Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

DSJ promotes Hong Kong’s common law system and strengths in legal, financial and other professional services in Indonesia       
     In the morning, Dr Cheung attended the China Conference: Southeast Asia 2026, where he shared insights with political and business communities on how Hong Kong’s unique strengths can help consolidate and develop economic and trade partnerships with fast-growing economies like Indonesia.
      
     Dr Cheung noted that Hong Kong’s distinctive advantages could be highlighted in four aspects. First, “irreplaceable”; Hong Kong serves as an irreplaceable bridge for Indonesian and ASEAN enterprises looking to the market of the Chinese Mainland, and for Chinese companies venturing into Southeast Asia’s markets. Second, “interconnected”; as an international financial centre, Hong Kong is deeply interconnected in financial, legal, and other professional fields, reflecting the international best practice. Third, “innovative”; Hong Kong keeps abreast of innovative policies, supporting the development of different industry sectors. For example, initiatives enabling multinational corporations to relocate their domicile to Hong Kong and enjoy the city’s simple and low tax regime. Fourth, “indispensable”; the common law system is a cornerstone of Hong Kong’s success. With a robust rule of law environment, a bilingual common law system which is internationally compatible as well as clear and transparent laws, Hong Kong is an indispensable international legal hub offering strong and reliable legal support for sophisticated cross-border investments.
      
     Dr Cheung said that Hong Kong stood ready to collaborate with Indonesia and other ASEAN countries by leveraging Hong Kong’s unique advantages to promote shared prosperity across Asia.
      
     During the Conference, Dr Cheung met with the Chargé d’Affaires ad Interim of the Embassy to the People’s Republic of China to the Republic of  Indonesia, Mr Zhou Kan. Dr Cheung expressed gratitude to Mr Zhou for his support on the work of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. Dr Cheung remarked that the Department of Justice had been fully supporting Mainland enterprises in leveraging Hong Kong to go global and rolled out the Hong Kong Professional Services GoGlobal Platform and the “Collection of Success Stories: Hong Kong’s Professional Services Supporting Chinese Mainland Enterprises Going Global” about two months ago. During the visit, Dr Cheung also visited a Mainland-invested enterprise which had leveraged Hong Kong’s professional services to go global successfully in Indonesia. He exchanged views with their senior management on the measures of the Platform in supporting Mainland enterprises. 
      
     Dr Cheung also met with the Chairwoman of the Indonesian Employers’ Association, Ms Shinta Widjaja Kamdani. Dr Cheung indicated that Hong Kong enjoyed both China advantages and international advantages under the “one country, two systems” principle. He encouraged Indonesian businesses to leverage the city’s high-quality professional services, including international legal and financial services, to set up regional business headquarters in Hong Kong and to seize new opportunities under the Belt and Road Initiative and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area development.

     In addition, Dr Cheung had a luncheon with leaders from the commercial, financial, and innovation and technology sectors in Indonesia and nearby regions to exchange views on how to better facilitate commercial ties and collaboration between Hong Kong and Indonesia.      
     Before the reception, the Director-General of the HKETO in Jakarta, Miss Libera Cheng, updated Dr Cheung on the HKETO’s work. She said that the establishment of the HKETO in Kuala Lumpur in December 2025 has further strengthened Hong Kong’s relations with ASEAN countries. With Indonesia being ASEAN’s largest economy, the HKETO in Jakarta will continue to enhance promotion work in the region, with a view to fostering bilateral economic, trade and people-to-people ties.
      
     Dr Cheung will visit the China Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia tomorrow (February 11) before concluding his visit and returning to Hong Kong.
Issued at HKT 20:18

NNNN

Two illegal workers jailed      
     During an anti-illegal worker operation conducted by the Immigration Department (ImmD) on March 4, 2025, investigators raided an industrial building in Kwai Chung. Two Filipino men, aged 42 and 45, were arrested while loading goods. Upon identity checking, they produced for inspection recognisance forms issued by the ImmD, which prohibit them from taking employment. Further investigation revealed that they were non-refoulement claimants.
      
