Month: June 2025

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

The Transport Department (TD) said today (June 27) that official Taxi Fleet Licences are scheduled to be issued to all five taxi fleets in July to enable the fleets to commence services as soon as possible and showcase the quality services provided by the taxi fleets, such that it can build up public confidence in taxi services and mark an important step to enhance service quality and reform the taxi trade.

A spokesman for the TD said, “The TD issued provisional grants of the Taxi Fleet Licence to five selected operators in end-July 2024. All five fleets have now commenced trial operations, and have provided a total of nearly 120,000 trips to date. The public’s feedback on the taxi fleet services has been positive. We have, after careful consideration, decided to adopt a flexible licensing approach to provide the public with an early opportunity to experience high-quality taxi fleet services. Taxi fleets are a new mode of operation. Upon the official launch of the fleets, we believe that through a series of promotions, positive feedback from passengers, benefits for fleet drivers, and the gradual evolvement of the trade’s image, more passengers will come to know and use the taxi fleet services. This will, in turn, provide fleet drivers with a more favourable and stable income, which will help attract more taxi drivers to join the fleets and gradually enhance the fleets’ capacity.”

The spokesman continued that issuing official taxi fleet licenses enables the TD to effectively oversee the operations and services of the fleets in accordance with licence conditions and requirements, thereby achieving the objective of enhancing and ensuring service quality through the introduction of the taxi fleet regime.

After obtaining the licences, all five fleet operators can officially use about 80 designated taxi fleet stopping places across 13 locations, such as the airport, certain cross-boundary control points and other tourist hotspots to pick up passengers with pre-booked trips. Signage, information plates, and display panels will be erected at these locations. The TD will also distribute leaflets and display posters featuring QR codes for each taxi fleet’s online hailing service to facilitate reservations by the public and tourists. The Government will also promote the taxi fleet services to the public and tourists through various channels, including the TD’s HKeMobility mobile application, and the networks of the Hong Kong Tourism Board, the Airport Authority, and the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal.

Since July last year, the five selected operators have been conducting gearing-up work with great endeavour, including procuring new vehicles and carrying out modifications, installing in-vehicle safety devices, setting up electronic payment systems, developing and testing online hailing applications and providing training to drivers. Each fleet has also implemented different measures to recruit taxi owners and drivers, such as participating in a one-stop taxi fleet drivers thematic job fair, hosting fleet introduction sessions and recruitment events, organising activities to showcase the new taxi models and providing new fleet management approaches to taxi owners, etc.

The TD has been holding regular meetings with the fleets to actively promote and assist their gearing-up work, while co-ordinating and providing support based on their needs during the preparatory stage. For example, in response to the need of various operators to acquire new models of vehicles for use as fleet taxis, the TD has, on the premise of ensuring road safety, streamlined procedures by introducing batch applications and vehicle examinations, and providing facilitating measures in respect of the vehicle examination arrangements. The TD also opened designated stopping places within the prohibited zones of the two control points on May 30 to facilitate the fleets under trial operation in picking up passengers with pre-booked trips.

After issuing the official Taxi Fleet Licences, the TD will continue to urge fleet operators to proactively recruit taxi owners and drivers in order to achieve the committed fleet size. The TD will also closely monitor the service performances of the fleets to ensure that the service quality meets the public’s aspirations.

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region – 4

The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Geneva hosted a reception on June 24 (Geneva time) to celebrate the 28th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) with over 230 guests from diplomatic missions to the World Trade Organization (WTO), and key contacts in various international organisations, the academia and local businesses.

Speaking at the reception, the Permanent Representative of the HKSAR of China to the WTO, Miss Winky So, highlighted how the city, from a humble fishing village to a top-notch international trade and financial centre, has reinvented itself time and again to stay vibrant, while holding fast to the policy of free trade and the principles enshrined in the Marrakesh Agreement establishing the WTO.

To the guests, she said, “we are privileged to stand alongside friends like you, who are not just like-minded champions of free trade, but also guardians of a system that has connected economies and brought stability and prosperity. Together, in good times and in bad times, we are a living testament to what free trade and a rules-based multilateral trading system can offer.”

