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OFFICIAL RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS

Thursday, 4 February 2021

The Council met at half-past Ten o'clock

MEMBERS PRESENT:

THE PRESIDENT THE HONOURABLE KWAN-YUEN, G.B.M., G.B.S., J.P.

THE HONOURABLE LAI-HIM, G.B.S., J.P.

THE HONOURABLE YU-YAN, G.B.S., J.P.

THE HONOURABLE KIN-FUNG, G.B.S., J.P.

THE HONOURABLE WONG TING-KWONG, G.B.S., J.P.

THE HONOURABLE WAI-KING, S.B.S., J.P.

THE HONOURABLE CHAN HAK-KAN, B.B.S., J.P.

THE HONOURABLE CHAN KIN-POR, G.B.S., J.P.

THE HONOURABLE WONG KWOK-KIN, S.B.S., J.P.

THE HONOURABLE MRS LAU SUK-YEE, G.B.S., J.P.

THE HONOURABLE WAI-CHUN, J.P.

THE HONOURABLE PUK-SUN, B.B.S., J.P.

THE HONOURABLE STEVEN HO CHUN-YIN, B.B.S.

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THE HONOURABLE CHI-MING, S.B.S., J.P.

THE HONOURABLE YIU SI-WING, B.B.S.

THE HONOURABLE MA FUNG-KWOK, G.B.S., J.P.

THE HONOURABLE CHAN HAN-PAN, B.B.S., J.P.

THE HONOURABLE LEUNG CHE-CHEUNG, S.B.S., M.H., J.P.

THE HONOURABLE MEI-KUEN, B.B.S., J.P.

THE HONOURABLE KWOK WAI-KEUNG, J.P.

THE HONOURABLE WAH-FUNG, S.B.S., J.P.

THE HONOURABLE , B.B.S., J.P.

THE HONOURABLE CHEUNG-KONG, G.B.S., J.P.

THE HONOURABLE POON SIU-PING, B.B.S., M.H.

DR THE HONOURABLE CHIANG LAI-WAN, S.B.S., J.P.

IR DR THE HONOURABLE LO WAI-KWOK, S.B.S., M.H., J.P.

THE HONOURABLE CHUNG KWOK-PAN

THE HONOURABLE JIMMY NG WING-KA, B.B.S., J.P.

DR THE HONOURABLE KWAN-YIU, J.P.

THE HONOURABLE HO-DING

THE HONOURABLE SHIU KA-FAI, J.P.

THE HONOURABLE CHONG-SHING, M.H.

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THE HONOURABLE YUNG HOI-YAN, J.P.

DR THE HONOURABLE

THE HONOURABLE CHAN CHUN-YING, J.P.

THE HONOURABLE CHEUNG KWOK-KWAN, J.P.

THE HONOURABLE LUK CHUNG-HUNG, J.P.

THE HONOURABLE LAU KWOK-FAN, M.H.

THE HONOURABLE IP-KEUNG, B.B.S., M.H., J.P.

DR THE HONOURABLE CHENG CHUNG-TAI

THE HONOURABLE VINCENT CHENG WING-SHUN, M.H., J.P.

THE HONOURABLE WAI-CHUEN, B.B.S., J.P.

MEMBER ABSENT:

DR THE HONOURABLE MEI-FUN, S.B.S., J.P.

PUBLIC OFFICERS ATTENDING:

THE HONOURABLE KIN-CHUNG, G.B.M., G.B.S., J.P. CHIEF SECRETARY FOR ADMINISTRATION

THE HONOURABLE PAUL CHAN MO-PO, G.B.M., G.B.S., M.H., J.P. FINANCIAL SECRETARY

THE HONOURABLE TERESA CHENG YEUK-WAH, G.B.S., S.C., J.P. SECRETARY FOR JUSTICE

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THE HONOURABLE WONG KAM-SING, G.B.S., J.P. SECRETARY FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

DR THE HONOURABLE LAW CHI-KWONG, G.B.S., J.P. SECRETARY FOR LABOUR AND WELFARE

THE HONOURABLE JOHN LEE KA-CHIU, S.B.S., P.D.S.M., J.P. SECRETARY FOR SECURITY

THE HONOURABLE FAN, J.P. SECRETARY FOR TRANSPORT AND HOUSING

PROF THE HONOURABLE SIU-CHEE, J.P. SECRETARY FOR FOOD AND HEALTH

THE HONOURABLE TANG-WAH, G.B.S., J.P. SECRETARY FOR COMMERCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

THE HONOURABLE MICHAEL WONG WAI-LUN, J.P. SECRETARY FOR DEVELOPMENT

THE HONOURABLE YUN-HUNG, J.P. SECRETARY FOR EDUCATION

THE HONOURABLE TAK-KUEN, J.P. SECRETARY FOR THE CIVIL SERVICE

THE HONOURABLE WING-HANG, J.P. SECRETARY FOR INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

THE HONOURABLE KWOK-WAI, I.D.S.M., J.P. SECRETARY FOR CONSTITUTIONAL AND MAINLAND AFFAIRS

THE HONOURABLE YING-WAI, J.P. SECRETARY FOR HOME AFFAIRS

THE HONOURABLE CHING-YU, J.P. SECRETARY FOR FINANCIAL SERVICES AND THE TREASURY

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CLERK IN ATTENDANCE:

MR KENNETH CHEN WEI-ON, S.B.S., SECRETARY GENERAL

THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE TO ADDRESS THE COUNCIL AND ANSWER QUESTIONS PUT BY MEMBERS.

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THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE'S QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION

PRESIDENT (in ): Members please remain standing while the Chief Executive enters the Chamber.

(The Chief Executive entered the Chamber)

PRESIDENT (in Cantonese): The Chief Executive will first address the Council.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE (in Cantonese): President and Honourable Members, today is my first attendance at the meeting of the Legislative Council in 2021. I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all good health and success in this new year.

When I attended the Legislative Council Question and Answer Session as the Chief Executive for the first time on 5 July 2017, I had made it clear that I attached great importance to the relationship between the executive and the legislature. The Basic Law stipulates the respective functions of the executive authorities and the legislature of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ("HKSAR"). I respect the role of the Legislative Council and also agree that the legislature's monitoring of the executive authorities forms an integral part of good governance. In the remaining term of the Government of one year or so, I hope that the Legislative Council, which has resumed its normal operation, can discharge its functions to exercise checks and balances as well as to supervise and support the work of the Government, so that we can strive ahead with renewed perseverance in this very challenging time of Hong Kong, and add new impetus to our economy and serve Hong Kong people.

I would like to express my gratitude to the Legislative Council for the passage of the Motion of Thanks on the 2020 Policy Address on 22 January. However, what drew my particular attention is the many practical suggestions put forward by Members on a wide range of policy areas during the three-day debate. I also noticed that the Chairman of the House Committee, Ms Starry LEE, had faithfully reflected during the recent weekly meetings with the Chief Secretary for Administration ("CS") some Members' views on the Government's performance. These include views on long replies given by some Directors of LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ― 4 February 2021 3687

Bureaux in response to Members' oral questions, late issue of discussion papers to the Legislative Council Panels, and vague answers provided by some officials to questions raised at meetings of the Finance Committee ("FC") or the Public Works Subcommittee ("PWSC"). I often watch the live broadcast of the Council and its committee meetings and have a similar impression of the problems reflected by Members. I have therefore asked CS to provide steer, take follow-up action on improvement measures and monitor their effectiveness.

In spite of the grumblings, Members have held discussions on various issues and handled the government proposals effectively amidst the lingering pandemic over the past three months. I am very pleased to learn that for the public works which are crucial to our economy and the employment situation, PWSC has endorsed the funding applications involving a total commitment of about $97 billion, comprising the funding for 24 new works projects, an increase in the Approved Project Estimate and the block allocations for the next financial year. Of these, 15 new works projects of about $38 billion and block allocations of about $24 billion got approved by FC. This will facilitate the immediate commencement of these works projects, which can inject impetus to our construction industry and the associated trades.

As for the staffing proposals of the Government, we fully accept Members' views. We have decided after review to submit only one permanent post involving the creation of a Justice of Appeal position in the Judiciary within the current legislative session, while other proposed permanent directorate posts will be replaced by time-limited supernumerary posts or even withdrawn for the time being. Our specific proposal for the latter is to create 20 directorate supernumerary posts, and retain or recreate 10 directorate supernumerary posts. I hope that Members will support the revised proposal.

Before answering the questions raised by Members, I would like to respond to the legislative proposals put forward by Members of this Council on which they have reached a consensus earlier. Some Members have raised these proposals again when we met on 29 December last year. Article 73 of the Basic Law stipulates that the Legislative Council has the important power and function to enact, amend and repeal laws. The HKSAR Government has the responsibility to fully consider the views of Members in taking forward the legislative work. My response today will cover five legislative tasks.

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(1) Stipulating oath-taking requirements by public officers in the law

Article 104 of the Basic Law provides that designated public officers must, in accordance with law, swear to uphold the Basic Law and swear allegiance to HKSAR of the People's Republic of China. These are also the requirements of Article 6 of the National Security Law which is in compliance with the constitutional order under "One Country, Two Systems", and it is proper and right that Hong Kong must be governed by people who love the country and Hong Kong. On 7 November 2016, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress adopted the interpretation of Article 104, which clearly explains the oath-taking requirements, including the legal form, content and proper attitude, and that the oath taker should bear legal responsibility in accordance with the law if he or she is in breach of the oath. In addition, after completion of the relevant study, the HKSAR Government takes the view that District Council ("DC") members should be considered public officers who must take the oath in accordance with the law. Therefore, we will implement the oath-taking requirement on DC members and provide for related arrangements in this legislative amendment exercise. As for other public officers, we will handle the matter separately as soon as possible. The drafting of the legislation has reached the final stage, and the Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs will introduce the bill into the Legislative Council for deliberation after the Chinese New Year.