     The illegal workers were charged at the Shatin Magistrates’ Courts yesterday with taking employment while being a person in respect of whom a removal order or deportation order was in force. After trial, they were both sentenced to 22 months and 15 days’ imprisonment.
      
     The spokesman warned, “As stipulated in section 38AA of the Immigration Ordinance, an illegal immigrant, a person who is the subject of a removal order or a deportation order, an overstayer or a person who was refused permission to land is prohibited from taking any employment, whether paid or unpaid, or establishing or joining any business. Offenders are liable upon conviction to a maximum fine of $50,000 and up to three years’ imprisonment. As stipulated in section 20(1)(a) of the Immigration Ordinance, the Chief Executive may make a deportation order against an immigrant, prohibiting the immigrant from being in Hong Kong at any time thereafter if the immigrant has been found guilty in Hong Kong of an offence punishable by imprisonment for not less than two years.”
      
     The spokesman stressed that it is a serious offence to employ people who are not lawfully employable. Under the Immigration Ordinance, the maximum penalty for an employer employing a person who is not lawfully employable, i.e. an illegal immigrant, a person who is the subject of a removal order or a deportation order, an overstayer or a person who was refused permission to land, has been significantly increased from a fine of $350,000 and three years’ imprisonment to a fine of $500,000 and 10 years’ imprisonment to reflect the gravity of such offences. The director, manager, secretary, partner, etc, of the company concerned may also bear criminal liability. The High Court has laid down sentencing guidelines that the employer of an illegal worker should be given an immediate custodial sentence.
      
     According to the court sentencing, employers must take all practicable steps to determine whether a person is lawfully employable prior to employment. Apart from inspecting a prospective employee’s identity card, the employer has the explicit duty to make enquiries regarding the person and ensure that the answers would not cast any reasonable doubt concerning the lawful employability of the person. The court will not accept failure to do so as a defence in proceedings. It is also an offence if an employer fails to inspect the job seeker’s valid travel document if the job seeker does not have a Hong Kong permanent identity card. Offenders are liable upon conviction to a maximum fine of $150,000 and to imprisonment for one year. In that connection, the spokesman would like to remind all employers not to defy the law by employing illegal workers. The ImmD will continue to take resolute enforcement action to combat such offences.
      
     Under the existing mechanism, the ImmD will, as a standard procedure, conduct an initial screening of vulnerable persons, including illegal workers, illegal immigrants, sex workers and foreign domestic helpers, who are arrested during any operation with a view to ascertaining whether they are trafficking in persons (TIP) and/or forced labour victims. When any TIP and/or forced labour indicator is revealed in the initial screening, the ImmD officers will conduct a full debriefing and identification by using a standardised checklist to ascertain the presence of TIP and/or forced labour elements. Identified TIP and/or forced labour victims will be provided with various forms of support and assistance, including urgent intervention, medical services, counselling, shelter or temporary accommodation and other supporting services. The ImmD calls on TIP and/or forced labour victims to report crimes to the relevant departments immediately.
Issued at HKT 18:55

NNNN

Hong Kong Customs dismantles two illegal fueling stations      ​
     Members of the public may report any suspected illegal fuel activities to Customs’ 24-hour hotline 182 8080 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hkIssued at HKT 18:05

Hong Kong’s first petrol-cum-charging station converted from petrol filling station opens       
     The PCS is located at 5 Fung Shing Street, Diamond Hill, and operates 24 hours a day. In addition to the existing auto-fuel and auto-liquefied petroleum gas filling services, it has added two new fast chargers of 120 kW output power for the use of EVs. To facilitate the charging of commercial vehicles, the two fast chargers are reserved for use by electric taxis (e-taxis) and electric public light buses (e-PLBs) from 3pm to 6pm daily, i.e. general shift-change period for taxis.
      
