Month: November 2025

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region – 4

Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao jointly released today (November 7) a report on air quality in 2024 under the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Pearl River Delta Regional Air Quality Monitoring Network, which indicates a long-term downward trend of the concentrations of various air pollutants, namely sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), respirable suspended particulates (RSPs, PM10) and fine suspended particulates (FSPs, PM2.5).
 
Over the years, the governments of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao have introduced a variety of policies and measures tailored to local circumstances, working together to improve regional air quality. The report reveals that the 2024 annual average concentrations for these parameters have declined between 18 per cent and 86 per cent from their peak levels (shown in Annexes 1 and 2). The decline well demonstrates the effectiveness of emission reduction measures implemented across the three places in improving air quality in the Pearl River Delta region.
  
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government has continued to implement various air pollutant emission control measures covered in the Hong Kong Roadmap on Popularisation of Electric Vehicles (EVs), the Clean Air Plan for Hong Kong 2035, Hong Kong’s Climate Action Plan 2050 and the Green Transformation Roadmap of Public Buses and Taxis on marine and land transport, power plants and non-road mobile machinery to enhance air quality. In addition, the Air Pollution Control (Amendment) Ordinance 2025 came into effect on April 11, 2025. The Amendment Ordinance tightens five existing Air Quality Objectives (AQOs) and adds three new parameters introduced by the World Health Organization (WHO) to the WHO Global Air Quality Guidelines. Among the 15 updated AQOs, seven are set at the most stringent levels of the Guidelines, which are on par with those of other advanced economies.
 
For vehicles, the HKSAR Government is committed to phasing out approximately 40 000 Euro IV diesel commercial vehicles progressively by the end of 2027. The Government deploys roadside remote sensing equipment to control exhaust emissions from vehicles. New registrations of fuel-propelled private cars including hybrids will cease in 2035 or earlier, and approximately 700 electric buses and 3 000 electric taxis will be introduced by end-2027. The HKSAR Government has been implementing and promoting green transformation of vehicles and is striving towards zero vehicular emissions by 2050. These efforts have produced early results. As at end-September 2025, the number of EVs in Hong Kong exceeded 135 000, of which about 132 000 were private cars – nine times the number from six years ago, accounting for 21 per cent of all private cars in Hong Kong.

Since 2019, Hong Kong has collaborated with Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) cities to establish a domestic marine emission control area in the Pearl River Delta, requiring all vessels to use compliant fuel within Hong Kong waters while sailing or at berth.
  
Meanwhile, Guangdong Province published and implemented the “Notice on Action Plan for Continuous Improvement of Air Quality in Guangdong Province Issued by the People’s Government of Guangdong Province”, the “Notice on Implementation of Monitoring Requirements on Fugitive Emission of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) from Factories Issued by Department of Ecology and Environment of Guangdong Province”, the “Notice on Strengthening Control of VOCs Emissions During Storage and Transportation in Oil Depots and Petrochemical and Chemical Enterprises”, the “Notice on Further Reduction of Nitrogen Oxides Emission from Stationary and Mobile Sources issued by Department of Ecology and Environment of Guangdong Province”, and the “Notice on Strengthening Environmental Control on Diesel Trucks of Key Vehicle-using Enterprises”, as well as promulgating the local standard “Integrated Emission Standard of VOCs for Stationary Pollution Source”. Guangdong Province launched the hierarchical management of VOCs-related enterprises, enhanced the total VOCs management, advanced the control of industrial boilers and furnaces, upheld a co-ordinated approach across vehicle regulations, fuel standards, roadway management, and enterprise compliance to strengthen emissions regulations for diesel trucks operated by key enterprises, conducted compliance checks on new vehicles, improved emissions management for non-road mobile machinery, and carried out regular sampling and inspection of the fuel quality and emissions of engineering machinery.
 