(2) Enactment of legislation on the admission of non-locally trained doctors

With the rapid ageing of the local population and increasing demand for healthcare manpower, it is an indisputable fact that the public healthcare system is facing a shortage of doctors. At present, there is a shortfall of 660 doctors in the . Regarding the Child Assessment Service of the Department of Health, which aims at identifying the special needs of children, the vacancy rate of doctors is as high as 40%. As a result, the assessment of only about 60% of the cases can be completed within six months. The remaining 40% cannot complete assessment within six months. Without completed assessment, the Social Welfare Department cannot make arrangements for pre-school rehabilitation services. The situation is far from satisfactory.

The HKSAR Government has not overlooked the training of local talent. Over the past decade or so, the number of medical training places in the two medical schools has more than doubled from the original 250 each year to the present 530. The Government is also giving active consideration to further LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ― 4 February 2021 3689 increasing medical training places in the next University Grants Committee funding triennium. As it takes time to train doctors, the training capacity of the medical schools cannot be expanded indefinitely, etc., we cannot tackle the problem of manpower shortage of doctors only by increasing local training places. It should be pointed out that before the Legislative Council amended the Medical Registration Ordinance in 1995, doctors who had received their medical training in places including the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Singapore were automatically registered as medical practitioners in Hong Kong. The ratio of non-locally trained medical practitioners to locally trained doctors each year was 1.2 to 1 on average then. In other words, we admitted at least one non-locally trained doctor vis-à-vis each locally trained doctor to increase the overall supply of doctors and enrich the talent pool of our medical sector. Dr Margaret CHAN, former Director-General of the World Health Organization and former Director of Health; Professor the Honourable , former Vice-Chancellor and former Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of The Chinese ; and Professor Gabriel LEUNG, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong, are all non-locally trained doctors who have been serving Hong Kong for a long period of time.

Drawing on the experience overseas, the HKSAR Government has decided to introduce the Medical Registration (Amendment) Bill to the Legislative Council in the current legislative session with a view to putting in place new arrangements to allow more qualified non-locally trained doctors to practise in Hong Kong, on condition that the quality of healthcare services be ensured and that the shortfall of doctors in the public sector be alleviated. There are three key features in the legislative proposal as endorsed by the Executive Council ("ExCo"). First, non-locally trained doctors admitted must be Hong Kong permanent residents. Second, the applicant must have graduated from a recognized non-local medical school and must have registered as medical practitioner or obtained specialist qualification with the local authorities in the respective places. Third, all approved applicants must serve in the public sector for a longer period of time and cannot engage in private practice, so as to better tackle the shortfall of doctors in the public sector. The Secretary for Food and Health will further introduce the proposed legislative framework at the meeting of the Legislative Council Panel on Health Services tomorrow (5 February). I have also invited two doctors from ExCo, i.e. Professor the Honourable Arthur LI and Dr the Honourable LAM Ching-choi, to assist in explaining the case for change to the public and enlist the support of doctors in both the public and private sectors.

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(3) Enactment of legislation to impose the tenancy control of subdivided units

After months of discussions and study, the Task Force for the Study on Tenancy Control of Subdivided Units agrees in principle that the Government should implement suitable tenancy control on subdivided units to safeguard the interests of grass-roots tenants, while carefully balancing the interests of landlords. The Task Force aims to submit a report to the Government by the end of March. The Transport and Housing Bureau gauged the views of Members on the legislative proposal at the meeting of the Legislative Council Panel on Housing this Monday (1 February). The Secretary for Transport and Housing plans to submit in the current legislative session a bill which will take into account the recommendations of the Task Force and the views of Members.

Meanwhile, to protect tenants from being overcharged by landlords for use of water as soon as possible, I have, in accordance with Article 74 of the Basic Law, given my written consent to Ms Alice MAK for submitting a private bill to amend some provisions in the Waterworks Regulations. The amendments will stipulate that landlords can only recover the charges for water as prescribed in regulation 46 of the above Regulations. I hope that this move can demonstrate my respect for the constitutional functions of the Legislative Council and my willingness to accept the proposals of Members.

(4) Enactment of legislation on enhancing fire safety in old buildings

Building safety and fire hazards in old buildings is an issue of great social concern. During my tenure as the Secretary for Development, I had implemented various policy measures, such as Operation Building Bright, to address the problem of dilapidated buildings. On enhancing the fire safety standards of old buildings, the Fire Safety (Buildings) Ordinance ("the Ordinance"), which came into operation in 2007, stipulates that the fire safety standards of composite and domestic buildings constructed in or before 1987 must be enhanced to better meet the requirements of the day. Over the past decade or so, the Fire Services Department ("FSD") and the Buildings Department ("BD") have taken vigorous enforcement action. Technical and financial support for owners of old buildings has also been provided, such as devoting $5.5 billion to launch the Fire Safety Improvement Works Subsidy Scheme. However, owing to the characteristics of owners of old buildings and their limited management and organizational capabilities, many buildings, such as "three-nil" buildings, have yet to comply with the requirements of the Ordinance. LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ― 4 February 2021 3691

So far, FSD and BD have completed the inspection of nearly 10 000 target buildings and issued a total of more than 280 000 Fire Safety Directions, about 60% of which have yet to be complied with or followed up.

Having taken into account BD's experience in the work of building safety, the Government agrees that there is a need to improve the existing legal framework. Therefore, we accept Members' proposal to consider amending the Ordinance to empower FSD and BD to carry out fire safety improvement works for owners of old buildings who are incapable of complying with the requirements of the Ordinance, and to recover the costs incurred from such owners upon completion of the works. However, I must emphasize that improvement works for fire safety and removal of illegal structures with potential safety hazards are different in nature. We will make reference to a similar mechanism and its implementation under the prevailing Buildings Ordinance, and will do our best to resolve the legal and enforcement issues involved. The Secretary for Security will personally oversee the relevant legislative exercise, with a view to launching public consultation in the second half of this year in order to formulate a suitable mechanism and amend the legislation to empower relevant departments to carry out the related work.

(5) Enactment of legislation to combat acts of intrusion of privacy and dissemination of hate speech, discriminatory remarks or false information

While the rapid development of technology brings convenience to our daily lives, it has caused or aggravated the intrusion of privacy or disturbance of social order. Amid the social unrest and the COVID-19 pandemic in the past two years, problems such as the inundation of doxxing activities, hate speech, discriminatory remarks and false information on the Internet, in particular in various social media, have been seen. In fact, such a phenomenon is not unique to Hong Kong. In recent years, governments worldwide have tried to tackle the problems with legislative or administrative means. Since this encompasses a wide spectrum of issues involving some degree of sensitivity, we will study the experiences and practices of other countries and places. It is therefore difficult to put forward a comprehensive legislative proposal in a short period of time. However, we will handle the more pressing problem of intrusion of privacy, or doxxing.

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As the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data ("PCPD") pointed out last week, doxxing is like weaponizing of personal data and should not be ignored. She further cited a court decision to point out the far-reaching impact of doxxing on the victims. In view of this, we will tackle the problem of doxxing through law enforcement and legislative amendment. On enforcement, since June 2019, the PCPD Office has referred over 1 460 cases of suspected contravention of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance ("PDPO") to the Police for criminal investigation and consideration of prosecution. The PCPD Office has also referred 57 cases of suspected breach of injunction order on doxxing to the Department of Justice for follow-up. In respect of legislative amendment, the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau ("CMAB") and the PCPD Office are actively taking forward the legislative amendment work on PDPO. The amendments include criminalizing doxxing-related acts, conferring on PCPD statutory powers to demand the removal of doxxing contents from social media platforms or websites, and empowering PCPD to carry out criminal investigation and institute prosecution, etc. The results of the questionnaire survey released by the PCPD Office last week show that at least two thirds of the respondents supported the amendment of PDPO. CMAB aims to complete the drafting of the legislative amendments and introduce the bill to the Legislative Council for scrutiny within this legislative year.

Another issue related to the protection of privacy is the use of public registers. At present, public registers maintained by the relevant government departments have been established for years. While the reasons and purposes of allowing access to such registers may vary, they are mainly aimed at assisting the public and service users in conducting searches for specific purposes, such as the sale and purchase of properties, vehicles and companies. Given the grave concern of the community over the protection of personal privacy, and the numerous acts of doxxing performed by obtaining the personal information of members of the public through searches of registers in recent years, relevant government departments are re-examining the legal requirements and administrative arrangements concerning public registers, with a view to balancing the interests of various parties. Adjustments will be made as necessary, and legislative amendments will be proposed later if necessary to ensure that the purposes of conducting searches can be met while better protecting the personal privacy of members of the public.

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Conclusion

President and Members, I reported in one go today five major legislative tasks involving different policy areas. Once the bills are submitted to the Legislative Council, Members will have to shoulder the onerous task of scrutinizing them. Relevant colleagues in the Government will be asked to cooperate fully with the Legislative Council so as to secure the timely passage of these bills, which are of constitutional importance or are relevant to people's livelihood.

Next Friday (12 February) will be the first day of the Lunar New Year. I wish you every success and the best of health in the Year of the Ox. I would also like to call upon everyone to reduce gatherings and spend this Lunar New Year in a way that is like no other―in a comparatively quiet ambience. With concerted efforts, we can prevail over the pandemic and welcome a healthy and vibrant year.

Thank you.

PRESIDENT (in Cantonese): The Chief Executive will answer questions from Members. Now 28 Members have pressed the "Request to speak" button. Questions raised by Members should be as concise as possible. Members should not make arguments when asking questions.

After the Chief Executive has answered the question asked by a Member, the Member may forthwith ask a short supplementary question on his/her question. The Member concerned only needs to raise his/her hand and does not have to press the "Request to speak" button again.