     Officiating at the PCS launch ceremony, the Under Secretary for Environment and Ecology, Miss Diane Wong, said that the transformation from conventional fuel-propelled vehicles to EVs has become a trend. To make the effective use of existing PFS sites to provide charging services for EVs, the Government is gradually converting some existing PFSs into charging stations or PCSs to support more diversified charging facilities and to meet the fast-charging needs of different types of EVs.
          ​
     To promote the green transformation of vehicles and to achieve zero vehicular emissions before 2050, the Government has announced ceasing new registrations of fuel-propelled private cars (including hybrid vehicles) in 2035 or earlier. To cope with charging demands from the continuous growth of EVs, the Government is taking a multipronged approach to enhancing the charging network, aiming to provide approximately 10 000 fast chargers by 2035. The Government will continue to make good use of the existing PFS sites in Hong Kong, and work with PFS operators, power companies and relevant stakeholders to facilitate and promote retrofitting charging facilities at existing PFSs.
      
     In order to encourage owners of taxis and public light buses to expedite the adoption of e-taxis and e-PLBs, and by reference to the current arrangement of dedicated liquefied petroleum gas filling stations, a charging ceiling price mechanism will be established for e-taxis and e-PLBs at designated PCSs. The operators cannot charge a price that is higher than the ceiling price to be announced by the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) on a monthly basis. The charging price for other EVs will be determined by the market. For details about the calculation of charging ceiling prices for e-taxis and e-PLBs, please refer to the Environment and Ecology Bureau website (www.eeb.gov.hk/en/resources_publications/guidelines/index.html          
     Details of the charging ceiling price have been posted at PCSs and will be announced regularly on the EPD website (www.epd.gov.hkIssued at HKT 16:44

Tender awarded for site in Ngau Tau Kok(1) Century Ace Development Limited (Henderson Land Development Company Limited);
(2) Excellent Champ Limited (Sino Land Company Limited and Great Eagle Holdings Limited);
(3) Keen Point Limited;
(4) Mid-Levels Portfolio (Tregunter Towers 1 & 2) Limited (Kerry Properties Limited);
(5) Newton Investments Limited (CK Asset Holdings Limited);
(6) Pacific Great International Limited (Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited);
(7) Strong Associate Limited (K. Wah International Holdings Limited); and
(8) Zarow Limited (Wheelock Properties Limited).Issued at HKT 17:45

NNNN

Special traffic arrangements for Victoria Park Lunar New Year Fair 
A. Road closure
 
     Depending on traffic and crowd conditions, the following roads may be closed daily from 8am to 0.01am of the following day from February 11 to 12, and daily from 8am to 3am of the following day from February 13 to 15:

– The unnamed road section at the northern entrance of the Park Towers car park, except for car park access;
– Hing Fat Street between Causeway Road and Lau Li Street, except for franchised buses and green minibuses;
– Lau Li Street between Hing Fat Street and Ngan Mok Street; and
– Part of the traffic lanes of Electric Road between Gordon Road and Yacht Street.- Great George Street;
– Sugar Street;
– Cleveland Street;
– Kingston Street;
– Northbound Gloucester Road between Causeway Road and Great George Street;
– Northbound Gloucester Road between Great George Street and the Moreton Terrace flyover;
– Southbound Gloucester Road between Causeway Road and the Causeway Bay  flyover;
– Northbound Gloucester Road between Great George Street and westbound Gloucester Road (only from February 13 to 15);
– Lockhart Road between Percival Street and Cannon Street (only from February 13 to 15);
– Jaffe Road between Percival Street and Cannon Street (only from February 13 to 15);
– Cannon Street (only from February 13 to 15); and
– Southbound Gloucester Road (only from February 13 to 15). 
     The following roads will be pedestrianised daily from 4pm to 0.01am of the following day from February 11 to 12, and daily from noon to 3am of the following day from February 13 to 15:
 
– Lockhart Road between Cannon Street and East Point Road;
– East Point Road; and
– Great George Street between East Point Road and Paterson Street.       
     The metered parking spaces on Lau Li Street between Hing Fat Street and Ngan Mok Street will be suspended daily from 8am to 0.01am of the following day from February 11 to 12, and daily from 8am to 3am of the following day from February 13 to 15.- 85 metered parking spaces (Nos. 1604AB to 1657AB) will be suspended from 8am to 1am of the following day daily from February 13 to 15.Issued at HKT 16:41

NNNN

Results of monthly survey on business situation of small and medium-sized enterprises for January 2026 
     The current diffusion index (DI) on business receipts amongst SMEs decreased from 44.9 in December 2025 in the contractionary zone to 43.4 in January 2026, whereas the one-month’s ahead (i.e. February 2026) outlook DI on business receipts was 46.4. Analysed by sector, the current DIs on business receipts for a number of surveyed sectors dropped in January 2026 as compared with previous month, particularly for the retail trade (from 42.1 to 38.4) and wholesale trade (from 44.3 to 40.7).
          