As a founding member of the WTO, Hong Kong has always been a staunch supporter of the rules-based multilateral trading system. Under the “one country, two systems” principle, Hong Kong participates in the WTO as a separate customs territory in the name of Hong Kong, China.        

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

     The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is collaborating with Guangdong Province to promote the Cross-boundary Public Services initiative. The Digital Policy Office (DPO) announced today (June 27) the setting up of a Hong Kong Cross-boundary Public Services self-service kiosk in Jiangmen, enabling residents and enterprises in Mainland cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) to access public services of Hong Kong without the need to travel to Hong Kong in person.
 
     Following installation of the self-service kiosks earlier in Guangzhou, Qianhai and Futian in Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan and Zhongshan, the Cross-boundary Public Services self-service kiosk in Jiangmen also provides over 70 public services from 12 government bureaux and departments as well as related organisations, encompassing several areas commonly used by enterprises and the public, including taxation, company registration, property and vehicle enquiry and registration, application for personal identification documents and entry of talent, welfare and education, healthcare, immigration clearance, urgent assistance as well as culture and tourism. Members of the public can use the self-service kiosks to perform data entry, document scanning and result printing to enjoy one-stop access when applying for various public services.
 
     Starting today, the public can use the Hong Kong Cross-boundary Public Services self-service kiosk located on 4/F, Jiangmen Government Service Center to access various public services of Hong Kong. The opening hours of the kiosk in the centre are 8.30am to noon and 2.30pm to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday (except public holidays on the Mainland).
 
     An “iAM Smart” self-registration kiosk is also set up at the Jiangmen location to enable Hong Kong residents working and living on the Mainland to register for “iAM Smart+” and directly use the “iAM Smart” mobile app to access over 1,100 online services provided by the Government and public and private organisations, as well as the government e-Forms such as renewal of vehicle licences, applications for International Driving Permits and eHealth services, etc.
 
     The DPO will continue to discuss with the Guangdong Provincial Administration of Government Service and Data to set up self-service and self-registration kiosks in Zhaoqing as the next step to fully cover the nine Mainland cities of the GBA to cope with the demands of residents and enterprises in the GBA for Hong Kong public services.
 
     For details, please visit the Hong Kong Cross-boundary Public Services website at www.crossboundaryservices.gov.hk/en/home/index.html and the “iAM Smart” thematic website at www.iamsmart.gov.hk/en/reg.html.

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region – 4

The following is issued on behalf of the Legislative Council Secretariat: 

The Legislative Council (LegCo) Secretariat today (June 27) released a Policy Pulse on “Building an international education hub”. This issue provides a brief overview of the competitiveness of Hong Kong’s education system, the unique advantages in developing Hong Kong into an international education hub, the related support measures by the Government, as well as relevant discussions of LegCo along with suggestions by Members.

As a cosmopolitan city, Hong Kong’s education system is highly internationalized and diversified with great potential to become an international education hub. The Policy Pulse highlighted various international rankings of Hong Kong’s education system, including being the only city with five universities in the world’s top 100, ranking second globally in education competitiveness, and having the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education recognised by over 600 overseas post-secondary institutions. The Policy Pulse also briefly outlined the future development of post-secondary education in Hong Kong; the advantages brought by “one country, two systems” and enjoying strong support from the Motherland and being closely connected to the world; and the benefits of establishing an international education hub.

In the 2023 Policy Address, the Chief Executive announced the establishment of an “international hub for post‑secondary education and a cradle for future talents”. He further proposed building the “Study in Hong Kong” brand in his 2024 Policy Address. To promote Hong Kong as an international hub for post-secondary education and attract more talents to the city, the Government has introduced a series of measures. These include doubling the non-local student quota for University Grants Committee-funded universities; increasing the number of scholarship and hostel places; implementing schemes for non-local graduates to stay and seek employment in Hong Kong; strengthening research funding for institutions; promoting collaboration between Hong Kong and Mainland higher education institutions; and launching the Alliance of Universities in Applied Sciences to enhance the status of vocational and professional education and training.

To support the long-term development of post-secondary education, the Government has kickstarted the construction of the University Town project in the Northern Metropolis, and plans to announce the University Town Development Conceptual Framework in the first half of 2026. Members suggest the Government communicate with post-secondary institutions on the planning of the University Town and consider providing tax and financial incentives to encourage institutions to build second campuses in the University Town, and cooperate with industry and scientific research institutions, to give play to the industry-university-research effect, so as to attract research talents.