MS STARRY LEE (in Cantonese): I am very glad to have listened to the Chief Executive's opening remarks just now. Moreover, when attending the last Chief Executive's Question and Answer Session, she already pointed out that she attached great importance to the relationship between the executive and the legislature. Only with a good relationship between the executive and the legislature can policy implementation be continuously enhanced. I also give recognition to the five legislative tasks she has just mentioned. I note that she did so after listening to the views of Members of this Council of different political 3694 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ― 4 February 2021 affiliations. However, there is one aspect that seems to have been left out. During the three-day debate on the Policy Address held in this Council, a number of political parties all expressed their wish that the Government could think out of the box in supporting the unemployed. As regards short-term unemployment assistance, I implore the Chief Executive to continue to urge the relevant Policy Bureaux to adopt breakthrough thinking.

President, I will ask a question about vaccines. The Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong has recently conducted a survey on vaccine confidence among Hong Kong people. The results showed that the intention to be vaccinated dropped from 63.2% in November last year to 45.9% in January this year, which is less than half.

President, according to this survey, in comparison with other places, the intention to be vaccinated among Hong Kong citizens is low. The place having the greatest intention was Mainland, where 88.6% of the respondents indicated willingness to be vaccinated, followed by South Korea at 78%. The intention to be vaccinated in the United States was 75% whereas that in the United Kingdom was 72%. Even in France, the intention to be vaccinated was 59%. It can be said that the figure of only 45.9% of people being willing to receive vaccination in Hong Kong is indeed a warning and a message to which great attention must be paid. We do not want to see a crisis of confidence in vaccination. I think it is the top priority of the SAR Government to boost people's confidence in vaccination.

I wish to ask the Chief Executive and her team, as well as the advisory panel: What plans do they have to boost people's confidence in vaccination? Earlier, she also said that she had asked the Central Authorities to promptly supply Hong Kong with Mainland-manufactured vaccines as soon as possible, because many people have confidence in both the inactivation technology and Mainland-manufactured vaccines, and are delighted about this.

I wish to ask the Chief Executive: Does she concur that the prompt supply of Mainland-manufactured vaccines to Hong Kong can effectively resolve such a confidence crisis or raise people's intention to be vaccinated?

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CHIEF EXECUTIVE (in Cantonese): President, my thanks go to Ms Starry LEE. The issue of vaccines is of tremendous concern to us. As a matter of fact, our work to secure vaccines for Hong Kong have not begun just in recent months. At the start of the fight against the epidemic, we already knew that without the development and widespread use of effective vaccines, it will be very difficult to completely resolve the problem of the epidemic. Therefore, at a very early stage, the Department of Health has already set up a relevant committee and the colleagues concerned have been undertaking the related work. At the time, we had to work on the advance purchase agreements covertly and in strict confidence. On 23 December last year, we announced the successful procurement of vaccines―7.5 million doses of each of the three technology platforms, which will be sufficient for use by the Hong Kong population. The top priority right now is twofold. The first is the emergency use authorization of these vaccines and the other is the arrival time of vaccines, both of which are being actively pursued. Ms LEE is particularly concerned about confidence. No doubt, as shown in many surveys, Hong Kong is a place where confidence in vaccination or intention to be vaccinated is relatively low. But I hope this will improve as our work progresses. There are several areas of our work that is being taken forward. The first one is publicity and education. We have carried out a lot engaged in an avalanche of publicity work, which is close to overwhelming, to promote the science or popularity of vaccines. I hope all Members can share our promotional messages or videos on their Facebook pages so that people can know more about the vaccines or the importance of vaccination. The second is precisely the efficacy that I have just referred to. They must be evaluated and authorized for emergency use in accordance with the legislative framework we have set up earlier, namely the Regulation under Cap. 599K. In this way, people's confidence can be bolstered. Implementation of such work requires data. So far, we have a vaccine that has been authorized upon evaluation by advisers and approval by the Secretary for Food and Health. The third aspect is convenience, which concerns how to make people feel convenient, comfortable and safe when getting vaccinated. Accordingly, two Secretaries, namely the Secretary for Food and Health and the Secretary for the Civil Service, co-chair a taskforce, which has been in operation for a while. Recently, people have heard a lot about Community Vaccination Centres staffed with medical practitioners and healthcare personnel being set up in various districts, as people may have to rest for a while after vaccination to see if there is any reaction. We will continue to take forward our work in various aspects in the hope of boosting people's confidence in vaccination. The people of Hong Kong are all very pragmatic. What are the convenience and benefits of getting 3696 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ― 4 February 2021 vaccinated? The most important thing is what role vaccination will play when they travel, whether to the Mainland or overseas, in the future. We cannot tell for sure right now because we have to look at the global situation. But it is certainly better to receive vaccination than not having done so because there will be extra protection.

As regards the Central Authorities, I would like to reiterate here that the Central People's Government is very concerned about the epidemic in Hong Kong and will always accede to the request for the Central Authorities' support made by Hong Kong. A number of tasks had been accomplished already, and I will not repeat them here. Concerning the supply of vaccines developed and manufactured by the Mainland to Hong Kong, coordination work is being undertaken as per our request. In this respect, I have to thank the Central Authorities again for lending support to us. Thank you.

MS STARRY LEE (in Cantonese): Chief Executive, it is the top priority to boost people's confidence in vaccination. If there is a lack of confidence, the vaccination rate will not be high, and even the effect of herd immunity will be affected.

Chief Executive, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong staged a signature campaign "Requesting the expeditious introduction of Mainland-manufactured vaccines" on Sunday. Within one day, we collected the signatures of 75 000 supportive citizens, showing that people have confidence in Mainland-manufactured vaccines and hope that they can be introduced to Hong Kong as soon as possible.

Dr ZHONG Nanshan, head of the high-level expert group of the National Health Commission, said recently that 22.7 million doses of Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines have been administered worldwide, indicating they are safe enough.

As the Chief Executive said earlier and as also mentioned in her reply just now, the Central Authorities fully support Hong Kong. Is the Government confident that the vaccination arrangements for Mainland-manufactured vaccines can be made known to the public this month, so that people can rest assured that they can opt for Mainland-manufactured vaccines?

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CHIEF EXECUTIVE (in Cantonese): I thank Ms LEE for her further question. I cannot say for certain today but I can tell all Honourable Members that we are constantly making headway. I am really grateful to political parties for conducting surveys to let us know people's wishes. As regards the work on the authorization of vaccines as a whole, I very much hope to adopt a non-political approach because in recent years, everything in Hong Kong has been politicized, and a handful of people have even seized the opportunity to whip up political hype. Therefore, we hope that the vaccines can be authorized for emergency use in an objective and scientific manner with supporting data, so that Hong Kong citizens can receive the vaccines. Should there be any new progress with the vaccines, we will make announcements to society at once.

MR PAUL TSE (in Cantonese): President, recently, the chief executives of the two SARs reported their work to the Central Government separately. The Chief Executive of Macao received "high praises". As for the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, although the Central Authorities on that occasion expressed great concern and worries about the local epidemic situation, it is generally believed that these remarks should actually be read as "superficial compliments and subtle criticisms".

On epidemic prevention, Macao can certainly arrange for vaccination in no time, but for Hong Kong―as we all know clearly from the question of Ms Starry LEE and the answer of the Chief Executive just now―we are lagging behind in this regard. In fact, Cap. 599K can be amended as appropriate without being overly conservative. This is because politically speaking, we certainly should adhere to "one country, two systems", but when it comes to fighting the epidemic, we should be united as one. Since our Mainland compatriots can accept this, why is Hong Kong so conservative and nervous that it cannot speed up? This is something many people do not understand.

As regards relieving people's burden, Macao has now announced―like the wedding vows made by marrying couples―that for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, the Government would do its best to help. On the contrary, in Hong Kong, despite the fact that the Exchange Fund recorded an investment income of $197.8 billion recently and my recommendation of some "dishes" to the Financial Secretary―using his way of playing the game―in the hope that he could help as much as possible by further relaxing the thresholds for the relief measures, it seems that there have been no results or tidings in this regard.

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Could the Chief Executive offer help? No matter whether it is in fighting the epidemic or relieving people's burden, could she step up the efforts and be more down-to-earth instead of―simply because she got criticized or because she wanted to show the public that much has been done―adopting some very stringent measures in various districts as if she was facing a formidable enemy which, however, turned out to be a false alarm every time?

CHIEF EXECUTIVE (in Cantonese): President, I thank Mr TSE for his question. Hong Kong is a very pluralist society. In recent years, there have been many occasions when people held extremely diverse views and highly politicized acts are aplenty. As a result, policy implementation has been particularly difficult. Of course it is my hope that, as Mr TSE has said, the matter is so simple that it is all about vaccination. Since so many hundreds of millions of people can receive jabs, we can do the same; however, I am afraid that if the matter is not handled properly, it will become another issue that can be used for political manoeuvring. In that case, not only will Hong Kong people suffer, but Mainland people's perception of Hong Kong will also be affected. Therefore, it is not a matter of being conservative or not, but a practical issue for us. I hope Mr TSE can understand.

We have been constantly stepping up our efforts to fight the epidemic. Of course, in retrospect, I would not deny that some measures could be introduced earlier. COVID-19, or noval coronavirus, is a completely new thing. All countries are in fact learning while taking forward their anti-epidemic work, so it is most important to sum up the experience and strive for continuous improvement. In particular, I wish to clarify the term that you used―"a false alarm". I believe you were referring to the situation where restrictions and compulsory testing were imposed in some buildings or areas and yet no confirmed cases were found. The fact that no confirmed cases were identified is actually a good indicator that this wave of the epidemic might begin to show signs of decline. This is exactly what we want to know―to what extent asymptomatic spreaders and infection cases exist in the community at present. I would not evaluate the effectiveness of such work based on just one single indicator, that is, the number of confirmed cases found. We have mobilized a lot of staff members to undertake such work. They are not just from the health authorities but also from the disciplined forces. Over a hundred colleagues from the Architectural Services Department, who are architects on ordinary days, have been deployed to various districts to participate in those operations. I hope LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ― 4 February 2021 3699 everyone can give them support. As we have just announced, we hope to visit various districts as far as possible to gauge the infection situation before the 29th day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar.

