Minutes of the 14th Meeting of the 5th Term Kowloon City District Council Date: 12 April 2018 (Thursday) Time: 2:30 p.m. Venue: Conference Room, Kowloon City District Office Present: Chairman: Mr PUN Kwok-wah, JP Vice-chairman: Mr CHO Wui-hung Members: Mr KWAN Ho-yeung, Roger The Hon LEE Wai-king, Starry, SBS, JP Mr YUE Chee-wing, Admond Mr YANG Wing-kit (Arrived at 2:43 p.m.) Mr YEUNG Chun-yu, Ronald Mr TING Kin-wa (Left at 6:16 p.m.) Mr HE Huahan Mr NG Po-keung (Arrived at 2:47 p.m.) (Left at 6:49 p.m.) Mr LUK King-kwong (Arrived at 3:57 p.m.) (Left at 6:39 p.m.) Dr the Hon LEUNG Mei-fun, Priscilla, (Arrived at 3:02 p.m.) SBS, JP (Left at 4:18 p.m.) Mr LAM Tak-shing Ir Dr CHENG Lee-ming Mr NG Fan-kam, Tony (Arrived at 2:37 p.m.) Ms LEUNG Yuen-ting (Arrived at 2:34 p.m.) Mr SIU Tin-hung, Terence Mr LAI Kwong-wai (Arrived at 2:37 p.m.) Mr SIU Leong-sing Dr KWONG Po-yin Mr LO Chiu-kit (Arrived at 2:40 p.m.) (Left at 6:14 p.m.) Ir CHEUNG Yan-hong, MH Mr HO Hin-ming, BBS, MH Mr LAM Pok, Jimmy 2 Secretary: Ms WONG Wing, Eva Senior Executive Officer (District Council), Kowloon City District Office In Attendance: Mr Franco KWOK, JP District Officer (Kowloon City) Miss SO Yi-ching, Venus Assistant District Officer (Kowloon City) Mr LAI Hau-yu, Philip Senior Liaison Officer (District Liaison)1, Kowloon City District Office Ms LAU Mei-yee, Helen Senior Liaison Officer (District Liaison)2, Kowloon City District Office Mr WONG Kam-keung, Eric Senior Liaison Officer (Building Management), Kowloon City District Office Ms KWOK Lai-kuen, Eva Senior Executive Officer (District Management), Kowloon City District Office Mr AU YEUNG Hoi Assistant Divisional Commander (Operations) (Kowloon City), Hong Kong Police Force Mr TANG Ping-hong Divisional Sergeant (Kowloon City), Hong Kong Police Force Ms LAI Mei-ling Chief Leisure Manager (Kowloon), Leisure and Cultural Services Department Mr TSOI Yuen-ming District Environmental Hygiene Superintendent (Kowloon City), Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Mr NG Leung-shui, Tommy Chief Transport Officer/Housing Project, Transport Department Mr LAU Ching-kwong, Senior Property Service Wallace Manager/Kowloon West and Sai Kung, Housing Department Mr MA Hon-ngai, Harry Chief Engineer/East 4, Civil Engineering and Development Department 3 Attendance by Invitation: Item 1 Mr CHAN Ka-shun, Carlson, Commissioner for Labour JP Miss YIM Lai Kwan, Cindy Senior Labour Officer (Employment Services) (Operation), Labour Department Item 3 Ms YIM Hau-wan, Evalina Regional Officer/Kowloon West, Independent Commission Against Corruption Ms LEUNG Ho-yee Senior Community Relations Officer, Independent Commission Against Corruption Item 4 Miss HO Tsz-ting, Agnes Assistant Secretary for Food & Health (Food)3, Food and Health Bureau Mr CHIU Yu-chow Assistant Director (Grade Management & Development), Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Mr LAI Chun-kwong Senior Superintendent (Operations) 3, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Item 5 Mr CHING Yiu-yuen Chief School Development Officer (Kowloon City), Education Bureau Item 8 Mr Franco KWOK, JP District Officer (Kowloon City) * * * The Chairman welcomed Members, representatives of government departments and attendees to the meeting of the Kowloon City District Council (KCDC). With regard to the permanent representatives of government departments, Ms LEE Nga-lai, Alice, District Commander (Kowloon City) of the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) and Mr TSE Chick-lam, Chief Manager of Property Management of the Housing Department (HD) could not attend the meeting due to other commitments and were stood in by Mr AU YEUNG Hoi and Mr Wallace LAU 4 respectively. 2. Before discussing the agenda items, the Chairman reminded Members to declare interests in accordance with the KCDC Standing Orders. He also said that when the number of Members present at the meeting was less than 12, he would adjourn the meeting according to Order 12(1) of the Standing Orders. Lastly, he reminded the attendees to turn off the ringers on their mobile phones or to switch the phones to vibration mode and to remain silent during the meeting to avoid causing disturbances. Meeting with the Commissioner for Labour 3. The Chairman welcomed Mr Carlson CHAN, JP, the Commissioner for Labour, to the meeting to brief Members on the work of the Labour Department (LD). 