Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

​The Home Affairs Department (HAD) announced today (April 1) that the Director of Home Affairs had respectively appointed 464 persons and 476 persons (940 persons in total) as members of District Youth Community Building Committees and District Youth Development and Civic Education Committees for a new term of office of two years starting from April 1, 2025.
 
Comprising district personalities and self-nominated young people as members, the two Committees provide fora for discussion on various matters such as district works projects, youth development and civic education, and for participation in district activities.  Each Committee is composed of 20 to 30 members for its new term. The average age of all members is below 35. Forty per cent of them (375 persons in total) are young people aged between 16 and 35 selected through the Member Self-recommendation Scheme for Youth Phase 8, an increase of over 10 per cent from around 330 self-nominated seats in the previous term. Among the self-nominated young people selected as members, a total of 21 are under the age of 18, an increase of over 20 per cent compared to the total of 17 recorded in the previous term.
 
The Chief Executive announced in the 2022 Policy Address the launch of a Youth Participation Initiative, with a view to engaging more young people in public affairs and enhancing their interaction and trust with the Government. One of the initiatives was for the HAD to designate two committees on district affairs for young people to nominate themselves as members. At the end of the same year, the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau published the Youth Development Blueprint, striving to strengthen the sense of ownership and responsibility of young people, and to enable more young people to take part in community building and district affairs through the establishment of the two Committees. In this regard, the HAD established in April 2023 the above-mentioned two Committees in the 18 districts, opening up seats for young people to nominate themselves as members.
 
The membership lists of the two Committees in the 18 districts have been uploaded to the website of the HAD (www.had.gov.hk/en/public_services/youth_participation_initiative/index.htm).

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
 
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime (GCFFC) co-hosted the APAC Fighting Financial Crime Conference 2025 today (April 1), under the theme of “Fighting Financial Crime in a More Complex World”.

The event gathered leading global and regional anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-financing of terrorism (CFT) experts together with participants from across Hong Kong’s AML/CFT ecosystem, including representation from banks, government agencies, financial regulators, and law enforcement agencies. Participants shared insights on how to improve the fight against fraud and financial crime with keynotes, panels and interactive discussions.
 
Welcoming the participants, Mr Raymond Chan, Executive Director (Enforcement and AML) of the HKMA, said, “Criminality has evolved on the back of the digitalisation of financial services and we must respond quicker and with the same level of innovation, including how we collaborate to share information and leverage artificial intelligence to deliver step changes in the results achieved.”
 
Mr Keith Yip, Director of Crime and Security of the Hong Kong Police Force, said, “Through relentless collaboration and cutting-edge strategies, we shall prevail in the fight against financial crimes — from cyber-enabled fraud to transnational money laundering. Harnessing data-driven intelligence and global partnerships, we reaffirm our pledge to protect vulnerable communities and disrupt criminal networks, securing a resilient future for all.”
 
Mr John Cusack, Chair of the GCFFC, thanked the HKMA for bringing leading experts together and said, “We invited leading financial crime fighters from the public, private and third sectors to meet and discuss critical topical and emerging issues under the theme ‘Fighting Financial Crime in a More Complex World’ and we had a lively discussion which helped everyone better understand threats and the best practices and evolving initiatives.”
 
In a series of panels and breakout sessions, participants shared experience and expertise in maximising opportunities to enhance industry efforts to combat money laundering and financial crime, strengthening protection for customers, and improving the outcomes achieved by the global AML system.
 
Some of the highlights included:
 

• a call to action to strengthen efforts to tackle high levels of frauds and scams based on international best practices and the latest developments in the use of technology;
• the changes banking supervisors have made to AML supervision to improve the outcomes achieved by banks to combat fraud and financial crime;
• how Hong Kong has been at the forefront of international AML standard setting, in a conversation with Mrs Clarie Lo, former President of the Financial Action Task Force; and
• how public and private collaboration in the Asia Pacific region is driving a stronger response to fraud and financial crime, for example, the latest development being legislative changes introduced by the HKMA to support information sharing between banks.

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

The Secretary for Health, Professor Lo Chung-mau, met with Deputy Commissioner of the National Medical Products Administration Dr Xu Jinghe today (April 1) to have an in-depth exchange on the regulatory regime and reform of drugs and medical devices.  

