Announcement

We have received an announcement from CITA informing that their trainees of Semi-skilled workers will be graduated soon. Members are encouraged to recruit those graduates by filling in the provided Application Form.

Another round of applications for the Professional Services Development Assistance Scheme is now open for new applications. 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 30th Sept 2006.

A briefing session on the Scheme will be organised by the Bureau on 7 Sept 2006. Details and registration form are also attached.

The record for the 2nd quarter of year 2006 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.

Innovation and Technology Commission informed us that the webpages of the Product Standards Information Bureau (PSIB) have been revamped and launched to renew general awareness of the benefits and importance of the adoption of standards. our members are welcome to visit their new webpages at http://www.itc.gov.hk/en.quality/psis/about.htm and make use of the services of the PSIB. Highlights of features are set out in Annex for easy reference.

For any enquires, please contact Mr M C Tam of ITC at 2829 4815.

EMSD has announced that the Working Group of the Pilot Scheme recently endorsed that the pilot scheme to allow the use of fresh water for evaporative cooling towers in air conditioning systems in non-domestic developments would be further extended for two years to 31st May 2008.

Detailed application procedures and requirements of the scheme, together with the location plans of latest designated areas are available from the Energy Efficiency Office of the EMSD on 7/F., EMSD Headquarters, 3 Kai Shing Street, Kowloon Bay and can also be downloaded from EMSD website: http://www.emsd.gov.hk. For any queries, please contact Mr L S Tam of EMSD by phone at 2808 3104, fax 2890 6081, or email lstam@emsd.gov.hk.

The record for the 1st quarter of year 2006 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.

Another round of applications for the Professional Services Development Assistance Scheme is now open for new applications from 13th April to 15th June 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 June 2006.

A briefing session on the Scheme will be organised by the Bureau on 16th May 2006. Details and registration form are also attached.

A notice to Service Suppliers No. 3/2005 for "Application Procedures for Hong Kong Service Supplier (HKSS) Certificate of Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA)" issued by Trade and Industry Department (TID) was received. It is now attached for your information.

ASD has provided FEMC the following information by releasing relevant tables, which are

1) Forecast of Contracts 2006 - a table showing the annual forecast of contracts that are anticipated to be invited by the Department in this year.

2) Forecast of Consultancies 2006 - a table showing the annual forecast of consultancies that are anticipated to be invited by the Department in this year.

The Construction Workers Registration Authority (CWRA) announces new measures for "Group Submission of Applications" to introduce more efficient and flexible arrangements to the convenience of workers.

Its self-explanatory letter from Building Department on the captioned subject is attached for members' information.

The record for the 4th 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 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.

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.