CE visits bus captains and Lands Department (with photos/video)
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Accompanied by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Mr Frank Chan Fan, and the Commissioner for Transport, Ms Mable Chan, Mrs Lam visited the North Point Ferry Pier Public Transport Interchange. She chatted with several bus captains to learn about their work situation and thanked them for standing steadfast at their posts amid the epidemic to continue to provide indispensable public transport services for the public. She was also briefed by the Managing Director of New World First Bus and Citybus, Mr William Chung, on various measures to step up cleaning and sterilisation of the bus compartments as well as efforts by the company to procure face masks for the bus captains. In order to ease the pressure on the franchised bus companies during the epidemic, Mrs Lam said that the Government, through the establishment of the Anti-epidemic Fund, has expanded the measure to provide a six-month fuel subsidy or a one-off subsidy to the transport trades announced by the Financial Secretary last October by reimbursing for the five franchised bus companies one-third of the actual fuel or electricity cost during the 12-month period between July 1, 2019, and June 30, 2020.
Mrs Lam, accompanied by the Secretary for Development, Mr Michael Wong, and the Director of Lands, Mr Thomas Chan, then visited the Survey and Mapping Office of the LandsD to thank colleagues for collaborating with relevant departments and a non-governmental organisation to launch the Interactive Map Dashboard in a very short period of time to disseminate consolidated information on COVID-19, demonstrating the achievements of the use of technology and the whole-of-government approach in Hong Kong's anti-epidemic work. Since its launch in February, the Dashboard has attracted about 12 million views, and Mrs Lam also views it every day. The Dashboard was jointly developed by the Development Bureau, the LandsD, the Department of Health, the Hospital Authority, the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer and the Smart City Consortium. All of them have been working together amid the epidemic using their own expertise and innovativeness to enhance the level of public services.
Mrs Lam also noted that the spatial data currently on the Dashboard can be integrated into the Common Spatial Data Infrastructure which is planned to be launched by the LandsD in the end of 2022, where quality and up-to-date spatial data are exchanged in a readily accessible manner and members of the public can download the data as raw material for innovative uses through value-added products, fostering the smart city development of Hong Kong.
Ends/Friday, March 13, 2020
Issued at HKT 21:02
Issued at HKT 21:02
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