As regards unemployment and support measures, these are matters of grave concern to me. Actually, the current unemployment rate of 6.6% has yet to peak and is expected to get worse slightly. Of course, if the epidemic situation continues to ease, our social distancing measures may be relaxed, or even better, with the resumption of the flow of people between the Mainland and Hong Kong, a broad spectrum of economic activities should be able to pick up again, though it will take some time. Today, I am not going to make any specific response concerning the relief measures because in less than three weeks' time, the Financial Secretary will deliver the annual Budget. The Secretary has all along been receiving views and should have said in his earlier reply given in this Chamber that they would give holistic and comprehensive consideration to the needs of the community, public views, the pressure on public finances and the forecast economic conditions before responding to Members and the community. Please be a little more patient and see how we are going to respond.

MR PAUL TSE (in Cantonese): President, this epidemic of the century works like a demon-revealing mirror which instantly tells evil from good and better from worse among governments across the world in terms of governance. Although the situation in Hong Kong is not too bad, we are terribly jealous of their zero death rate when compared to our neighbour, Macao. In this regard, the Chief Executive put forward five major directions or major initiatives upon her arrival just now. While I certainly concur with some of them, they still give people an impression that they are somewhat restraining and repressive rather than genuinely recuperative. In this connection, I hope the Chief Executive … I understand that it is necessary to be prudent and play safe given the special political landscape in Hong Kong, but we are lagging behind in everything. It would have been right if compulsory testing had been proposed six months or even a year ago, but now the whole community should focus on jabs and vaccines. I reckon that the Government should really make more efforts in this regard and stop lagging behind again. Since it is well past the time to be all tensed up and conduct testing like this, please focus on the vaccines.

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CHIEF EXECUTIVE (in Cantonese): While I agree to this strategy, the current problem is that we have yet to enter the stage where the vaccination scheme can be rolled out and so we have to keep up the efforts to conduct testing. Frankly, if large scale community testing and large scale community vaccination are to be undertaken concurrently, there will be practical difficulties but the work is being taken forward step by step.

MR WILSON OR (in Cantonese): Chief Executive, the severity of the pandemic is causing panic among members of the public. Most Hong Kong people are willing to support the SAR Government's anti-pandemic efforts, including compulsory testing, stay-at-home orders and a soon-to-be-implemented vaccination programmme. The objective is that Hong Kong will hopefully soon achieve "zero infection", so that it can accelerate reopening the border, boost the economy and safeguard jobs. Chief Executive, nothing about people's livelihood is trivial. After visiting and inspecting the various districts, I have discovered that drainage design and maintenance is one of the reasons for the outbreak of infections. As the Chief Executive remembers, in response to the SARS outbreak in 2003, the Government also made efforts to improve drainage design and raise public awareness on drainage repair and maintenance. That said, problems with subdivided units, "three-nil" buildings and ageing buildings in the days of SARS were not as severe as those nowadays. Recently, I have even observed that the design of lightwells can increased the risk for virus transmission. Chief Executive, many people are deeply concerned about the drainage issue, wondering if there is anything wrong with the drain pipes at home. We have prepared two pictures for the Chief Executive's perusal. The one on the left shows drainage problems in public rental housing, and the one on the right shows drainage problems in private buildings, subdivided units or inadequate housing. In respect of public rental housing, the Government is implementing an 18-month Drainage Inspection Programme. I hope that the Chief Executive can expeditiously implement and complete such inspection and repair, but here comes a problem. Chief Executive, I have not seen any specific work being carried out in private buildings, subdivided units or "three-nil" buildings. Chief Executive, will you take the initiative to build a better environment with greater concern, faster response and smarter services, and urge the Buildings Department to conduct studies, undertake inspections and formulate plans to follow up existing drainage problems in private buildings?

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CHIEF EXECUTIVE (in Cantonese): I would like to thank Mr OR for his long-standing concern about the problems with old buildings. In fact, the SAR Government has done a lot to help ensure the safety of old buildings. For example, one of the legislative tasks I have proposed today concerns enhancing fire safety in old buildings. Over the past decade or so―as I have said, I have five years' experience of serving as the Secretary for Development―the Government has done a lot in the repair or mandatory inspection of old buildings or even the demolition of unauthorized building works. However, the fact is that Hong Kong is really not doing as good a job as other cities in building maintenance. Members of the public are likewise not doing a good job in maintaining their own buildings. It is often necessary to adopt a mandatory approach to deal with the problem. However, following the introduction of a mandatory scheme, people do not know how to do it or are incapable of doing so. As such, we need to offer further help by providing them with financial and technical support. This is what we do all the time. In my view, we have been effectively dealing with building safety and unauthorized building works over the past decade or so. In respect of the law on fire safety, there are areas which have not been enforced smoothly. We have also announced today that apart from providing financial and technical support, the legal framework will also be improved. As regards the drainage problem we have identified recently, we will also adopt the same attitude to deal with it. However, I would like to draw Members' attention to the fact that it will be very difficult for us to enter and work in private premises or buildings. On the other hand, the Housing Department can enter a public rental housing flat, which is a government property, to see whether there are improper connection and cutting of pipes. But it will be difficult for us to do so in a private building. In respect of defective drain pipes on external walls, I know that the Secretary for Development is conducting a study. I hope that, as I have said just now, the SAR Government can propose specific support measures for old buildings in this regard.

MR WILSON OR (in Cantonese): Thank you, Chief Executive. Chief Executive, the public can see for themselves what you have done in respect of private buildings in the past. It is true that we must say "bravo" to you. However, Chief Executive, I hope you can understand that the problem now lies in drainage. You must seriously address the problem and build a better environment with greater concern, faster response and smarter services. Chief Executive, my follow-up question is as follows. I want to put forward a proposal. The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong 3702 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ― 4 February 2021

Kong and I both hope that you can adopt a long-term perspective, instruct your Policy Bureaux to find certain members of the sector or universities to conduct a study, so as to come up with a longer-term plan for drainage problems in private buildings and formulate guidelines on building management, thereby eliminating potential hazards. Will you consider and study my proposal?

CHIEF EXECUTIVE (in Cantonese): We have always been supportive of solving social problems through scientific research, so we will certainly adopt this proposal. We will work with relevant research institutes, be they universities or other institutes, to find out how to solve existing problems with the best or the most technologies. Thank you, Mr OR.

PRESIDENT (in Cantonese): I urge Members again to make their questions as concise as possible.

IR DR LO WAI-KWOK (in Cantonese): President, clothing, food, housing and transport are livelihood issues of great importance and major factors for whether or not a city is liveable. But nowadays in Hong Kong, the Chinese word "衣" which means clothing has to be replaced by "醫", meaning healthcare.1

President, I would like to ask the Chief Executive a question about transport. It is because in order to develop Hong Kong into a liveable city, we must attach importance to transport infrastructure but at present, some new development areas are often troubled by backward ancillary transport facilities. I have time and again urged the Government to conduct a comprehensive strategic transport study, and I am glad that in this year's Policy Address the Chief Executive has responded positively by taking forward the Strategic Studies on Railways and Major Roads beyond 2030.

However, I must point out that the progress in implementing railway development plans is too slow. The reason is that the Railway Development Strategy 2014 has proposed the development of seven new railway lines and it was estimated at the time that they would be completed in succession by 2031.

1 The Chinese words "衣" and "醫" have the same Cantonese pronunciation. LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ― 4 February 2021 3703

Nevertheless, while the Tuen Mun South Extension would be the first completed project scheduled for commissioning next year according to the plan made back then, we know that it is already behind schedule now. Over the years I have been urging the Government to "honour its promises". Six years have passed and the Government gave the green light to the Tung Chung Line Extension and Tuen Mun South Extension only last year, and while the Northern Link and Kwu Tung Station were originally proposed for completion from 2018 to 2023 in order to provide service for the new population intake in the new development areas in Northeast New Territories from 2023 onwards, the latest projection of the authorities is that Phase 1 of the Northern Link, i.e. Kwu Tung Station, will be completed only in 2027 and worse still, Phase 2 will be completed only in 2034, a delay of 11 years compared to the plan in the Railway Development Strategy 2014. The contradictions caused by backward traffic support are most obvious, and it is saddening to see that the Government holds discussions without making decisions and makes decisions without putting them into practice.

In this connection, I would like to ask the Chief Executive this: Will the authorities expeditiously look into ways to expedite the orderly implementation of the seven new railway projects to recover the precious time lost as far as possible?

CHIEF EXECUTIVE (in Cantonese): President, Ir Dr LO and I share similar views. Transport infrastructure should be given priority in urban design in Hong Kong, especially when we have to explore new land for housing development now, it is all the more necessary to accord priority to transport infrastructure. Almost unnoticeably, the current term Government has adjusted how we look at investment in these transport infrastructure projects. We no longer look at the number of people who are moving in or the commuting volume or to what extent congestion is expected to occur on roads before we take forward additional transport infrastructure projects. Therefore, our strategy is consistent with the demand put up by Ir Dr LO or other Members over the years that priority should be accorded to transport infrastructure. We are now at a stage where it is possible to speed up the pace and here, I wish to express my feeling that sometimes doing things the quick way will only lead to the otherwise. There have been problems with our railway projects in recent years and in retrospect, some people said that too many projects were being rolled out for implementation back in those years. When the MTR Corporation Limited ("MTRCL") has to handle five railway projects in one go, actually this would overburden them and 3704 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ― 4 February 2021 may give rise to problems in respect of, say, management or the engineering works. The current term Government has, in the first three years or so, kept on "putting out a fire"―I mean we have kept on "putting out a fire" in respect of these railway issues by, among others, establishing a commission of inquiry, expert panels, and so on. This time, we have been prudent in initiating railway projects and therefore, four projects are set out in the Policy Address. I cannot undertake here that all the seven projects will be taken forward concurrently, for priorities have been set in the order of Tung Chung Line Extension, Tuen Mun South Extension, Northern Link, and South Island Line (West) in the Invigorating Island South initiative.

