A British court has convicted two men linked to an Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO) of spying on activists from the city on behalf of Chinese authorities. Bill Yuen Chung-biu, the London office’s manager, and Peter Wai Chi-leung were found guilty of assisting a foreign intelligence service on Thursday, two years after their…
Hong Kong restaurants will be able to apply for licences from May 18 to allow dogs under a new scheme, with the first designated venues expected to admit pets from July. The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said on Thursday that applications would open on May 18 and close on June 8. In the first…
The leaders of Hong Kong and Uzbekistan met on Wednesday to strengthen trade ties, as China and the Central Asian country signed 15 bilateral agreements covering areas such as infrastructure, healthcare and metal production. At a meeting at Government House with Uzbek Prime Minister Abdullah Nigmatovich Aripov, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu pledged to expand…
Hong Kong’s legislature is set to visit Beijing as a full body for the first time since the city’s return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, with all 90 lawmakers expected to join the delegation as it seeks better alignment with the national 15th five-year plan. Legislative Council president Starry Lee Wai-king announced on Wednesday that…
The independent committee tasked with investigating Hong Kong’s deadly Tai Po blaze has finished 21 sessions of evidential hearings in three rounds, pointing to multiple apparent loopholes in the supervision of the estate’s renovation project and the government’s regulation of fire hazards. The inferno broke out on November 26 last year when all eight blocks…
Uber has announced it is acquiring the Hong Kong-based online cab-hailing platform FlyTaxi to expand its taxi services, ahead of the implementation of a regulatory regime for ride-hailing services later this year. In a statement on Friday, Uber said that its acquisition of FlyTaxi was part of its commitment to help grow the taxi industry…
Kudos to the Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung Ho Poi-yan for introducing a two-tier civil service accountability system. This will include giving an independent statutory body, the Public Service Commission, powers to investigate “widespread, repetitive and systemic” management problems, while department heads can investigate problems involving rank-and-file officers. To many, the revamp of…
The two main ferry operators running daily services between Hong Kong and Macau will raise fares by up to 11 per cent amid surging fuel prices, while a union said bus drivers were reporting lost income as companies cut services. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said on Tuesday that the government would continue to monitor…
Hong Kong’s top-ranking civil servants will be held accountable if they fail to provide adequate support in policy formulation, the city’s leader has said, despite a new investigation mechanism that primarily targets department heads. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said on Tuesday that the proposed “Heads of Department Accountability System” was intended to promote self-improvement…
Twenty-two strategic enterprises have signed agreements with the Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises (OASES) to open or expand operations in Hong Kong. The latest group marks the sixth cohort under the government’s flagship investment attraction initiative since its launch in 2022, bringing the total number of strategic partners to more than 120. The South China…