Chief Executive Carrie Lam today said she is confident that Hong Kong will thrive and soar higher with the full support of the central authorities. Mrs Lam made the statement while addressing over 30 invited global business leaders at the Hong Kong Session of China Development Forum 2021 held online. The China Development Forum is a high-level forum hosted by the Development Research Center of the State Council and organised by the China Development Research Foundation annually. It serves as an important dialogue platform for senior officials of the Chinese government, global business leaders, international organisations and renowned scholars. In addition to being held online, this year's forum was held onsite at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing from March 20 to 22. The Hong Kong session, with the theme on the city’s development in the next five years, was held for the first time upon the suggestion of the Chief Executive. Mrs Lam emphasised that he
Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip and Secretary for Constitutional & Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang inspected polling stations today to give support to civil service colleagues who are busy preparing for the 2021 Legislative Council General Election. The election will be held tomorrow and around 38,000 civil servants have been assigned by various departments to carry out important electoral duties. Mr Nip visited the polling station and the counting station at the Convention & Exhibition Centre, saying colleagues should do their best, remain highly vigilant, take extra steps and work together to make the election a success. He also appealed to all voters, in particular civil service colleagues, to cast their votes tomorrow to elect members of the new term of LegCo for Hong Kong's future. He said the election is of great significance as it is the first LegCo General Election after the electoral system has been improved and the principle of “patriots a
(To watch the full press briefing with sign language interpretation, click here.) To cope with a possible rapid surge in confirmed COVID-19 cases, the Hospital Authority today decided to reopen the standby community treatment facility at AsiaWorld-Expo on Sunday to provide 500 beds. It said facility will receive patients who are asymptomatic or in a relatively stable condition. If the epidemic deteriorates further, the authority will deploy, in phases, the 1,200 isolation beds and 600 tier-2 isolation beds in public hospitals for the admission of elderly, paediatric and severe patients in particular. The authority has a stock of personal protective equipment to last more than six months, it added. In preparation for the treatment of severe patients, there are around 1,500 ventilators in total in various public hospitals. http://dlvr.it/SGK7Kp