I totally agree that the progress of the Northern Link has to be expedited by all means given its strategic significance. In retrospect, we may have acted slowly and some of our perceptions may not be that accurate―it links up with the East Rail and the West Rail and also makes available a vast expanse of land. I will personally monitor and steer this project in the hope of speeding up its progress. As for Kwu Tung Station in Phase 1, we will strive to tie in with the population intake in the Kwu Tung new development area, so that the residents can enjoy the railway services upon moving in there. But the section connecting the West Rail in the next phase has to be expedited. I have personally met with the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MTRCL, hoping that they can speed up in this regard. I will continue to oversee this area of work.

IR DR LO WAI-KWOK (in Cantonese): President, I very much thank the Chief Executive for giving a positive response. It is true that the Government's transport planning is often driven by demand, with the aim of meeting the demand for transport services. Having listened to the Chief Executive's response, I would like to further put a question to the Chief Executive. Will the Government adopt a supply-driven approach in its planning consideration in future and proactively make use of various infrastructure projects to promote the development of the districts? An example is the Tsuen Wan―Tuen Mun railway which has long been discussed in society, and it is most conducive to the development of New Territories West and to providing more space for development above the stations. I hope that the policy can be adjusted with the adoption of a supply-driven approach, so that with the building of roads, people will come and so will money.

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CHIEF EXECUTIVE (in Cantonese): Put simply, this is our strategy, especially in respect of reclamation for the artificial islands, i.e. the entire Lantau Tomorrow project, Members can see that it is comprised mainly of transport infrastructure. In fact, the costs incurred by reclamation alone are not exorbitantly high, but a series of roads and railway-related transport infrastructure required in order to achieve the benefits expounded by Ir Dr LO earlier is the key component of this project. We will continuously adopt this strategy in following up the work in this respect. Thank you, Ir Dr LO.

MR STEVEN HO (in Cantonese): President, just now we heard many Members especially speak on a number of social problems, and the Chief Executive mentioned in her opening remarks five upcoming legislative tasks as well as some work done in the past. Nevertheless, we have got to know that after the Chief Executive has spoken, many media reports outside may distort the original message. A few years into the tenure of the Chief Executive, the people of Hong Kong consider that the Chief Executive may have done a relatively poor job in public relations, but there are things which may not be under the Chief Executive's control. For example, some private media organizations will slightly cross the line in order to boost sales. This is quite normal. However, we hope that there will be a public broadcaster to set the record straight, report the truth, uphold what is right against dishonesty, and convey to the public the message which the Government really wishes to deliver because the public may not be able to comprehend figures and theories which are too complicated.

Hence, the people of Hong Kong are very concerned about the integrity and professionalism of Radio Television Hong Kong ("RTHK"). Recently, the people of Hong Kong have found many incidents in which it made mistakes or acted misleadingly. One of such incidents, being more serious, must be mentioned first. It is the "incident of XI Jinping". For the following message: "習近平稱要推動多邊主義，搞新冷戰和制裁只能把世界分裂" (which means XI Jinping calls for multilateralism; starting a new cold war and imposing sanctions will only push the world into division), they wrote it as: "習近平稱要推 動多邊主義，搞新冷戰和制裁把世界分裂" (which means XI Jinping calls for multilateralism, starting a new cold war and imposing sanctions to push the world into division). The meaning was completely distorted. I suspect that the proficiency of RTHK's editors and journalists in the is not up to standard. This is an issue of professionalism.

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Moreover, previously, Headliner became the subject of a complaint and had to publish a statement of apology. The complaint accused the programme of smearing and insulting the Police and not reporting the truth. Earlier on, Hong Kong Connection had a special feature on the problem of some people who were detained for illegal entry and then stayed in Hong Kong for 10 to 20 years through torture claims. It is also a false hype. Recently, there was an incident which was a terrible fabrication. It was the "incident of the can opener" in the Jordan lockdown area. It caused the people of Hong Kong to slam the Special Administrative Region ("SAR") Government one after another, questioning why it distributed canned food to the people without providing any can opener at the same time. This directly affected the Government's popularity, but many members of the public immediately queried whether the media reports had made a mistake because the cans had ring pulls. I need to clarify that it was an "incident of ring-pull cans and the can opener".

As such, we share the view that RTHK, being a public broadcaster, uses the public coffers of the people of Hong Kong. Moreover, some of its staff are civil servants. Is it because it is difficult to fire them that they can act in an unbridled manner and will not be punished even if they have done wrong? In the private sector, one will be fired immediately for wrongdoings. The Chief Executive may by all means not respond to the question raised by me just now because her response may merely state that RTHK will act according to the Charter of Radio Television Hong Kong ("the Charter").

My question is very simple, that is, I hope the SAR Government will look into the most fundamental basis of public administration and appreciate the existence of the problems. Hence, I would like to ask a mathematical question. In the "incident of the can opener", three of the four cans had ring pulls. All the cans were placed with their bottom facing the camera. Then this journalist happened to report the lack of a can opener. There were two media organizations, one of which was South China Morning Post. After learning that the photo was fake, it apologized for inadvertently misleading the public. Yet RTHK issued a condemnation statement to denounce the normal Hongkongers because it considered itself having no problem. May I ask, in the said incident, how low was the probability that there was no problem? Will the Chief Executive also happen to consider that even if the probability is multiplied by 0.5, there was still no problem with this incident and thus will not take any follow up action?

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ― 4 February 2021 3707

CHIEF EXECUTIVE (in Cantonese): President, I thank Mr HO for raising a series of questions about RTHK. Let me first state my position. My position is that RTHK is in great need of improvement. My position is that, as I said in the 2020 Policy Address last year, many things in Hong Kong need to be restored from chaos, but such restoration cannot be achieved overnight. It requires the most resolute determination and also a process. Insofar as a public broadcaster and government department is concerned, in less than two years, the independent Communications Authority held that seven complaints against it were substantiated. One serious warning and three warnings were issued. This is hardly acceptable. Such a situation is unacceptable for any government department, so a process must be put in place to improve the situation. This process has already started and a team was assigned there in July last year. Some people say the leader of this team is my protégé Mrs Jessie TING, former Permanent Secretary of the Chief Executive's Office. She is leading this team to review the governance and management of RTHK. I have given it six months, which is about to expire. After the release of the review report, the SAR Government will give a detailed account of how we will follow up to improve the governance and management of RTHK.

MR STEVEN HO (in Cantonese): President, I am glad to hear the Chief Executive mention a series of work she has done in the past. It takes a long time to improve RTHK's structure or the working attitude of the civil servants concerned. However, regarding the several incidents mentioned by me just now, such as the "incident of XI Jinping" which distorted President XI's words and the "incident of ring-pull cans and the can opener", actually a response should be made immediately. In this process, I do not know how long the actual time frame of the SAR Government is. If it will take three, five or seven more years, during this tough fight against the epidemic, how many more times will the SAR Government be tricked by RTHK before it is willing to make some immediate and prompt responses such that the confidence of the people of Hong Kong in the governance of the SAR Government can be strengthened? If there is a lack of confidence, as stated by Ms Starry LEE just now at the beginning of the Question and Answer Session, whatever the Government says will be useless. President, can the Chief Executive give a solemn response to the issue of confidence and the speed of handling individual incidents?

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CHIEF EXECUTIVE (in Cantonese): Every such so-called trivial matter warrants an investigation, and the investigation shall come up with a conclusion and follow-up. I know Secretary YAU has already taken forward the investigation into this couple of incidents. Nevertheless, in the Charter, someone plays the role of Chief Editor. I expect this Chief Editor to state his stance position on these reported incidents, but I am still waiting.

MR HOLDEN CHOW (in Cantonese): Chief Executive, I observed that the compulsory testing operations in specified restricted areas had been carried out in a more mature manner recently, including that at Ho Choi Building in Yuen Long two days ago, during which Mr LEUNG Che-cheung and I made observation at the scene, as well as that at Tower 1 of Goodview Garden in Tuen Mun last night. The operations were generally in good order. Here I would like to express my gratitude to the frontline healthcare personnel and the Police for their hard work.

I am aware that the Chief Executive has put a lot of thought into the financial support measures to fight the epidemic, but it is really disappointing that short-term unemployment assistance has not been introduced. While the Employment Support Scheme is good, sometimes there is a mismatch of resources, whereby those who ought to receive subsidies are unable to receive them, while those who ought not to receive any subsidies have received a huge sum, including those supermarkets which have made a fortune under adverse economic circumstances. In addition, some unscrupulous employers have not shared the subsidies with their employees after receiving them, and they still ask their employees to continue to take no-pay leave. This is the actual situation that members of the public have told us.

Chief Executive, my question is as follows. An estimate can be made with the statistics compiled by the Government. Earlier on, the authorities pointed out in their reply to my question at a Council meeting that according to the statistics of the Census and Statistics Department, among the low-income earners with a monthly salary under $9,000, 70 000 of them were unemployed while some 19 000 of them were underemployed. Based on these figures, we are talking about less than 100 000 people. If they are provided with a monthly allowance of $6,000 for a period of six months, it is actually possible to calculate the amount involved.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ― 4 February 2021 3709

I am very keen to make a suggestion to the Chief Executive here, and I sincerely hope that she will give some thoughts to it after going back to the office. I believe that the SAR Government is able to calculate the amount of money involved and can afford this sum of expenditure as well. This can immediately alleviate the plight of this group of grass-roots people who are currently caught in dire straits. This is my question and opinion.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE (in Cantonese): In recent months, we have heard many Members putting forward their demands regarding how to better support the unemployed. Our colleagues concerned have also explained to Members on different occasions that any unemployment assistance not supported by an insurance system has its limitations and will not be sustainable. Of course, Members would say that I need not mention this since they have already made it clear that the measure would only last for six months, and I can put an end to it no matter what happens in Hong Kong after six months. But then, we all know that this may not be feasible in reality. Anyway, as I have already pointed out when replying to Mr TSE's question just now, I do not intend to make any specific response in respect of financial support today, because the annual Budget will be delivered in about 20 days. All the work to support the public should also be considered in a comprehensive and holistic manner. It is not for the Chief Executive to come out and announce one measure today and make public the other tomorrow. There will not be holistic consideration if the financial viability of such measures is not considered. I believe the Financial Secretary has heard Members' views.

