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The Police have formulated an effective operational strategy to ensure that the 5th East Asian Games in Hong Kong in December are run in a safe and secure environment, the Secretary for Security, Mr Ambrose S K Lee said today (March 24).
Mr Lee made the remarks at a meeting of the Special Finance Committee of the Legislative Council. He said the Police would adopt a multi-agency approach to the Games and at the same time would maintain an effective day-to-day police service.
In the draft Estimates for the new financial year (2009-2010), the allocation on the security policy area group is $30.6 billion, representing 10.3% of the total government expenditure. The two policy areas of internal security and immigration control under the responsibility of the Secretary for Security will account for $26.8 billion.
Mr Lee said that in 2008, the overall crime figures and the violent crime figures registered a decrease of 2.9% and 3.4% respectively as compared with 2007. Many serious crimes - including blackmail and robberies - also decreased in number.
"Overall speaking, the law and order situation of Hong Kong has remained stable. The Police will, as always, remain alert to maintain the law and order of society," he said.
He said the major operational targets of the Commissioner of Police for 2009 were to combat violent crimes, triad activities, "quick-cash" crimes, terrorism, trafficking and abuse of dangerous drugs, and offences related to visitors and illegal immigrants, and to promote road safety.
As the use of internet has become increasingly popular and technology crime is fast changing, the Police will provide additional staff to intensify their efforts in combating technology crime and will enhance public cyber crime prevention awareness through promotion and education.
On the anti-drug front, Mr Lee said the Government was very concerned about the drug abuse problem, in particular psychotropic substance abuse among youth. In the 2009-10 financial year, the Government plans to allocate new resources to implement two of the recommendations of the Task Force on Youth Drug Abuse led by the Secretary for Justice. The Government will strengthen drug treatment and rehabilitation services for young drug abusers. It will also inject nearly $1 million to launch a two-year pilot project to provide more focused, structured and intensive probation services for young drug offenders, with a view to enhancing the rehabilitative process.
"In view of the severity and hidden nature of youth drug abuse, we will, in this year, pursue drug testing proposals at three levels. First, the medical support services to be provided at counselling centres for psychotropic substance abusers will include voluntary drug testing arrangements. Second, we will commission a research project to devise possible school-based drug testing schemes for voluntary adoption by schools. Third, we will launch a public consultation exercise on a concrete proposal for compulsory drug testing," Mr Lee said.
On immigration controls, Mr Lee said it was encouraging that the Mainland would soon further liberalise the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS), including allowing Shenzhen residents to apply for one-year IVS endorsement for multiple visits to Hong Kong; and allowing residents living in Shenzhen but with household registration in other places to apply for IVS endorsement. He said the Government would continue to ensure that the corresponding measures were in place, such as the smooth operation of control points. In 2009-10, the Immigration Department will recruit about 160 immigration service staff.
In the face of the financial tsunami, the administration endeavoured to attract more investors to invest in Hong Kong. Mr Lee said that up to end February 2009, 3,605 applicants had been granted formal approval for residence in Hong Kong under the Capital Investment Entrant Scheme that was introduced in October 2003. Their total investment in Hong Kong reached about $25.7 billion, or on average $7.13 million per entrant.
"In the current economic environment, the Government is sparing no effort in securing employment. In processing applications for work visas, the Immigration Department will work diligently to ensure that only talent of value to and not readily available in Hong Kong is permitted to come for employment, to protect the employment opportunities of local labour. In the fourth quarter of 2008, the number of work visas issued by the department fell about 18%, as compared with the average of the first three quarters."
As for fire services, Mr Lee said subsequent to the major fire at Cornwall Court last year, the Government had already stepped up the fire safety inspections of licensed premises and taken action against operators who contravened relevant regulations. To this end, the Fire Services Department (FSD) has already given priority to those buildings with higher risk in the list of target buildings to be inspected under the Fire Safety (Buildings) Ordinance. In the new financial year, FSD will create an additional 39 posts to speed up the inspection work, to improve the fire safety standards of pre-1987 composite and domestic buildings as soon as possible.
In respect of emergency ambulance services, Mr Lee said the Government was in the process of replacing about 190 ambulances, which account for 80% of the existing fleet. FSD will also create 120 additional ambulanceman posts in the new financial year, to ensure that the response time performance of the emergency ambulance service will meet its performance pledge to the public.
To increase employment opportunities, the Security Bureau and its departments plan to create 483 new posts and dozens more temporary jobs in the coming financial year. The departments concerned will introduce some special measures to expedite the recruitment process, for example, shortening the selection process and streamlining procedures. In the coming financial year, the Security Bureau and its departments plan to recruit 2,080 staff to fill the new posts and vacancies resulting from wastage.
Ends/Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Issued at HKT 18:50
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