Professor Lo said, “The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has been ushering in immense opportunities for medical and biotechnological developments in recent years. The National 14th Five-Year Plan has expressed clear support to develop Hong Kong into an international innovation and technology hub. Biomedicine and medical innovation are directly related to people’s life and health and also represent immense new quality productive forces. The Resolution of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernization adopted by the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee also pointed out the need to deepen medical and healthcare reform and to support the development mechanisms for innovative drugs and medical devices.

     “The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government strenuously works in line with the national objective of deepening medical and healthcare reform by pursuing innovation in the medical field. While integrating into the national development, the HKSAR will capitalise on its unique advantages of international influence and professions to the fullest to develop the city into an international health and medical innovation hub, thereby enabling the innovative medical technologies to go global and attract foreign investment and developing new quality productive forces in biomedicine. Hong Kong will strive to give full play to our strengths to serve the country’s needs amid the comprehensive deepening of reform.”

While introducing the approval mechanism for drugs and medical devices, Professor Lo emphasised, “The HKSAR Government will expedite the reform of the approval mechanism for drugs and medical devices to meet the institutional requirement necessary for the health and medical innovation development, such as extending the ‘1+’ mechanism to cover all new drugs, including vaccines and advanced therapy products, since November 1 last year; preparing for the establishment of the Hong Kong Centre for Medical Products Regulation (CMPR) to progress towards the ‘primary evaluation’ approach, with a view to fully strengthening the drug approval capability of the HKSAR; and taking forward preparatory work for legislating for the statutory regulation of medical devices to dovetail with the timetable for the establishment of the CMPR.”

The Director of Health, Dr Ronald Lam, and representatives from the Health Bureau and the Department of Health also attended the meeting today.

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) announced today (April 1) that open auctions for a total of 642 stalls in 46 public markets will be held in April. Market stalls not taken at open auctions will be available to the public for renting at their upset prices on April 22 on a first-come, first-served basis.

1. Open auctions

The types of stalls to be auctioned this time cover cooked food, frozen meat, fresh meat, fresh fish, frozen (chilled) poultry, fruits, vegetables, ready-to-eat food, food-related dry goods and wet goods, non-food related dry goods and wet goods, service trades, siu mei and lo mei, mobile phones/mobile phone accessories/electronic products/electronic parts, pet goods and pet food, hardware/locksmith, etc. The tenancy agreement is a three-year fixed term from May 1, with no right of renewal upon expiry of the tenancy agreement. The upset prices of the monthly rent of the stalls vary depending on the sizes, locations and vacancy periods of the individual stalls. The upset prices for the stalls in an open auction will be initially fixed at 80 per cent of the open market rent (OMR) if the stalls have been vacant for over six months, and at 60 per cent of the OMR if the vacant period has been over eight months. Relevant information is available on the FEHD website.

The date and venue of the auctions and the number of stalls are as follows:

Kowloon (except Lai Wan Market) (1)
—————————————–
Auction date: April 8 (Tuesday) (am)
Auction venue: Room 410, 4/F, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Nam Cheong Offices and Vehicle Depot, 87 Yen Chow Street West, Kowloon
Number of stalls: 101

Lai Wan Market
—————–
Auction date: April 8 (Tuesday) (pm)
Auction venue: Room 410, 4/F, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Nam Cheong Offices and Vehicle Depot, 87 Yen Chow Street West, Kowloon
Number of stalls: two

Kowloon (except Lai Wan Market) (2)
—————————————–
Auction date: April 9 (Wednesday) (am)
Auction venue: Room 410, 4/F, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Nam Cheong Offices and Vehicle Depot, 87 Yen Chow Street West, Kowloon
Number of stalls: 46

Kowloon (except Lai Wan Market) (3)
—————————————–
Auction date: April 9 (Wednesday) (pm)
Auction venue: Room 410, 4/F, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Nam Cheong Offices and Vehicle Depot, 87 Yen Chow Street West, Kowloon
Number of stalls: 28

New Territories (1)
———————
Auction date: April 10 (Thursday) (am)
Auction venue: Tseng Choi Street Community Hall, 27 Tseng Choi Street, Tuen Mun, New Territories
Number of stalls: 126

Hong Kong Island and Islands District (except Aberdeen Market) (1)
—————————————————————————-
Auction date: April 11 (Friday) (am)
Auction venue: Room 410, 4/F, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Nam Cheong Offices and Vehicle Depot, 87 Yen Chow Street West, Kowloon
Number of stalls: 118