PRESIDENT (in Cantonese): Mr Holden CHOW, do you have any supplementary questions?

MR HOLDEN CHOW (in Cantonese): Although I understand that the Chief Executive has indicated today that she would not respond to matters relating to financial support on this occasion, this is indeed the view that the grass roots in dire straits hope to express most of all. I hope the Chief Executive will consider it after returning to the office.

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MR CHAN CHUN-YING (in Cantonese): President and Chief Executive, I have always been supportive of the development of Hong Kong into a smart city. At the end of December last year, the Government launched a one-stop personalized digital services platform called "iAM Smart", which aims at enabling members of the public to access online services through the mobile app. I have downloaded "iAM Smart" and registered as a user. This platform can indeed connect to many online services of the Government and public utilities, including identity authentication, automatic form filling and personalized notification. However, if I want to use the digital signing function for such purposes as renewal of vehicle licences and filing tax return, I have to bring along my identity card and go to the registration service counter located at any of the 121 post offices in Hong Kong for an upgrade to "iAM Smart+". Only then can I use it.

Actually, when people register for "iAM Smart", they already need to use their mobile phones to scan their identity cards. They also need to take selfies for identity verification by the computer system of the Immigration Department. In addition, the design of the digital signing function requires users to go to the post office with their identity cards to queue up for an upgrade. Under the present epidemic, the post offices have cut down the service hours, and there are often many people waiting at the counters, which makes users feel very bad. Currently, bank account opening can already be done online in Hong Kong. Yet registration for "iAM Smart" has to be conducted in two steps, and upgrade cannot be carried out online. It is indeed a bit behind the times. As such, I believe it can hardly attract a large number of people to try it and register.

Chief Executive, since "iAM Smart" is an important digital facility to promote the development of Hong Kong into a smart city, the Government should launch the service with user experience in mind. Only then will members of the public be willing to use it. Will the Government consider enhancing the function of digital signing by including it in the registration for "iAM Smart" such that members of the public can use this service more conveniently?

CHIEF EXECUTIVE (in Cantonese): President, I thank Mr CHAN for recommending "iAM Smart" introduced by us in December. I understand that Mr CHAN wants us to bring greater convenience to the public in the application of technologies but there are certain statutory requirements for digital signing. As currently required by the Electronic Transactions Ordinance, since digital LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ― 4 February 2021 3711 signing is used for applications for e-Certs, it is necessary to verify the applicant's identity in a relatively stringent manner and in person. For this reason, the registration for "iAM Smart+" requires identity verification to be conducted in person once―only once―after which "iAM Smart+" can be used worry-free. Under our present arrangement, those who are interested may go to any of the post offices, totalling more than 120 as Mr CHAN said just now, for identity verification by postal officers. We will explore where we can set up more verification kiosks in the future. For example, our colleagues are thinking about facilitating identity verification for members of the public visiting the vaccination centres, which will be commissioned in the 18 districts shortly, particularly since people may have 10 to 20 minutes' spare time having nothing to do there after receiving the vaccination. We will try to use some technologies to facilitate the public to make applications by setting up some counters there so that people may make the registration concurrently. With "iAM Smart+", it will be much more convenient to use other digital services afterwards. Such is the present plan. Thank you, Mr CHAN.

MR CHAN CHUN-YING (in Cantonese): I am glad to hear the Chief Executive say that there will be continual improvement in this service. However, actually I have noticed that many government services failed to take into account the personal experience of members of the public as users after being launched. Very often, improvement did not start until many different voices had emerged in society. I suggest that the Government employ a batch of government service experience investigators under the Policy Innovation and Co-ordination Office. Their job is different from that of the Audit Commission. The Audit Commission is responsible for value for money audit, whereas their job is to try out the government services one by one to see if it feels good as a user, with a view to making improvement. I hope the Chief Executive will consider this suggestion.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE (in Cantonese): It is a very good suggestion. As a matter of fact, currently, it should be the Business Facilitation Advisory Committee under the Innovation and Technology Bureau which tells us how to facilitate business. Mr CHAN's view is that a committee or focused group should be set up to facilitate the use of technologies by the public and gauge their new views on the application of our various types of technologies. Thank you, Mr CHAN.

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MR CHEUNG KWOK-KWAN (in Cantonese): Chief Executive, Mr Steven HO mentioned the incidents concerning Radio Television Hong Kong ("RTHK") just now. In fact, there is also a recent example, I wonder if you have noticed it, and I also hope to take this opportunity to share with you and the Government officials. Earlier on, President XI Jinping gave a speech when he attended the World Economic Forum in Beijing via videoconferencing. There is something in the news report by RTHK which can be said to have made us quite angry. The news report should have read "習近平稱要推動多邊主義，搞新冷戰和制裁只 能把世界分裂" (which means XI Jinping calls for multilateralism; starting a new cold war and imposing sanctions will only push the world into division), but in RTHK's news report, it became "習近平稱要推動多邊主義，搞新冷戰和制裁把 世界分裂" (which means XI Jinping calls for multilateralism, starting a new cold war and imposing sanctions to push the world into division).

To our surprise, a publicly-run radio station reported the remarks of the State President in a completely opposite way. Although they took the initiative to amend it after an hour, this incident has precisely revealed the problem of RTHK, which indeed warrants our serious attention. Just now Mr OR kept chanting the following slogan repeatedly: "Build a better environment with greater concern, faster response and smarter services". Let me make some slight amendments to it: "Avoid being rebuked with greater concern, faster response and smarter services". In this regard, I hope this example is sufficient to reflect the urgency of tackling the problem of RTHK.

Nevertheless, Chief Executive, my question today in fact relates to the admission of non-locally trained doctors that you have mentioned a short while ago. I am very happy to hear that you have responded to the views of the Legislative Council and the community here today, by boldly attempting to take this step to relax the restrictions to allow Hong Kong permanent residents studying abroad to return to and practise medicine in Hong Kong in order to help the people. Just now you have mentioned that there is indeed a shortage of doctors in public hospitals for a long period of time. I have also come across some figures and found that the longest waiting time for specialist outpatient clinics is the Department of Ophthalmology of the Kowloon East Cluster, which takes 174 weeks.

Chief Executive, you have also mentioned special education needs just now. As a matter of fact, you were willing to devote substantial resources in this aspect a few years ago. Yet, as the Department of Health ("DH") failed to LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ― 4 February 2021 3713 recruit staff, children in need of special education missed the golden time of treatment. Of course, we anticipate that the relaxation you propose today may not be able to bring in a large number of doctors, but it can be described as an important step. I believe it will gain the support of the public and the patients. However, based on past experience, I believe that certain doctor associations may not welcome this arrangement. They may even cite the reason that "the medical standard and professional qualifications of doctors in Hong Kong should never be compromised", and then exert pressure on the Government until it gives up. Hong Kong doctors are certainly well-trained and equipped with excellent medical skills, but this does not mean that doctors trained overseas cannot become a good doctor like HUA Tuo.

Let us take a look at our competitor, Singapore. They have set aside their sectarian views long ago to admit doctors trained in renowned medical schools overseas to solve their healthcare problems. In 2017, the ratio of overseas trained doctors in Singapore was as high as 42%. If Hong Kong continues to stick to its own ways, it will only make patients suffer, and our next generation will continue to pay the price for the shortage of doctors. Therefore, Chief Executive, could you undertake here that you will definitely take such an important step which you have announced today within your current term of office?

CHIEF EXECUTIVE (in Cantonese): I thank Mr CHEUNG for his support for the admission of non-locally trained doctors. In fact, I have taken an unwavering stance on this issue, and it does not start from today. If you take a look at the speeches I gave previously on occasions relating to doctors on the news.gov.hk website, including the graduation ceremony of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong, a symposium named after Prof Arthur LI at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, I also made such remarks. We are very determined to do this, and I also hope that Members of this Council will facilitate our work. In order to accomplish our job, the proposed legal framework in this exercise is actually not bold enough and we can go even further. But we have come up with this scheme exactly because we hope to gain the support of doctors in the public and private sectors. By saying that it is not bold enough, I am referring to the first condition mentioned just now, that is, the doctors admitted must be Hong Kong permanent residents. We believe that a certain number of people studying medicine in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, etc. actually wish to come back. For some time in the past 3714 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ― 4 February 2021 since the enhanced regime of limited registration has been put in place, the Secretary for Food and Health has visited these places to meet with medical students from Hong Kong, who have expressed that they actually wish to return to Hong Kong. What is not very bold about this scheme at present is that as I said here in November, we will allow sons and daughters of Hong Kong who have completed medical training, or even obtained professional qualifications and become top-notch doctors, to come back as the first step. I hope that it will not stir up much conflict between the SAR Government and the medical sector in society this time. Again, here I also appeal for the support of doctors in the public and private sectors. In fact, doctors in the public sector can benefit a lot if they support this initiative. At present, there are some 600 vacancies in the Hospital Authority ("HA"), which has greatly increased their workload. If there are hundreds of doctors to help immediately, their workload can actually be reduced. The situation in DH is even more critical. Ordinary people would say that the shortage of doctors is mainly seen in HA, but DH has a vacancy rate of 13.2% as at the end of 2020. We are supposed to have 13% more doctors to help to provide various kinds of services in DH, but we do not have them now. I have only cited an example of which the problem is the most acute. As Mr CHEUNG has two children, you must know that children should undergo intellectual assessment and then be provided with the necessary services during their golden time. Now that services can be provided as appropriate―you should remember that I have undertaken after assuming office that there would be zero waiting time―but assessment cannot be conducted in a timely manner, what should we do then? Secretary Dr LAW Chi-kwong has thought of a way out: We will provide a child with the necessary assistance before an assessment is conducted if we find that he shows some problems in the kindergarten. But this is in fact not desirable, since we should have conducted a professional intelligent assessment in order to decide on the approach to help this child in a targeted manner. Otherwise, the child will miss the golden time of recovery, which will give rise to a lot of problems in the future. Today, I earnestly hope that the medical sector in Hong Kong will support this exercise. As long as this legal framework and this ordinance are in place, we can at least try to admit some doctors who are Hong Kong permanent residents to return to and practise in Hong Kong, so as to solve the problems that we are currently facing. We are very determined and we will not give up. I hope this Council will support us as well.