The Macao Special Administrative Region (Macao SAR) Government is continuously implementing measures to improve air quality in line with the Long-term Decarbonisation Strategy of Macao (including the Macao Electric Vehicle Promotion Plan) and the Macao Environmental Protection Plan (2021–2025). These include controlling vehicle exhaust emissions, phasing out high-pollution vehicles, promoting EVs, and regulating VOCs. In 2024, the Macao SAR Government continued to encourage vehicle owners to phase out high-polluting old motorcycles and diesel vehicles through the Subsidy Scheme for Phasing out Old Motorcycles with Replacement of New Electric Motorcycles and the Subsidy Scheme for Phasing Out Old Diesel Vehicles. These efforts have achieved positive results. Building on this progress, the Macao SAR Government is launching a new phase of the Subsidy Scheme for Replacing Gasoline Motorcycles with New Electric Motorcycles in 2025. This new scheme expands the scope of eligible applicants to include all conventional fuel-propelled motorcycles and extends the scheme duration to five years, further intensifying efforts to phase out high-polluting motorcycles and promote electric motorcycles. In addition, the Macao SAR Government is studying the formulation of a new phase of the subsidy scheme for phasing out old diesel vehicles and is advancing a series of related policies. These include enhancing public charging and battery-swapping facilities, tightening emission limits for motorcycles and diesel vehicles as well as certain parameters for unleaded motor gasoline, restricting the import of construction adhesives exceeding VOC content limits, and increasing the proportion of local photovoltaic power generation. Through these comprehensive efforts, the Macao SAR Government aims to further reduce local emissions, enhance air quality, and achieve the regional joint prevention and control objectives.

The Network comprises a total of 23 air monitoring stations in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. The Ecological and Environmental Monitoring Centre of Guangdong, the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) of Hong Kong, the Macao Environmental Protection Bureau and the Macao Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau are responsible for the co-ordination, management and operation of the monitoring stations in the respective places and the release of quarterly and annual monitoring results. The relevant reports are available on the following websites:
 

• The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Regional Air Quality Monitoring Information System (www.gdeem.cn:20047/#/);
• The Department of Ecology and Environment of Guangdong Province (gdee.gd.gov.cn);
• The EPD of Hong Kong (www.epd.gov.hk); and
• The Macao Environmental Protection Bureau (www.dspa.gov.mo) or the Macao Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (www.smg.gov.mo).

Looking ahead, the governments of Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao will continue to work hand in hand to build a beautiful bay area and further improve air quality in the GBA.  

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region – 4

     The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government announced that the Pilot Scheme for Direct Cross-boundary Ambulance Transfer in the Greater Bay Area will be extended to designated hospitals in Zhuhai and Nansha from November 9 (Sunday), marking a new phase of the Pilot Scheme.

     In his Policy Address in September this year, the Chief Executive has announced the extension of the cross-boundary ambulance transfer arrangements with the governments of Guangdong and Macao in an orderly manner, including expansion to cover designated hospitals in Zhuhai and Nansha, as well as two-way transfers. To ensure the smooth implementation of relevant arrangements, the HKSAR Government, in collaboration with the People’s Government of Zhuhai Municipality and the Nansha District People’s Government of Guangzhou Municipality, conducted drills in September and October respectively to assess the simulated transfer of patients under the cross-boundary ambulance arrangements. The drills were conducted smoothly in general. The Pilot Scheme will be extended to Zhuhai People’s Hospital and the Nansha Division of the First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, starting from November 9.

     The Secretary for Health, Professor Lo Chung-mau, said, “With the high degree of integration among cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) and frequent travelling of residents between different cities in the GBA for living and working, there is an increasing demand for the cross-boundary transfer of patients in a point-to-point mode. The extension of the Pilot Scheme will help enhance the medical collaboration in the GBA, offering patients a safer, more timely and convenient transfer arrangements.

     “The arrangements for direct cross-boundary ambulance transfer in the GBA involve cross-boundary travelling of vehicles, healthcare personnel, drugs and medical devices, and more. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to various national ministries, including the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, the National Health Commission and the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China, for their support and guidance which contributed to the smooth extension of the arrangements. I would also like to thank various authorities of the People’s Government of Guangdong Province, the People’s Government of Zhuhai Municipality, the Nansha District People’s Government of Guangzhou Municipality and the People’s Government of Shenzhen Municipality for their concerted efforts in maintaining proactive communication and close collaboration on the arrangements for direct cross-boundary ambulance transfer. In addition, I would like to thank a number of HKSAR Government departments and organisations, including the Security Bureau, the Transport and Logistics Bureau, the Hong Kong Police Force, the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department, the Immigration Department, the Transport Department, the Department of Health and the Hospital Authority, for their full co-operation.”