Aberdeen Market
——————-
Auction date: April 11 (Friday) (pm)
Auction venue: Room 410, 4/F, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Nam Cheong Offices and Vehicle Depot, 87 Yen Chow Street West, Kowloon
Number of stalls: 21

Hong Kong Island and Islands District (except Aberdeen Market) (2)
—————————————————————————-
Auction date: April 14 (Monday) (am)
Auction venue: Room 410, 4/F, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Nam Cheong Offices and Vehicle Depot, 87 Yen Chow Street West, Kowloon
Number of stalls: 81

Hong Kong Island and Islands District (except Aberdeen Market) (3)
—————————————————————————-
Auction date: April 14 (Monday) (pm)
Auction venue: Room 410, 4/F, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Nam Cheong Offices and Vehicle Depot, 87 Yen Chow Street West, Kowloon
Number of stalls: 63

New Territories (2)
———————
Auction date: April 15 (Tuesday) (am)
Auction venue: Room 410, 4/F, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Nam Cheong Offices and Vehicle Depot, 87 Yen Chow Street West, Kowloon
Number of stalls: 56

Limited seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis. The admission tickets will be issued 30 minutes prior to the commencement of each auction. Persons who want to attend the auctions must wait at the waiting area of the auction venue and produce their Hong Kong identity card or passport for registration. The registered person will then be provided with an admission ticket for the auctions. In addition, eligible bidders after verification will be issued with a bidding paddle for the auction. The FEHD has also invited representatives of the Police and the Independent Commission Against Corruption to monitor the auctions at the auction venue in order to ensure that the open auctions are conducted in an orderly and fair manner.

2. Renting at upset prices on first-come, first-served basis

The tenancy agreement of market stalls renting on a first-come, first-served basis is a three-year fixed term from June 1, with no right of renewal upon expiry of the tenancy agreement. The upset prices of the monthly rent of the stalls vary depending on their sizes, locations, vacancy periods and the reduced upset prices from the last open auction of the individual stalls. Relevant information is available on the FEHD website after open auctions.

Members of the public who are interested in renting a market stall at its upset price should approach the following FEHD offices, as appropriate, to apply in person from 9.30am to 12.30pm or 2.30pm to 4.30pm on April 22:
 

Districts in which the market stalls are located	Venues for selection of market stalls
Hong Kong Island and Islands District	Hawkers and Markets Section (Hong Kong and Islands) Office, 8/F, Lockhart Road Municipal Services Building, 225 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Kowloon	Hawkers and Markets Section (Kowloon) Office, Room 301-302, 3/F, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Nam Cheong Offices and Vehicle Depot, 87 Yen Chow Street West, Kowloon
Kwai Tsing District	Kwai Tsing District Environmental Hygiene Office, 9/F, Kwai Hing Government Offices, 166-174 Hing Fong Road, Kwai Chung, New Territories
North District	North District Environmental Hygiene Office, 4/F, Shek Wu Hui Municipal Services Building, 13 Chi Cheong Road, Sheung Shui, New Territories
Sai Kung District	Sai Kung District Environmental Hygiene Office, 7/F, Sai Kung Tseung Kwan O Government Complex, 38 Pui Shing Road, Tseung Kwan O, New Territories
Sha Tin District	Sha Tin District Environmental Hygiene Office, Units 1201-1207 and 1220-1221, 12/F, Tower 1, Grand Central Plaza, 138 Sha Tin Rural Committee Road, Sha Tin, New Territories
Tai Po District	Tai Po District Environmental Hygiene Office, 3/F, Tai Po Complex, 8 Heung Sze Wui Street, Tai Po, New Territories
Tsuen Wan District	Tsuen Wan District Environmental Hygiene Office, 3/F, Yeung Uk Road Municipal Services Building, 45 Yeung Uk Road, Tsuen Wan, New Territories
Tuen Mun District	Tuen Mun District Environmental Hygiene Office, 1/F, Tuen Mun Government Offices Building, 1 Tuen Hi Road, Tuen Mun, New Territories
Yuen Long District	Yuen Long District Environmental Hygiene Office, 2/F, Yuen Long Government Offices, 2 Kiu Lok Square, Yuen Long, New Territories