LegCo has been closely attentive to the development of education system in Hong Kong and formed a subcommittee to provide recommendations to the Government and the post-secondary education sector to speed up the development of an international post‑secondary education hub. In addition, LegCo has scrutinized and passed the Post Secondary Colleges (Amendment) Bill 2025, which aims to improve the monitoring and quality assurance mechanism for self-financing post-secondary institutions.

The Policy Pulse also pointed out that Hong Kong faces challenges in becoming an international education hub, including a lack of diversity in the sources of non-local students. Members suggest that the Government should systematically formulate targeted promotion strategies, identifying target countries including ASEAN and “Belt and Road” countries, and taking the lead in promoting “Study in Hong Kong” to these countries with the Economic and Trade Offices overseas, and continuously reviewing the policy positioning and development strategies.

The detailed content of “Building an international education hub” is available on the LegCo Website. The Policy Pulse, published by the LegCo Secretariat, covers specific topics and offers a comprehensive overview of related policy developments and summarized discussions in LegCo.

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region – 4

     The Transport Department (TD) announced today (June 27), that in anticipation of a large number of passengers and cross-boundary vehicles travelling between the Mainland, Macao and Hong Kong via various land-based boundary control points (BCPs) on or near the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day holiday, particularly on June 28 and July 1, travellers should plan their trips in advance and allow sufficient travelling time.
 
     For public transport services, the TD has co-ordinated with local and cross-boundary public transport operators (PTOs) to enhance their capacity, and reserve sufficient vehicles and manpower to meet the travel needs of passengers, including:
 

• increasing the frequency of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB) shuttle bus (Gold Bus) to within one minute during peak hours;
• increasing the frequency of the Lok Ma Chau-Huanggang cross-boundary shuttle bus (Yellow Bus) to about two minutes at its highest frequency; and
• increasing the frequency of local franchised bus B routes connecting various land-based BCPs to a level higher than that of normal weekends or Sundays during the peak hours.

 
     It is anticipated that the waiting time for public transport services, including the Gold Bus, may be longer. Passengers should make their journeys during non-peak hours, observe order while queuing and heed advice from on-site police and staff of the PTOs concerned. Passengers of cross-boundary coaches are also advised to reserve their coach tickets in advance.
 
     Motorists are advised that, subject to actual traffic conditions, special traffic arrangements may be implemented at the Lok Ma Chau Control Point and the Shenzhen Bay Port from June 27 to July 2 to allow smooth access of public transport vehicles to the above control points. Cross-boundary private cars may need to queue up for crossing the BCPs. Motorists should pay extra attention to variable message signs and traffic signs along the roads. In case of traffic congestion, they should remain patient and follow the instructions of on-site police.
 
     For the HZMB, to plan their journeys ahead, members of the public can make use of the TD’s HKeMobility mobile application or the TD’s website (hkemobility.gov.hk/en/traffic-information/live/cctv) to access snapshots of traffic conditions at inbound and outbound vehicle plazas of the HZMB Hong Kong Port. They can also check real-time situations of the vehicle clearance plaza of the Zhuhai Port through WeChat official accounts “hzmbzhport” or “zhuhaifabu” (traffic-info.gzazhka.com:5015/#/) (Chinese only), and check the forecasts of peak hours of inbound and outbound vehicles at the HZMB Zhuhai Port through the WeChat official account of the HZMB integrated information dissemination platform (mp.weixin.qq.com/s/2X5Cp25ag62fZ8lS6O-V2Q) (Chinese only). Moreover, motorists are reminded to always comply with traffic control measures implemented by the Zhuhai authority when driving on the HZMB Main Bridge. Vehicles shall not occupy the emergency lane unless instructed by the Zhuhai authority.
 
     The TD’s Emergency Transport Co-ordination Centre will continue to operate 24 hours to closely monitor the traffic conditions and public transport services of different districts including various BCPs and major stations. The TD will disseminate the latest traffic information through various channels. Members of the public are advised to check the latest traffic news through radio, television broadcasts, and the HKeMobility application.