Let me say a few more words here. As a matter of fact, if the Legislative Council has not returned or largely returned to normal―you can continue to slam our officials, including myself, but at least let us do our work―as long as the LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ― 4 February 2021 3715

Legislative Council has generally resumed normal operation, we will continue to put forward such proposals which are bold but beneficial to society. Regarding the five legislative tasks laid out today, to be frank, if we were in the kind of the Legislative Council last year, we would not dare to bring up at least two or three of them―combating online doxxing activities, stipulating oath-taking requirements with legal consequences―otherwise we may not even be able to hold the meeting. This is precisely what Hong Kong should cherish. The legislature, while exercising checks and balances on the SAR Government and monitoring the SAR Government, should also work in collaboration with the SAR Government in order to do real work for the people. I hope that Members present here will give us their strong support in respect of the admission of non-locally trained doctors. We should be able to introduce the bill in the current legislative session, but how long the scrutiny will take rests with Members. Thank you.

PRESIDENT (in Cantonese): Mr CHEUNG Kwok-kwan, do you have any supplementary questions?

(Mr CHEUNG Kwok-kwan indicated that he did not have any supplementary questions)

MR LUK CHUNG-HUNG (in Cantonese): President, Chief Executive, I hope you will understand that under the epidemic, the wage earners who live from hand to mouth are hit the hardest. We in the labour sector and even this entire Council have continuously urged the Government, including you, Chief Executive, and Secretary Dr LAW Chi-kwong, to provide support for the unemployed. But our impression is that while you verbally pledged to make the utmost effort to provide support, you have given people the feeling that you are incapable of action.

Chief Executive, our unemployment rate has more than doubled from a low figure to the present 6.4%, not to mention that this is a most conservative official figure. However, it strikes us as strange that the number of applications for unemployment assistance under the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance ("CSSA") has increased by only about one third. It shows that the existing CSSA unemployment assistance system is actually not of any help to many unemployed 3716 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ― 4 February 2021 workers in need. Many workers often lament that before "zero infection" can be achieved insofar as the epidemic is concerned, their wallets or bank accounts will have shown a zero balance.

The Government has already spent $80 billion under the Employment Support Scheme to help some enterprises and even those that are making a profit despite the epidemic. Why is it that the unemployed workers are not provided with support? The Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions has put forward a proposal which is capped at $15 billion, and in replying to a question raised by a Member earlier, you expressed the concern that it would be never-ending. Let me further suggest a direction for your consideration and that is, we can set up a mechanism for withdrawal. When the unemployment rate falls to a more reasonable percentage, this provisional unemployment support scheme will end, and the question of how unemployment support will be provided regularly and permanently can be discussed in detail in future. If there would be a withdrawal mechanism for the scheme based on the unemployment rate, is the Government willing to give consideration to our idea of unemployment support?

Besides, in respect of increasing jobs, the Government has proposed the creation of 30 000 jobs but only a little more than half of these jobs have been created so far. During SARS, some 70 000 temporary jobs were created. Can the Government provide a large number of jobs relating to community care, frontline anti-epidemic work and promotion of tourism in order to offer assistance? I think the Government should provide cash payouts on the one hand and create temporary jobs on the other.

Lastly, TANG Ka-piu, member of the Labour Advisory Board, would like to invite Secretary Dr LAW Chi-kwong to an open debate. Not that we want to engage in a war of words, nor do we wish to find out who the winner or loser is in the quarrel, but we hope to identify a way to help the unemployed in the debate. Chief Executive, can you instruct Secretary Dr LAW Chi-kwong to have a debate with us or help extend this invitation to him for me? We do not mean to find out who the winner or loser is. All that we hope is to elucidate our arguments based on facts.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE (in Cantonese): President, my thanks go to Mr LUK. On his last point regarding the invitation, I believe Secretary Dr LAW will not resist it, right? It is just a debate, and it is hoped that the more a question is debated, the clearer it becomes. I hope that arrangements will be made accordingly, but LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ― 4 February 2021 3717 perhaps it has to be conducted online by videoconferencing. Regarding the provision of specific, concrete unemployment support, as I said earlier, I do not wish to talk about it one-sidedly here as comprehensive and overall consideration is necessary. As regards the creation of jobs particularly proposed by Mr LUK, we support this direction because we always hold that it is good for the unemployed workers to have certain job opportunities even though the jobs are temporary. Some time ago I mentioned that according to Secretary Dr LAW Chi-kwong, studies had been conducted on whether we can lower the requirement on working hours under the Working Family Allowance ("WFA") Scheme, so that people who have taken up part-time jobs and who work an hour or two a day or several days a week can still be covered by the network of WFA and can hence benefit from the allowance under the WFA system. With regard to job creation, we will continue to work hard on this. If we can provide more jobs, we will definitely go ahead with it. Of the 31 000 jobs proposed earlier under the Ant-epidemic Fund, only about half of them, about 14 000, have been recruited and taken up. I have requested that work be expedited, and the relevant Directors of Bureaux being allocated with these quotas have to speed up this area of work expeditiously. On the other hand, the Greater Bay Area Youth Employment Scheme launched about two weeks ago has been very well-received. Of the 2 000 places to be provided, more than 1 100 places have been provided by 170 enterprises according to the latest statistics, and quite a large number of these jobs have to do with innovation and technology. This should be relatively good news to our young people and university graduates. Thank you, Mr LUK.

MR LUK CHUNG-HUNG (in Cantonese): Chief Executive, I hope that you will not lump together WFA and unemployment support, because the fact is that an unemployed worker naturally has zero working hour, and it still does not help even if the requirement on working hours is reduced to 10 hours, right? This is why the two cannot be lumped together, unless the CSSA unemployment assistance allows applications made on an individual basis, for that would be a different matter.

Finally, I am very happy to hear from you that Secretary Dr LAW should not be backing away from the big debate suggested by us. I will make arrangements with Secretary Dr LAW after this meeting, so that we can find a platform to talk about it, alright? Thank you, Chief Executive.

3718 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ― 4 February 2021

CHIEF EXECUTIVE (in Cantonese): Alright, thank you.

MR LEUNG CHE-CHEUNG (in Cantonese): Chief Executive, it is the function of the District Councils ("DCs") to serve as advisory bodies, which are councils set up for addressing livelihood needs. Nonetheless, DCs of the current term have been reduced to a political tool by certain pro-independence activists advocating "Hong Kong independence". They blatantly sing songs advocating "Hong Kong independence" and vigorously promote "Hong Kong independence" at meetings. They also use their Members' offices and public money to post "Hong Kong independence" flags and banners. Some DC members use public resources for private purposes, using DC resources to fatten their own pockets. The amount of funding for community projects allocated by DCs is less than half. Secretary Caspar TSUI criticizes them as dysfunctional councils, a de facto "Hong Kong independence" club.

Just now in her opening remarks, the Chief Executive said that the law would be amended to include DC members as public officers subject to the relevant oath-taking legislation in accordance with Article 104 of the Basic Law. If that is the case, may I ask the Chief Executive of the ways to ensure the sincerity of their oath-taking and that the contents of the oaths taken by DC members will not be deformed or distorted subsequently? Has the Government considered the proposal put forth by our alliance to monitor the legislature to set up a committee to monitor oath-taking, so as to ensure the truthfulness of the oath-taking of DC members?

CHIEF EXECUTIVE (in Cantonese): President, I thank Mr LEUNG for his question. As Mr LEUNG has put it, DCs are district-based advisory bodies under the political system of Hong Kong and do not have any statutory executive power. Yet, over the years, we have respected DCs, for they can reflect public sentiments and relay to us the views of the districts. As such, we have been providing funding for DCs to participate in district affairs, including minor works projects and community building work. Nonetheless, in the past year, we see that work in this aspect is extremely undesirable, coupled with the conduct of individual DC members which Mr LEUNG just mentioned, so this is also an area we need to address.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ― 4 February 2021 3719

The first aspect which needs to be addressed is that DC members should know what undertakings they have made. During the election, they signed a declaration as candidates standing for election, stating that: "I declare that I will uphold the Basic Law and pledge allegiance to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region". Nonetheless, oath-taking by DC members is currently not included under Article 104 of the Basic Law. Hence, our first step is to include the requirement for DC members to take oath in accordance with the law into the local legislation to be amended later. After the inclusion, the interpretation of Article 104 of the Basic Law made by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress back then, that is, in 2016, will be applicable. In other words, oath-taking is not merely a statutory requirement and condition for candidacy, but also a statutory requirement and condition for taking up that public office. If one engages in any act after assuming office that violates the oath, he or she should be held liable. Later, Members will see that these provisions are included in the amendment legislation for the implementation of the interpretation of Article 104, followed by its implementation and enforcement. Certainly, implementation and enforcement will be evidence-based. We will enforce the relevant legislation basing on evidence, ensuring that DC members will fulfil their duties according to the law and their undertakings.

MR LEUNG CHE-CHEUNG (in Cantonese): Chief Executive, as DCs have already ceased to function, may I ask, in respect of their dysfunctioning, whether the Chief Executive will take any specific actions, so to speak, to take back their dysfunctional power? These include cancelling the allowance for those who post illegal items at members' offices. Moreover, regarding the so-called funding they are now handling, since the funds cannot be allocated to community organizations, will the Government cancel their funding?

