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The following is issued on behalf of the Economic and Employment Council Secretariat:
The seventh meeting of the Economic and Employment Council (EEC), chaired by the Financial Secretary, Mr Henry Tang, was held today (October 5).
Members received reports on work progress from the Subgroup on Business Facilitation under the Council. Members noted the following major achievements of the work of the Subgroup and Task Forces.
(a) The Lands Department will delete nine Special Conditions, simplify seven items and consolidate 10 items into four to simplify the Special Conditions in the land lease. It will also review the General Conditions.
(b) The Lands Department has set up an enquiry system to advise land owners on the "before value" for exceptional cases. It has initiated action on gazetting requirement once the required agreement to the transaction is reached to speed up land exchange/modification cases.
(c) The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department will improve the licensing regime for food retail and introduce composite licence to cover 12 ready-to-eat food licences/permits.
(d) The Environment, Transport and Works Bureau has reduced the number of categories of consumer goods to be regulated under the proposed Volatile Organic Compound legislation from 40 to 6.
(e) The Housing Department has pledged to complete the processes for scrutinizing and approving fitting out works for retail businesses in housing estates in seven working days for simple cases and in no more than 21 working days for complicated cases. Members noted that previously there was no such pledge.
(f) The Home Affairs Bureau and the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department will introduce provisional licensing for cinemas so that operators can start business early and licence discs at ticket control points to enhance public awareness.
Noting the recently released World Bank "Doing Business Report 2006" and the World Economic Forum's "Global Competitiveness Report 2005-06" relating to Hong Kong, Members generally considered that the reports reaffirmed the need for the bureaux and departments to work closely with EEC on more vigorous measures to minimise regulatory barriers to facilitate business. Members also noted that the Administration will follow up with the World Bank on the discrepancies identified in the source data for the "dealing with licences" and "property registration" components, which had caused a modest slip in Hong Kong's overall ranking in the World Bank report.
Members also deliberated on the issue of long-term trends of property rentals in relation to the economic growth and noted that notwithstanding the property market volatility over the past years, in the long run property rentals basically move in tandem with the economy. Rental affordability of households is still better than any time during the entire period from 1984 to 1999. The Administration will continue to monitor developments in the property market with a view to fostering a healthy development in the property market.
Papers for the EEC meeting will be uploaded onto the internet (www.gov.hk/fso/eec/eng) to facilitate access by the public.
Ends/Wednesday, October 5, 2005
Issued at HKT 19:37
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