     The Pilot Scheme was launched on November 30 last year, with the implementation of direct cross-boundary ambulance transfer of patients from designated sending hospitals in Shenzhen and Macao (i.e. the University of Hong Kong – Shenzhen Hospital and the Conde S. Januario Hospital of Macao) to designated public hospitals in Hong Kong in its first phase. As at early November this year, a total of 17 patients (11 from Shenzhen and six from Macao) had been successfully transferred to designated public hospitals in Hong Kong for treatment. According to professional medical assessments, patients of the above cases have a need for continuous hospitalisation for treatment. Their conditions were relatively stable, but they were unable to cross the boundary on their own and were unsuitable for transfer to an ambulance via the existing boundary control points. The risk during transfers can be significantly reduced if patients are not required to be handed over between ambulances at boundary control points, and the arrangements fully demonstrated the continuous deepening of quality healthcare collaboration and development in the GBA. The overall operation of the Pilot Scheme has been smooth since its implementation, and it will be extended for one year until November 29 next year.

     The governments of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao will continue to review the effectiveness and operational experiences of the existing transfer arrangements, with the medical needs, safety and interests of patients as the prime concerns, as well as to press ahead with the objective of extending the cross-boundary ambulance transfer arrangements to two-way transfers as set out in the Policy Address, aiming for implementation early next year.

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

A money service operator license holder was convicted by the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts on November 4 for failing to comply with customer due diligence and record-keeping requirements, and providing false or misleading documents to Customs officers under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (Ordinance). The company was fined a total of $328,000, the highest fine on record among similar cases.

During a compliance inspection in March last year, Customs officers found that the company had serious deficiencies in conducting remittance transactions between February and July 2022, including failing to identify and verify the identity of the beneficial owners, failing to record the information of the recipients, failing to conduct ongoing monitoring of the business relationship with relevant remitters, and providing false or misleading documents to Customs officers during the investigation.

Customs welcomes the sentence, noting that the fine imposes a considerable deterrent effect and serves as a clear and definite warning to licensed money service operators who violate the law.

Customs reminds all licensed money service operators to comply with the customer due diligence and record-keeping requirements under the Ordinance. Any person who contravenes the requirements is liable on conviction to a maximum fine of $1 million and imprisonment for seven years. In addition, any licensed money service operator who produces any false or misleading record, document or answer as if they were in compliance with the requirements during compliance inspections commits an offense and is liable on conviction to a maximum fine of $1 million and imprisonment for two years.

Members of the public may report any suspected violations of the Ordinance to Customs’ 24-hour hotline 180 8282 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk) or online form (eform.cefs.gov.hk/form/ced002).

Source: Hong Kong Information Services

A report on air quality in 2024 jointly released by Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau under the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Pearl River Delta Regional Air Quality Monitoring Network, indicates a long-term downward trend in air pollutant concentrations for sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, respirable suspended particulates (PM10), and fine suspended particulates (PM2.5).

The Environmental Protection Department stated that the report finds the 2024 average concentrations for these pollutants to have declined by between 18% and 86% from their peak levels. It added that the drop demonstrates the effectiveness of emission reduction measures being implemented across the three places.

The department highlighted that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has implemented various air pollutant emission control measures to enhance air quality.

Moreover, the Air Pollution Control (Amendment) Ordinance 2025 – which came into effect in April of this year – tightens five existing Air Quality Objectives (AQOs) and adds three new parameters introduced by the World Health Organization to its global air quality guidelines. Among 15 updated AQOs, seven are set at the most stringent levels under the guidelines, on a par with those of other advanced economies.

The Hong Kong SAR Government is also committed to phasing out approximately 40,000 Euro IV diesel commercial vehicles by the end of 2027. New registrations of fuel-propelled private cars, including hybrids, will cease in 2035 or earlier, and approximately 700 electric buses and 3,000 electric taxis will be introduced by the end of 2027.

The department outlined that the Hong Kong SAR Government is supporting the green transformation of vehicles and striving towards zero vehicular emissions by 2050. It reported that as of the end of September of this year the number of electric vehicles in Hong Kong exceeded 135,000, including about 132,000 private cars, which was nine times the number from six years ago and accounted for 21% of all private cars in the city.

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region