     The current DI on new orders for the import and export trades decreased from 47.7 in December 2025 to 46.0 in January 2026, whereas the outlook DI on new orders in one month’s time (i.e. February 2026) was 47.1.
 
Commentary
 
     A Government spokesman said that the current and outlook diffusion indices on business receipts for SMEs in January eased somewhat, following general improvements in the past months. The current diffusion index on employment for SMEs in the same month also recorded a slight moderation from the preceding month.
 
     Looking ahead, sustained economic expansion in Hong Kong should help bolster local business sentiment. However, the international environment remains complicated, and the Government will continue to closely monitor the evolving developments.
 
Further information
 
     The Monthly Survey on Business Situation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises aims to provide a quick reference, with minimum time lag, for assessing the short-term business situation faced by SMEs. SMEs covered in this survey refer to companies with fewer than 50 persons engaged. Respondents were asked to exclude seasonal fluctuations in reporting their views. Based on the views collected from the survey, a set of diffusion indices (including current and outlook diffusion indices) is compiled. A reading above 50 indicates that the business condition is generally favourable, whereas that below 50 indicates otherwise. As for statistics on the business prospects of prominent companies in Hong Kong, users may refer to the publication entitled “Report on Quarterly Business Tendency Survey” released by the C&SD.
 
     The results of the survey should be interpreted with care. The survey solicits feedback from a panel sample of about 600 SMEs each month and the survey findings are thus subject to sample size constraint. Views collected from the survey refer only to those of respondents on their own companies rather than those on the respective sectors they are engaged in. Besides, in this type of opinion survey on expected business situation, the views collected in the survey are affected by the events in the community occurring around the time of enumeration, and it is difficult to establish precisely the extent to which respondents’ perception of the business situation accords with the underlying trends. For this survey, main bulk of the data were collected around the last week of the reference month.
 
     More detailed statistics are given in the “Report on Monthly Survey on the Business Situation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises”. Users can browse and download the publication at the website of the C&SD (www.censtatd.gov.hk/en/EIndexbySubject.html?pcode=B1080015&scode=300 
     Users who have enquiries about the survey results may contact Industrial Production Statistics Section of the C&SD (Tel: 3903 7246; email: sme-survey@censtatd.gov.hkIssued at HKT 16:30

Minimum Wage Commission delighted by acceptance of recommended new Statutory Minimum Wage rate 
     After conducting the review under the new annual review mechanism of the Statutory Minimum Wage (SMW), the Minimum Wage Commission (MWC) has recommended raising the SMW rate from the current $42.1 per hour to $43.1.
      
     The Chairperson of the MWC, Ms Priscilla Wong, said today (February 10), “We are delighted to learn that the Chief Executive (CE) in Council has accepted the MWC’s recommended new SMW rate after considering the report of the MWC.”
      
     Ms Wong added, “The MWC adopted the formula approved by the CE in Council to derive the recommended SMW rate (please refer to the Annex). During the review process, the MWC discussed in detail the implementation arrangements for adopting the formula, examined the data of each indicator in the formula and assessed the relevant impacts. The MWC believes that the new SMW rate can maintain an appropriate balance between forestalling excessively low wages and minimising the loss of low-paid jobs, while giving due regard to sustaining Hong Kong’s economic growth and competitiveness, which is in line with the policy objectives of the SMW. We earnestly hope that the new SMW rate will be accepted by the Legislative Council.”
      
     The 2026 Report on Reviewing the Statutory Minimum Wage Rate has been uploaded to the MWC’s website (www.mwc.org.hkIssued at HKT 15:13