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Another round of applications for the Professional Services Development Assistance Scheme is now open for new applications from 15th December to 15th February 2006. A self-explanatory letter sent from Commerce, Industry and Technology Bureau is attached for your reference. Guide to Application and Application Form can be downloaded from their website : http://www.info.gov.hk/cib/psdas. The dealine of this round of application is 15th February 2006.

A briefing session on the Scheme will be organised by the Bureau on 17th January 2006. Details and registration form are also attached.

Please be informed that under the Construction Workers Registration Ordinance, construction workers who carry out construction work on construction sites shall be registered. Registration will be conducted in four periods from 29 December 2005 to 31 August 2006 according to the birth month of workers.

To facilitate the implementation of the registration system in a systematic and orderly manner, companies / employers / organizations are encouraged to assist workers under their employment in putting in completed application forms to the Registration Offices through the arrangement of Group Submission.

Enclosed please find the Chinese version of “Guidance Notes on Group Submission of Application Forms” provided from CWRA for your information, no English version is available.

Please be informed that under the Construction Workers Registration Ordinance, construction workers who carry out construction work on construction sites shall be registered. Registration will be conducted in four periods from 29 December 2005 to 31 August 2006 according to the birth month of workers.

To facilitate the implementation of the registration system in a systematic and orderly manner, companies / employers / organizations are encouraged to assist workers under their employment in putting in completed application forms to the Registration Offices through the arrangement of Group Submission.


Enclosed please find the Chinese version of “Guidance Notes on Group Submission of Application Forms” provided from CWRA for your information, no English version is available.

Environmental Performance Report 2005 has been published, it has been uploaded to Environmental Protection Dept's home page at :
http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/mise/er/er2005/index.html

To receive valuable feedback from public for further improvement of future reports, they have provided an "on-line" feedback form at the end of the report, or you may send your comments by e-mail to enquiry@epd.gov.hk.

The Central People's Government and the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region reached agreement on the third phase of further trade liberalization measures of CEPA (commonly known as "CEPA III" ) on 18 October 2005. The newly introduced measures will come into full implementation on 1 January 2006.

A leaflet summarising liberalization measures and implementation details of all three phases of CEPA published by TID is ready for distribution to interested parties. There are some copies keeping in our FEMC office for members' collection. If you are interested in getting copy, please contact me at 2519 3998 for arrangement.

More details of CEPA can be found in the website of the Trade and Industry Department, for English, please visit "http://www.tid.gov.hk/english/cepa", or visit "http://www.tid.gov.hk/tc_chi/cepa" for Chinese.

After consolidation of comments and suggestions given by various parties ( Utility Companies / Trade Associations / Workers' Unions / Engineering Professional Organisations etc.) during the consultation exercise held in July - Sept 2004 on the proposed revisions for the captioned Code of Practice (CoP).

Please be informed that the 2005 Edition of the CoP has been published in the Gazette on 9 Sept 2005 and is to take effect on 1 Oct 2005. The new CoP has been uploaded to EMSD's website for browsing and the hard copy is available for sale at Information Services Department at Murray Building or by e-mail at puborder@isd.gov.hk.

The record for the 3rd quarter of year 2005 is attached for your information.

Section 23 deals with failure to pay wages within 7 days and section 25 to pay wages and compensation upon termination.

This record is distributed by the Labour Department to selected parties every quarter. Accordingly, we will circulate to all members upon receipt.

You may take this into consideration in your management of sub-contractors.

Another round of applications for the Professional Services Development Assistance Scheme is now open for new applications from 15th August to 15th October 2005. A self-explanatory letter sent from Commerce, Industry and Technology Bureau is attached for your reference. Guide to Application and Application Form can be downloaded from their website : http://www.info.gov.hk/cib/psdas. The dealine of this round of application is 15th October 2005.

A briefing session on the Scheme will be organised by the Bureau on 26th September 2005. Details and registration form are also attached.

The fifth round of the SME Development Fund (SDF) Application is starting from 11 July to 31 Aug 2005. Our Members are invited to apply for the SDF to carry out projects which aim to enhance the competitiveness of Hong Kong's SMEs.

For details of application, please refer to attached letter.

The record for the 2nd quarter of year 2005 is attached for your information.

Section 23 deals with failure to pay wages within 7 days and section 25 to pay wages and compensation upon termination.

This record is distributed by the Labour Department to selected parties every quarter. Accordingly, we will circulate to all members upon receipt.

