as the locations of the illuminated advertisement boxes and posters;
| | (d) | given that stage one public engagement included the focus group workshop and community engagement held in the first half of May, of the means by which the Administration invited public participation in these two activities, the respective numbers of members of the public, public officers and staff of the consultancy firm participating in the activities and how the views expressed by public officers and staff of the consultancy firm will be dealt with; and
| | (e) | whether it will hold a roving exhibition for this study to solicit public views; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands
*19. Hon Albert CHAN to ask: (Translation)
Recently, many members of the public have complained to me that a number of government departments have not uploaded the forms provided by them onto their web sites for downloading by the public, causing inconvenience to the public. In this connection, will the Government:
| (a) | set out the names and reference numbers of the forms not yet available on the relevant web sites, the reasons for not uploading such forms, and the anticipated dates when such forms will be made available on the relevant web sites (if they will be uploaded), broken down by government departments; and
| | (b) | inform this Council whether it will adopt measures to encourage various government departments to expedite uploading all of their forms onto their web sites for downloading by the public; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology
*20. Hon SIN Chung-kai to ask: (Translation)
Since 1999-2000, the Immigration Department ("ImmD") has been implementing by phases the Updated Information Systems Strategy which embodies 30 different but inter-related projects. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether any projects under the Strategy were/are aimed at reducing the workload of the frontline staff and coping with the increasing cross-boundary passenger traffic; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
| | (b) | of the implementation progress of the Strategy, including whether the projects have been completed or delayed and the reasons for the delay (if any);
| | (c) | whether it has conducted an interim review of the Strategy to examine, among other things, whether the completed projects have achieved their aims; if it has, of the criteria adopted for and results of such a review; if not, the reasons for that; and
| | (d) | as staff unions of ImmD have relayed to the Panel on Security of this Council that the workload of the frontline staff was very heavy, whether it has updated the Strategy to address this situation; if it has, of the relevant details and schedule; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Security
*For written reply.
III. Bills
First Reading
| | 1. | Attachment of Income Order (Application to Government and Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2007
| | 2. | Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes (Amendment) Bill 2007
| | 3. | Domestic Violence (Amendment) Bill 2007
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Second Reading (Debates to be adjourned)
| | 1. | Attachment of Income Order (Application to Government and Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2007
| : | Secretary for Home Affairs
| | 2. | Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes (Amendment) Bill 2007 | : | Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury
| | 3. | Domestic Violence (Amendment) Bill 2007 | : | Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
| Second Reading (Debates to resume), Committee Stage and Third Reading
| | 1. | Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2006 | : | Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology
| | 2. | Tsing Sha Control Area Bill | : | Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works
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IV. Motions
- Proposed resolution under the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance
Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology to move the motion in the Appendix.
- Proposed resolution under the Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance
Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food to move the following motion:
RESOLVED that the following Regulations, made by the Pharmacy and Poisons Board on 5 June 2007, be approved -
| (a) | the Pharmacy and Poisons (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulation 2007; and
| | (b) | the Poisons List (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulation 2007.
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(The two Regulations were issued on 8 June 2007
under LC Paper No. CB(3) 666/06-07)
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V. Members' Motions
- Proposed resolution under the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance
Hon James TO to move the following motion:
RESOLVED that the Shenzhen Bay Port Hong Kong Port Area (Permission to Enter) Notice, published in the Gazette as Legal Notice No. 75 of 2007 and laid on the table of the Legislative Council on 9 May 2007, be amended, in the Schedule -
| (a) | in column 3 of items 1(b), 2(a)(ii) and (b), 3(a)(ii) and (b) and 5, by adding "without reasonable excuse," after "leave" wherever it appears;
| | (b) | by renumbering items 3, 4 and 5 as items 4, 5 and 6;
| | (c) | by adding -
| | "3. | Persons being in the Closed Area after entering Hong Kong via the Passenger Terminal Building, for the sole purpose of returning to Shenzhen.
| The person shall leave the Closed Area without undue delay.".
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Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Security
- Elderly in poverty
Hon Frederick FUNG: (Translation)
That this Council endorses the Report on Elderly in Poverty by the Subcommittee to Study the Subject of Combating Poverty and urges the Government to implement the recommendations therein.
Amendment to motion
Hon Mrs Selina CHOW: (Translation)
To add "based on the principle of helping those who are genuinely in need, and not to consider the following three recommendations: (a) reviewing and relaxing the requirement for elders to apply for Comprehensive Social Security Allowance on a household basis; (b) reviewing the arrangement for offsetting the long service payment or severance payment by the accrued benefits derived from the contribution of the employers made to his/her employees in the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes; and (c) considering providing a universal retirement protection for the elderly" immediately before the full stop.
Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
- Lowering the Mandatory Provident Fund management fees
Hon Miriam LAU: (Translation)
That, in view of the relatively high management fees charged under the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) schemes and their less than satisfactory investment returns, this Council urges the Government to immediately adopt relevant measures and create favourable conditions to promote competition in the MPF management market, thereby effectively lowering the management fees of the MPF schemes, and appropriately increase the variety and flexibility of their investments as well as strengthen the monitoring of their investment performance, with a view to preventing the erosion of the hard-earned money contributed to the MPF by both employees and employers, and enhancing the effectiveness of the MPF in providing protection to employees' retirement life.
| Amendments to motion
| | (i) | Hon SIN Chung-kai: (Translation)
To add "current" after "in view of the"; to add ", including changing the practice of employers selecting the MPF trustees to allowing employees to choose their own MPF trustees, and adding new provisions to the Code on Disclosure for MPF Investment Funds to require MPF trustees to further disclose the levels of fees and charges for constituent funds of a similar nature, so as" after "create favourable conditions"; and to add "and facilitate comparison by employees participating in the MPF schemes" after "competition in the MPF management market".
Amendment to Hon SIN Chung-kai's amendment
Hon Andrew LEUNG Kwan-yuen: (Translation)
To add "for their own contributions" after "choose their own MPF trustees"; to add "various" after "the levels of fees and charges for"; and to delete "of a similar nature" after "constituent funds".
| | (ii) | Hon CHAN Kam-lam: (Translation)
To add ", which have been launched since late 2000," after "Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) schemes"; and to add ", including expeditiously changing the current mechanism of employers selecting the service providers to establishing a system of portable individual MPF accounts, so as" after "create favourable conditions".
Amendment to Hon CHAN Kam-lam's amendment
Hon Jeffrey LAM Kin-fung: (Translation)
To add "for the employees' contributions" after "portable individual MPF accounts".
| | (iii) | Hon WONG Kwok-hing: (Translation)
To add ", including publishing the administrative fees charged by various funds with their names disclosed, amending the legislation to allow employees to choose and change their MPF trustees, and studying the establishment of a central employees management service system to handle centrally the contributions by both employers and employees, so as" after "create favourable conditions"; and to add "; if the situation persistently shows no improvement, the authorities should enact legislation to regulate the management and administrative fees charged by the trustee companies" after "investment performance".
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Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury
Clerk to the Legislative Council
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