CHIEF EXECUTIVE (in Cantonese): President, in fact, the District Offices of the 18 districts are doing this now. Hence, some DC members question why they have not yet been reimbursed for such a long time and failed to obtain approvals for this and that. This is because the District Offices are doing their job very seriously. With the statutory oaths, DC members will unequivocally be legally liable should they violate such oaths after assuming office. We will carry out work in this aspect more rigorously and proactively.

3720 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ― 4 February 2021

DR CHENG CHUNG-TAI (in Cantonese): Mrs LAM conducted the reporting of work to Beijing via videoconferencing some time ago. Before that, two ambush community lockdowns were imposed and two so-called asymptomatic patients were identified in the end. Today, this is already the fourth of its kind and one asymptomatic patient is found, which can be considered as hitting the jackpot. Yet, in the three previous lockdowns, no case was found. Whether or not a confirmed case is found, the authorities will argue that as long as there is a virus carrier in the community, they have to track him down. That is to say, heads you win and tails you win too.

Nonetheless, currently, many residents and members of the public are living in fear every night, not knowing when their community will be cordoned off suddenly. People who have to work at night are particularly affected, and many grass roots have to work for a living at night. Regarding the lockdown during specified hours, though people are allowed to go to work the next morning according to the authorities, these people indeed have to work at night. Moreover, no one knows when the Government will stop these operations. If the authorities say that it will stop when the virus no longer spreads, then why the Government has not plugged the various loopholes in epidemic prevention despite the repeated queries we have made previously, and now these are done right before Mrs LAM reported her work.

My question is straightforward. Is this ambush community lockdown a de facto population-wide compulsory testing? If yes, please tell the public when this will end.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE (in Cantonese): President, Dr CHENG seems to suggest that the SAR Government's epidemic prevention measures in this regard are related to my reporting of work to the leaders of the Central Authorities. They are definitely unrelated. First of all, I wish to clarify here that they are absolutely not related. Fighting the epidemic is an important issue and a collective decision, so it has nothing to do with my reporting of work. The Central Authorities are always concerned about the epidemic in Hong Kong. Given the outbreak of the fourth wave of the epidemic, their worries are completely understandable. The President of the State has also encouraged us to keep up with our efforts in the light of the situation in Hong Kong, so as to tackle the epidemic as soon as possible.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ― 4 February 2021 3721

This operation, known as compulsory testing, is an effective measure under which a certain category or group of people or residents of a certain building are required by law to be tested for the virus. In fact, we have identified quite a number of positive cases through this kind of compulsory testing. Why do we have to adopt what you call the "lockdown" method or "restriction-testing" as we put it these days? For we want to be more thorough. If we see a certain district or building that is at higher risk―I have already mentioned the factors in three aspects for determining the higher risk―we will arrive there in a swift and accurate manner within a short time, so that if any person is infected, he will be tested and then send to hospital for isolation and treatment, thus eliminating the risk of him walking around and spreading the virus.

Certainly, the public may consider the "restriction-testing" operation very effective if many cases are identified in each operation, and since they are not seeing this now, they consider the arrangement ineffective. I want to stress that we should not look at the situation in such a simple manner, for we have to look at the full picture. In fact, the selection of these places as "restricted area" for compulsory testing has a scientific basis but it is not purely scientific. Hence, you may say that the place selected is not entirely accurate, as invisible transmission may occur in the next street which has not been selected. This may happen. I hope colleagues will strive hard. From the announcement made by the Chief Secretary for Administration a few days ago to the time before the Chinese New Year―it has been promised that the operation will continue, if necessary, till the day before the eve of the Chinese New Year; and the number of operations conducted at one place each night has been increased from one to four at most―hoping to buy time to use this method to examine the overall infection situation, or the invisible transmission chain, in Hong Kong. During the Chinese New Year, I hope people will reduce gatherings and have a relatively quiet Chinese New Year. If the number of cases reduced after the Chinese New Year, we will gradually open up various economic and social activities to the people of Hong Kong.

DR CHENG CHUNG-TAI (in Cantonese): The greatest problem is that the public simply do not know which are the high-risk areas selected by the Government. I am not supporting that such arrangements should be made at places where the so-called "wealthy people" live. Yet, the impression people get now is that the grass roots are being victimized and the epidemic prevention 3722 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ― 4 February 2021 measures of the Government vary with social class. Since people in many districts are having parties and BBQs at home, the grass-roots may ask why the operations are not carried out in those districts. Does it mean that the risk in those districts is not high? Yet, now it is merely the people living in Yau Tsim Mong District and public housing who have to be on tenterhooks every night. The authorities even say that they may break into premises in future, so the public have to rush home on time. This gives people the impression that the Government's anti-epidemic efforts are class-biased.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE (in Cantonese): We are definitely not looking at it from this perspective, Dr CHENG. Yet, after all, among the three factors, there is, after all, a factor of environmental hygiene and building condition, including the drainage condition about which Mr OR has expressed concern just now. These conditions are often found in old buildings and even private buildings. It is this factor which makes you see that we seem to have chosen to do the compulsory testing in a "restricted area" where the grass roots live in particular. This is due to the objective factor, depending on a series of conditions like the condition of buildings and the presence of virus in sewage. Social class is never a factor of consideration. Some time ago, there was the dance club cluster. Many infected persons of the dance club cluster came from what you call high-class places, yet they were also subject to quarantine. There could not be any differentiated treatment, and all of them were quarantined at Penny's Bay.

PRESIDENT (in Cantonese): Chief Executive, could you take one more question from another Member?

CHIEF EXECUTIVE (in Cantonese): Yes.

MR TOMMY CHEUNG (in Cantonese): President, I would like to thank the Chief Executive for saying just now that legislation will be enacted to introduce non-locally trained doctors. The Liberal Party has been striving for this for more than a decade. This is not only the demand of the Liberal Party. I believe it will also be welcome by the general public in Hong Kong. Nevertheless, we certainly understand that a small group of local doctors will LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ― 4 February 2021 3723 instigate opposition from many doctors' groups in order to protect their own interests and exclude others. I am glad to hear the Chief Executive say that some Members of the Executive Council will be engaged in the explanation work.

However, my question today is this. I am thankful to the Chief Executive for introducing the fourth round of the Anti-epidemic Fund for the catering industry two months ago. At that time, I questioned the Chief Secretary for Administration about the small amount of subsidy provided. He replied that subsidies for six months were provided in the last tranche of Employment Support Scheme ("ESS"), while subsidies for only one month is provided this time around, hence the amount is significantly reduced. However, it is already February. The Chief Executive said that evening dine-in services will not resume after the Lunar New Year, and the three scheduled premises will remain closed. Just now, I heard the Chief Executive say that she did not want to talk about the economic aspect, but the Chief Executive has the final say after all. Hence, may I ask the Chief Executive whether a third tranche of ESS will be considered? Many people are really in dire straits during the Lunar New Year. Even if they take out loans, they have to repay. How do they repay if the Government does not provide any subsidy? Should the subsidies for the catering sector under the fourth round of the Anti-epidemic Fund be increased?

CHIEF EXECUTIVE (in Cantonese): President, let me give a brief response because, as I have said earlier, I want the Government to give a comprehensive response later on. When preparing for ESS in March and April last year, no one expected that the epidemic would last so long and have such significant impact on the business sector, particularly certain industries. With hindsight, some people reckon that it was not well-directed enough. Instead of helping most industries, support should have been focused on the most seriously affected. Therefore, the third and fourth rounds of the Anti-epidemic Fund were more targeted. I would also like to take this opportunity to explain that, due to the pressure on public finance, that type of ESS will not be launched again. We should provide support in a more focused and targeted manner in response to public opinions, but I do not wish to talk about the further support here because we have to assess the overall financial situation before we know the areas in which support should be provided. The most important thing is to resume activities as soon as possible. For that, we need the full cooperation of the industry and the public. In the process, I am grateful to the industries of which the premises were closed 3724 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ― 4 February 2021 by us. Their response was proactive and positive in general. They have taken the initiative to organize some groups and put forward additional anti-epidemic measures that they are willing to take so as to facilitate the resumption of business. I can tell everyone that these efforts will not be in vain. We will definitely consider the efforts made by the industries when the restrictions can be relaxed in the next stage.

MR TOMMY CHEUNG (in Cantonese): President, I will be quick. I do not want the Chief Executive to re-launch the previous two tranches of ESS. The scheme must be optimized. As a matter of fact, as the Liberal Party has expressed at the meeting with the Financial Secretary, businesses must return the money after making profits and should not be eligible for subsidies. However, our sector and the three scheduled industries, as well as the retail industry are really in dire straits now. If there is no further information as to when we can reopen or whether more funding will be allocated for ESS … Actually, the Exchange Fund has just announced an additional income of $190 billion. The Financial Secretary does have money. So, I hope the Chief Executive can examine these two issues expeditiously before the Lunar New Year: When we will be allowed to resume business and when more subsidies will be provided to help us get through the Lunar New Year.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE (in Cantonese): I will lead the SAR governing team to do our best in fighting the epidemic. I will also support the Budget for the coming year to be presented by the Financial Secretary after listening to the views of the public and Members in general.

PRESIDENT (in Cantonese): The Chief Executive's Question and Answer Session ends.

The Chief Executive now leaves the Chamber. Members stand up please.

(The Chief Executive left the Chamber)

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ― 4 February 2021 3725

NEXT MEETING

PRESIDENT (in Cantonese): Honourable Members, this is the last Council meeting before the Lunar New Year. I wish to extend my New Year wishes to you all. May everyone have an auspicious year of the Ox and good health. I also wish that Hong Kong will overcome the epidemic successfully, business will thrive and the situation will take a turn for the better in the year of the Ox.

I now adjourn the Council until 11:00 am on Wednesday, 24 February 2021.

Adjourned accordingly at 12:07 pm.