What's News

A Briefing Session on Registration of Construction Workers had been held by FEMC on 20 January, 2006 at Duke of Windsor Social Service Building with a total attendance of over 110 members. We were honoured by two speakers, namely, Miss Annette Lam, Secretary from Registration of Construction Workers Authority and and Mr. P. L. Mok, Registration Officer, from Registration of Construction Workers Office.

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.

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.

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

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.

The information of "2010 Shanghai World Expo" is attached for members' information.

There are many technical guidelines / information booklets and leaflets related to Energy Efficiency and Conservation published by EMSD in recent years. Those publications on the attached list can now be downloaded from EMSD's website : www.emsd.gov.hk. Please see attached letter and a list from EMSD for reference.

All of the guidelines/booklets are also placed in our FEMC office for members' study. You are welcome to drop in anytime.

The captioned Site Safety Forum, jointly co-organised by HKCA, OSHC, HKFEMC and HA, was held on the 3rd August 2004. Our Chairman, Mr. C. K. Tsang was invited to present a speech on the subject of “Prevention exercised by M/E Sub-Contractors”. If member who are interested in the topic, please see attached PowerPoint file for information.

Please be reminded that Amendment to the Industrial Training (Construction Industry) Ordinance took effect on June 1, 2004 to have the exemption on demolition and E&M works lifted. Accordingly, levy will be applied on the value of the WHOLE construction operation including E&M services for contracts tendered after June 1, 2004.

The current rates are 0.4% for CITA and 0.25% for PCFB.

Make sure that these are included in your costing when preparing direct, nominated or named subcontract tenders. For domestic subcontract tenders, make it clear to the main contractors if such cost is included or not.

Please free to send in your queries on the subject to 'amelia@hkfemc.org'. Answers will be given directly to enquirers and posted on our website in the 'Public Forum' section.

工業訓練條例的最新修訂版已于2004年6月1 日全面生效。該日後投標的建造工程將按工程價值總額徵稅，以往拆卸及機電部份的豁免不再適用。

目前的稅率為 – 建訓局0.4% + 肺麈局0.25%。

投標時務請留意，不要將上述稅款漏算。對於一般分判合約(Domestic Subcontract)，亦需向總承判商清楚說明稅款責任。

歡迎會員提問任何和徵稅有關的事情至電郵(amelia@hkfemc.org)。答案除直接發給提問者外，亦會放在會方網頁的‘Public Forum’，供大眾查閱。

Labour Dept. has provided us the latest guidelines relating to Atypical Pneumonia for Employers and Employees, which is now attached both of English and Chinese versions for your attention.

Do you want to know the updated information of market jobs ?

If so, there is an updated Market Jobs list attached for your downloading.

The Professional Services Development Assistance Scheme ("PSDAS") is established by a Government allocation of HK$100 million to provide financial support for projects aimed at increasing the competitiveness of Hong Kong's professional service sector as a whole, or of individual sectors, in external markets including the Mainland market. In addition, projects which seek to enhance the standard of professional services in Hong Kong will be eligible.

Eligible Projects include, but not limited to, organisation of seminars, conferences, training courses, research studies and promotional events such as exhibitions.

The HKFEMC has entered into a Distribution Agreement with Works Bureau to distribute tender documents in the form of EDP (electronic dissemination package) which can be downloaded from our website (www.hkfemc.org) or collected as a CD-ROM. This service will take effect on March 1, 2002. At the same time, the service provided previously by ECA, EMCA and PSWTA will be discontinued.

The HKFEMC will issue EDP Notice to ALL members of the 6 Associations (via the Associations) periodically.

The first stage - dissemination of tender documents in soft copies - has been in place for quite some time now, both in the public and private sector. Members have been getting such soft copies on CD-ROM's from our trade associations for tenders from Works departments. The next stage - internet dissemination - will be ready soon.