4. Mr Carlson CHAN, the Commissioner for Labour, briefly introduced LD’s work, with main points as follows: (i) Overall employment in Hong Kong 4.1.1 Due to the promising economic situation in Hong Kong in recent years, the labour market was tight and the unemployment rate kept declining. In February 2018, the unemployment rate stood at 2.9%, representing an unemployed population of 107 000 and an overall employed population of 3 870 000. The unemployment rate in Kowloon City District was similar to that in Hong Kong as a whole and the situation was satisfactory. (ii) Employment support 4.2.1 In 2017, LD helped more than 154 000 job seekers find a job and recorded more than 1 410 000 vacancies in private institutions. This showed that the current labour market stayed tight and there were relatively more job vacancies. 4.2.2 LD set up a total of 13 job centres in different districts. The Kowloon East Job Centre on the first floor of Trade and Industry Tower at No. 3 Concorde Road in Kowloon would serve the people in Kowloon City District. Nowadays, the majority of job seekers chose to find a job via LD’s 5 Interactive Employment Services or its mobile application rather than by visiting job centres in person. Besides, LD also set up Vacancy Search Terminals in various government departments and non-government organisations for people to search for information about job vacancies. People could find suitable job vacancies simply by touching the screens of the terminals and inputting their career orientation. 4.2.3 In the past, LD mainly served people at grass roots level, so the academic requirements of the relevant jobs were not high. In December 2016, LD launched Higher Education Employment Information e-Platform to provide employment related information and a job information web platform to job seekers with educational attainment at degree level, including Hong Kong students who were educated in tertiary institutes outside Hong Kong and the second generation of Hong Kong emigrants. 4.2.4 In 2017, LD held 18 large-scale job fairs, which provided 38 500 job vacancies and attracted nearly 30 000 job seekers. In the same year, LD’s job centres organised 946 district-based job fairs, among which 59 were organised in Kowloon East and more than 10 000 job vacancies were provided. 4.2.5 LD endeavoured to offer pre-job and on-the-job training to young people through the Youth Employment and Training Programme (YETP). It also set up two youth employment resource centres called Youth Employment Start in Kwai Fong and Mong Kok to provide pre-job career planning service to student youngsters as well as to provide support to young people who wished to work in a self-employed manner or to start their own business. (iii) Service for ethnic minorities 4.3.1 LD launched the Employment Services Ambassador Programme for Ethnic Minorities in September 2014, which employed YETP trainees who were able to speak the languages of ethnic minorities as employment services ambassadors at job centres. Besides, LD had also launched a pilot scheme in May 2017, under which two employment assistants who had a good command of the languages of ethnic minorities were employed and deployed at Kowloon West Job Centre in Sham Shui Po and Employment in 6 One-stop in Tin Shui Wai to provide employment services to minority job seekers. (iv) Subsidy schemes 4.4.1 Since the Work Incentive Transport Subsidy Scheme (WITS) was implemented in October 2011, more than 390 000 applications involving $1.76 billion from more than 120 000 applicants had been approved as at the end of February this year. In the 2018-19 Budget, the Government announced several one-off relief measures, including an initiative to provide a one-off extra allowance to recipients of WITS. Under the arrangement, recipients of WITS whose applications had been made in the Applicable Period, i.e. from the first day of the month in which the Appropriation Bill 2018 was passed to the date of passage of the Bill; and the six calendar months before that month, and eventually approved would be eligible for the one-off extra allowance. The extra allowance was equal to two times the average monthly amount payable to the recipients in their most recently approved WITS applications. 4.4.2 The Chief Executive’s 2017 Policy Address announced a series of enhancements to Low-income Working Family Allowance Scheme, which was renamed as Working Family Allowance (WFA) Scheme with effect from 1 April 2018. Upon the implementation of enhancements, it was expected that WFA Scheme would basically cover the applicants of household-based WITS. As such, household-based WITS would be abolished at the same time when the enhancements were implemented. Henceforth, eligible applicants might apply for WFA Scheme and/or individual-based WITS. (v) Statutory minimum wage (SMW) 4.5.1 the SMW rate was raised to $34.5 per hour with effect from May 2017. Since it was implemented in May 2011 and revised thrice afterwards, the overall employment market was stable and the unemployment rate stayed at a low level.