 
     A spokesman for the FEHD said, “Bidders or applicants for the market stalls must be at least 18 years old and ordinarily reside in Hong Kong. To allow more people to bid for or select the stalls and increase customer choices by enhancing the diversity in terms of the variety of stalls, there will be a restriction on the number of stalls to be rented in the same market by a single tenant. Any person who is currently a stall tenant is not allowed to bid in the first round of auction for any stall in the same market, and will only be allowed to bid for one stall in the second round of auction or to select one stall in the same market on a first-come, first-served basis. The existing tenants under the new three-year fixed term tenancy scheme (i.e. those persons who became stall tenants through the market open auctions after August 2022) are allowed to bid for a stall in the auction or select a stall on a first-come, first-served basis in the same market, but shall vacate the current stall and return it to the FEHD before the effective date of commencement of the new tenancy agreement.”

​Details of the open auctions and the public market stalls concerned (including stalls for open auction at reduced upset prices) have been uploaded to the FEHD website (www.fehd.gov.hk/english/pleasant_environment/tidy_market/open_auction_coming.html). Details on renting public market stalls on a first-come, first-served basis will be uploaded to the FEHD website after open auctions (www.fehd.gov.hk/english/pleasant_environment/tidy_market/FCFS/index.html). Interested bidders or applicants may visit the department website or contact the respective District Environmental Hygiene Office.

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) wishes to alert members of the public to a press release issued by Chong Hing Bank Limited relating to a fraudulent website and an internet banking login screen, which have been reported to the HKMA. A hyperlink to the press release is available on the HKMA website.
 
The HKMA wishes to remind the public that banks will not send SMS or emails with embedded hyperlinks which direct them to the banks’ websites to carry out transactions. They will not ask customers for sensitive personal information, such as login passwords or one-time password, by phone, email or SMS (including via embedded hyperlinks).
 
Anyone who has provided his or her personal information, or who has conducted any financial transactions, through or in response to the website or login screen concerned, should contact the bank using the contact information provided in the press release, and report the matter to the Police by contacting the Crime Wing Information Centre of the Hong Kong Police Force at 2860 5012.

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) wishes to alert members of the public to a press release issued by Bank of Singapore Limited relating to a fraudulent mobile application (App), which has been reported to the HKMA. A hyperlink to the press release is available on the HKMA website.

The HKMA wishes to remind the public that banks will not send SMS or emails with embedded hyperlinks which direct them to the banks’ websites to carry out transactions. They will not ask customers for sensitive personal information, such as login passwords or one-time password, by phone, email or SMS (including via embedded hyperlinks).

Anyone who has provided his or her personal information, or who has conducted any financial transactions, through or in response to the App concerned, should contact the bank using the contact information provided in the press release, and report the matter to the Police by contacting the Crime Wing Information Centre of the Hong Kong Police Force at 2860 5012.

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) wishes to alert members of the public to a press release issued by Shanghai Commercial Bank Limited relating to a fraudulent website and an internet banking login screen, which have been reported to the HKMA. A hyperlink to the press release is available on the HKMA website.

The HKMA wishes to remind the public that banks will not send SMS or emails with embedded hyperlinks which direct them to the banks’ websites to carry out transactions. They will not ask customers for sensitive personal information, such as login passwords or one-time password, by phone, email or SMS (including via embedded hyperlinks).
 
Anyone who has provided his or her personal information, or who has conducted any financial transactions, through or in response to the website or login screen concerned, should contact the bank using the contact information provided in the press release, and report the matter to the Police by contacting the Crime Wing Information Centre of the Hong Kong Police Force at 2860 5012.

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

The Department of Health (DH) yesterday (March 31) held the first briefing seminar on the “1+” mechanism for new drugs with an introduction of the requirements for registration of pharmaceutical products under this mechanism, as well as the upcoming workshops on good regulatory practices and pre-new drug application (NDA) meetings. The DH aims to work with the pharmaceutical industry to achieve the goals of early consultation to enhance quality and efficiency throughout the process so that registration approval can be expedited, thereby bringing more good drugs for use in Hong Kong.

     “The Chief Executive’s 2024 Policy Address” announced that a consultation service for NDAs under the “1+” mechanism will be introduced to enhance the efficiency of processing relevant applications. The consultation service comprises briefing seminars, workshops and pre-NDA meetings. Yesterday’s seminar was well received and was attended by 76 representatives from pharmaceutical and consultation companies inside or outside Hong Kong, as well as scientific research institutions. This marks the beginning of the consultation service. The DH will organise two more seminars on April 21 and May 16 this year. For further details and to register for future seminars, please visit the Drug Office’s thematic webpage on the “1+” mechanism.

