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The Secretary for Security, Mr Ambrose S K Lee, today (October 21) elaborated on Security Bureau initiatives in the 2008-09 Policy Agenda at the special meeting of the Panel on Security of the Legislative Council.
He said these initiatives included providing Taiwan visitors and Hong Kong and Macao residents with further immigration facilitation; tackling the youth drug abuse problem; improving emergency ambulance services; admission of talent, and following up on the works relating to the opening up of the Frontier Closed Area.
Mr Lee said,"The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is committed to providing more facilitation for the entry of visitors from Taiwan. With growing exchanges between Hong Kong and Taiwan, two measures will be introduced next year to further enhance the travel convenience of Taiwan residents. These are lifting the restriction that only two iPermits can be applied within 30 days, and extending the period of stay for iPermit and multiple entry permit holders from 14 days to 30 days."
"The new measures will provide greater convenience and flexibility for "pack-and-go" travellers from Taiwan in planning their journeys."
Noting that the passenger flow between Hong Kong and Macao had been growing in recent years owing to close ties between the two places, Mr Lee said it was necessary to enhance travel convenience for residents of the two places.
"After discussion with the Macao Special Administrative Region, we will allow Macao permanent residents to use "e-Channels" at our control points after enrolment. We will also waive the arrangements for Macao permanent residents to furnish arrival/departure cards. We understand that these measures will be reciprocated by the Macao Special Administrative Region Government. We envisage that these measures will be implemented from the second half of 2009."
"We intend to allow Macao permanent residents aged 16 or above to visit Hong Kong solely on strength of their Macao permanent identity cards, without the need to furnish the Declaration Forms for Holders of Macao SAR Permanent Resident Identity Card to Hong Kong SAR. We aim to implement such an arrangement for persons aged 16 or above from the second half of 2009. Since legislative amendments may be required to waive similar requirement for those below 16, it will take longer time for consideration and implementation."
To facilitate longer stay of Macao visitors in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Government intends to extend the limit of stay for Macao permanent residents as visitors from 14 days to 180 days; and non-permanent residents from 14 days to 30 days.
Mr Lee said the Government had been striving to tackle the problem of psychotropic substance abuse among youths. In view of this rising trend, the Task Force on Youth Drug Abuse, which is led by the Secretary for Justice, has been engaging stakeholders to gather views extensively, and reviewing and mapping out strategies and measures to combat this matter of public concern.
"A series of short- and medium-term measures announced early this year have been implemented. A two-year territory-wide anti-drug campaign and the "Path Builders" initiative have been launched to foster a drug-free youth culture and to mobilise various sectors of the community in caring for our young people."
He said that after a year's effort, the work of the task force had reached its final stage. It will shortly publish a report on holistic and sustainable long-term policies and measures. The Government will consult the Security Panel as soon as possible on the recommendations of the report and the increase in the manpower provision of the Security Bureau.
On emergency ambulance services, Mr Lee said that various long-term options had been examined to ensure that services would be deployed to assist people with genuine needs, while at the same time maintaining a high standard of response time to emergency calls.
"The options include managing demand for emergency ambulance services and stepping up publicity to promote the appropriate use of the services; monitoring resources for service provision and considering allocation of more resources in accordance with the rising demand for the services; reviewing the mode of service and studying the feasibility of introducing a Medical Priority Dispatch System in Hong Kong as a long-term measure," he said.
On admission of talent, Mr Lee said, "We have a liberal immigration regime which endeavours to attract talent from around the world, including from the Mainland. A total of 33,000 overseas and mainland talent were admitted for working or residing in Hong Kong in 2007, almost double that of the figure five years ago."
He said the relevant arrangements would be constantly reviewed to meet the changing needs of society. "Taking into consideration the recommendations made by the Commission on Strategic Development in April, we will put forward a proposal on how to further streamline the admission arrangements for the employment of talent and professionals, and consult the Panel on Security on the proposal shortly."
On the progress of opening up of the Frontier Closed Area (FCA), Mr Lee said that following consultations with the local community and relevant bodies in 2006, the Government announced in early 2008 to substantially reduce the land area of the FCA from about 2,800 hectares to about 400 hectares. All the land south of the existing boundary patrol road, together with the Lok Ma Chau Loop, Hoo Hok Wai and two patches of land located northwest of Lin Ma Hang Village and north of Pak Fu Shan respectively would be excluded from the FCA.
"To facilitate the reduction of the FCA, a secondary boundary fence and new sections of the boundary patrol road with a primary boundary fence will be constructed. We plan to put in place the new FCA in phases so that the land can be released for development as soon as possible. The first section (from Mai Po to the Lok Ma Chau Control Point) and the fourth section (from Lin Ma Hang to Sha Tau Kok) will be completed by end of 2010."
He said the Government would brief the Security Panel on the scope and estimated costs of the works involved in the second half of the 2008-09 legislative session.
Ends/Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Issued at HKT 19:20
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