Think of Hong Kong as a living dictionary. Every old arcade, footbridge and mixed-use tong lau, or tenement building, is an entry worth studying. As the city embarks on another redevelopment cycle, we should be leafing more carefully – not erasing the dictionary’s words but learning how to write new ones in the same spirit….
The Hong Kong Bar Association has proposed criminalising bid-rigging by introducing a “double-track” approach to the Competition Ordinance, describing it as a quick fix to increase deterrence and encourage more whistle-blowers to expose industry malpractice following the city’s deadliest fire in decades. Under the current civil regime established in 2015, the ordinance only punishes individuals…
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. All eyes are on the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU), whose officers are scheduled to testify before a judge-led panel on Wednesday about their role in Hong Kong’s Tai Po blaze. Senior maintenance…
An official tendering system designed to curb anti-competitive conduct is powerless to combat engineering firms colluding to manipulate Hong Kong’s lucrative building maintenance market, a public inquiry into the city’s deadliest fire in decades has heard. Testifying on the 21st day of an independent committee’s hearing, three Urban Renewal Authority (URA) officials said on Thursday…
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. An independent committee investigating Hong Kong’s deadly Tai Po blaze holds its 21st day of evidential hearings on Thursday, with three witnesses from the Urban Renewal Authority set to give evidence. The tragedy at…
Two renovation subcontractors involved in a HK$336 million (US$42.9 million) project at a Hong Kong subsidised estate ravaged by the city’s deadliest fire in decades have conceded they did not regulate workers’ smoking behaviour before the inferno. The two engineering firms on Thursday also told an independent committee that they had partially replaced fireproof windows…
Seven murals celebrating the Thai and Chiu Chow heritage of Hong Kong’s Kowloon City will be erected in the district known for its ethnic Thai population and traditional stores under a public scheme to encourage building renovations in the area. The first on Jenford Building has been completed on South Wall Road in the heart…
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. An independent committee investigating the cause of Hong Kong’s deadliest inferno in decades is expected to conclude its first round of evidential hearings on Thursday, with the role of the property management firm at…
Fire alarm and firefighting pump systems at the housing estate engulfed in Hong Kong’s deadliest blaze in decades were found to have been switched off a week before the tragedy struck, with no action taken to reactivate them, an evidential hearing has been told. An independent committee investigating the Tai Po blaze, which broke out…
A lawyer for the Hong Kong government has rejected “groundless” assertions that its surveyors conspired with a renovation contractor at the centre of the city’s deadliest fire in decades to conceal flammable materials used at the site, suggesting the firm did not have enough time to plan a deception before a crucial inspection. But Jenkin…