The DH will also organise workshops starting from June this year to provide guidance and sharing of good practices and real-life experiences on submitting applications through the “1+” mechanism. The DH will also offer to hold pre-NDA meetings with potential “1+” registration applicants starting from the second half of this year, providing specific guidance to assist in their planning of the NDA approval process and improve the quality of application documents to enhance the efficiency of the whole process. Details of the arrangements of the workshops and meetings will be announced in due course.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government has implemented the “1+” mechanism since November 1, 2023, to facilitate the registration of new drugs for treating life-threatening or severely debilitating diseases in Hong Kong. The HKSAR Government has extended the “1+” mechanism to all new drugs from November 1, 2024, including all new chemical or biological entities and new indications, and vaccines and advanced therapy products. Under the “1+” mechanism, new drugs which are supported by local clinical data and recognised by local relevant experts can be applied for registration in Hong Kong by submitting approval from the drug regulatory authority of one of the reference places (instead of two in the past).

The “1+” mechanism serves to attract more new drugs from different parts of the world seeking approval for registration in Hong Kong, giving patients more choices and further strengthening the local capacity for drug evaluation while enhancing the development of relevant software, hardware and expertise with a view to progressing towards “primary evaluation”. Since the implementation of the “1+” mechanism, a total of 11 new drugs have been approved under this mechanism. The DH has been promoting the “1+” mechanism through different channels, and so far, has received 460 enquiries from 120 pharmaceutical companies, including those from overseas and the Mainland.

Meanwhile, the Government will continue its efforts to reform the approval mechanism for drugs and medical devices. These include putting forward a timetable for establishing the Hong Kong Centre for Medical Products Regulation and charting a roadmap towards “primary evaluation” in the first half of this year, aiming to spur the growth of new industries in pharmaceutical and medical device research, and development and testing.

Source: Government of India

Posted On: 01 APR 2025 10:09AM by PIB Delhi

The Government through Central Silk Board has been implementing Silk Samagra-2 scheme with an outlay of Rs. 4,679.85 crore for the overall development of sericulture industry in the country from the year 2021-22 to 2025-26.

Under the scheme, financial assistance is provided to States towards implementation of various beneficiary oriented field level critical interventions, which includes raising of kissan nurseries, silkworm rearing packages (includes assistance for plantation, irrigation, rearing house, rearing equipments and prophylactic measures), establishment of chawki rearing centres in pre-cocoon sector, support and infrastructure oriented interventions for silkworm seed sector, silk reeling, spinning, weaving, processing components meant for post cocoon sector. 

So far, the central assistance of Rs. 1,075.58 crore has been provided to States to cover around 78,000 beneficiaries under Silk Samagra-2 scheme towards implementation of beneficiary-oriented components covering both pre and post cocoon activities/machineries for the growth and sustainability of sericulture sector.

Additionally, through Research & Development activities, the production and productivity of silk has been improved to achieve the goal of Aatmanirbhar Bharat in silk sector.

Based on the proposals received from the States, central assistance of Rs 72.50 crore to Andhra Pradesh and Rs.40.66 crore to Telangana has been provided towards implementation of beneficiary-oriented components under Silk Samagra-2, during the last three years including the current year.

The Government is implementing Raw Material Supply Scheme (RMSS) and National Handloom Development Programme to promote Handloom sector  throughout the country including Andhra Pradesh & Telangana States. Under the above schemes, financial assistance is provided to eligible Handloom agencies/workers for raw material, procurement of upgraded looms and accessories, solar lighting units, construction of workshed, products diversification & design innovation, technical and common infrastructure, marketing of Handlooms products in domestic & overseas markets, concessional loans under weavers’ MUDRA Scheme and Social Security, etc. In addition, to give wider exposure to all the textile stakeholders including Handloom industry, several marketing events in the form of fairs/melas, exhibitions and expos are organised through support of CSB, National Handloom Development Programme (NHDP), Export Promotion Councils (EPC) of textiles including Indian Silk Export Promotion Council, with the support of Ministry of Textiles.

This information was provided by THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR TEXTILES SHRI PABITRA

MARGHERITA in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

***

DHANYA SANAL K

 (Rajya Sabha US Q3354)

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