You may take this into consideration in your management of sub-contractors.

The Competition Policy Advisory Group (COMPAG) has published its seventh annual report "COMPAG Report 2004-2005". The report outlines the Government's efforts to promote competition in various sectors during the period April 2004 to March 2005. In pursuance of the Government's "e-Government" initiative, the Report is published electronically and is available online at the COMPAG website (www.compag.gov.hk).

To promote harmonious labour relations in the construction industry, the Labour Department produces a leaflet named "Points To Note for Construction Employers【建築業僱主須知】" to set out in simple terms the provisions of the Employment Ordinance on payment of wages as well as some good people management practices in respect of entering into written contract, keeping proper records and distinguishing employment status. They hope this will help remind employers to comply with the provisions of the Ordinance as well as to avoid unnecessary disputes.

The leaflet is available both in Chinese and English by clicking into the following links :

Chinese : http://www.labour.gov.hk/public/pdf/wcp/PointToNoteCE.pdf

English : http://www.labour.gov.hk/eng/public/wcp/PointToNoteCE.pdf

Hard Copies are kept in our FEMC office for members' collection. Please contact the FEMC Secretariat for arrangement.

The Trade and Industry Department has launched that the 2005/06 SME Mentorship Programme is running now and inviting applications from SME proprietors. Participants can learn from and be guided by accomplished businessmen, senior executives and professionals. SME proprietors of locally registered companies which are established less than 5 years and employ fewer than 20 employees in Hong Kong are eligible to apply. Deadline for application is 24 June 2005.

For more details of the Programme, please visit the website at http://www.sme.gcn.gov.hk/smeop/english/mentorship_main_e.cfm.

A consultation exercise on the proposed versions for the above Code of Practice (CoP) conducted between July 2004 and September 2004 was completed. After the consultation exercise, EMSD had formed a working group to review and finalize the proposed revisions. The finalised version of the revised CoP is now attached for your reference.

The revised CoP is tentatively to be published in the gazette in August 2005.

In pursuit of providing high quality services to the community and promoting innovative design in the building industry, Architectural Services Department has carried out a comprehensive research on Universal Accessibility. Their goal is to increase awareness of accessibility issues in the design of buildings and open spaces to attain a more accessible and sustainable environment. It is very encouraging that the research paper has recently been awarded the Hong Kong Institute of Architects Annual Award 2004 – Special Architectural Award for Architectural Research.

If you would like to read the full report, please visit the ASD webpage under the category of Knowledge Sharing :
http://www.archsd.gov.hk/english/knowledge_sharing/ua/univ_access.htm

Having informed by TDC, a captioned conference is co-organized by the Hong Kong Institute of Architects and the Shanghai Association of Architects, it will be held in June 2005.

The ninth issue of Quarterly Highlights (January - March 2005) produced by the Provisional Construction Industry Co-ordination Board (PCICB) has been published. It covered major developments occurring from January - March 2005.

Members can download the electronic copy of this publication from PCICB's website at http://www.pcicb.gov.hk.

The Government is committed to promoting competition to enhance economic efficiency and free trade, and to benefit consumers. The Competition Policy Advisory Group (COMPAG) chaired by the Financial Secretary was established in Dec 1997 to provide a high-level, dedicated forum to review competition-related issues with policy or systemic implications.

COMPAG reckons that promoting competition is not just a government matter. The community, in particular the business sector, also has an important role to play. With the support and contribution from chambers of commerce and trade organizations, COMPAG developed in 1002, a set of guidelines which aims to provide pointers with objective benchmarks and principles to assess Hong Kong’s overall competitive environment, to define and tackle anti-competitive practices, as well as to ensure consistent application of Hong Kong’s competition policy across sectors. You are encouraged to promote adherence to the guidelines by your organization, and to develop your won sector-specific codes of conduct on the basis of these guidelines.

The 7th FEMC Newsletter is enclosed for members to retrieve.

Please click into " READ MORE " for downloading.

It is nice to hear that the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council has given approval to inject additional funding to the SME Funding Schemes, which are :
- The SME Export Marketing Fund (EMF) and SME Development Fund (SDF) will have an additional funding of $500 million;
- The total government loan guarantee commitment under the SME Loan Guarantee Scheme (SGS) will be increased from $6.6 billion to $10.6 billion;
- The application procedures for the EMF will be streamlined.