Skip to main content

Xu Bing named cultural ambassador

Secretary for Culture, Sports & Tourism Kevin Yeung has appointed Chinese contemporary artist Xu Bing as Ambassador for Cultural Promotion for about five years starting today.    As Ambassador for Cultural Promotion, Mr Xu will initiate a series of large-scale art projects in Hong Kong and nurture young talent to promote cultural development.   The Culture, Sports & Tourism Bureau said the appointment aims to extend the Ambassador for Cultural Promotion scheme to other fields of arts, after Chinese composer, musician and conductor Tan Dun became Hong Kong’s first Ambassador for Cultural Promotion last year.   Speaking at the appointment ceremony today, Mr Yeung said Mr Xu is widely recognised as one of the most innovative and influential Chinese contemporary artists.   The culture chief added that the Museum of Art collected one of Mr Xu's most well-known works A Book from the Sky, which contains both traditional and contemporary elements, just like Hong Kong

FS explains voucher, duty proposal

Financial Secretary Paul Chan today responded to questions concerning his 2021-22 Budget speech, such as the proposed consumption voucher scheme and increase in the stamp duty on stock transfers.   During a radio show this morning, the finance chief was asked if the Government would offer the public another option to receive cash instead.   Mr Chan stressed that the Government put forward the electronic voucher option after considering public views.   "On the consumption voucher (scheme), the idea is to try to encourage those spending in domestic shops within a short period of time. Over the past two days, we have been listening to views from members of the public.   "The policy consideration, in fact, this year is to try to use this money to help revive domestic consumption and the economy. That's why we chose to use consumption vouchers instead.   "Please do acknowledge that the scope of spending is very wide. People can use it to go to markets, to go to fast food shops. So there are indeed very few restrictions as to the use of this consumption voucher."   When responding to the question on why the Government decided to raise the stamp duty on stock transfers, Mr Chan said the decision is based on extensive research.   "For the stamp duty, we came to that conclusion with a very detailed assessment of the impact of this increase. On the one hand, in terms of competitiveness, we do think that (for) people investing in the Hong Kong market, if you look at the composition of the Hong Kong stock market in terms of the number of companies, over half (are) from the Mainland. In terms of market capitalisation, it is over 80%. In terms of daily turnover, it is over 90%.   "So people investing in this market are investing in the future of the Mainland economy. And with the Mainland economy rising up in the past decade, we have seen a trend of increasing asset allocation into this market. So if foreign institutional investors want to invest in Mainland stocks, Chinese stocks, Hong Kong or the Mainland is the major market that they can place their investments (in). And in that particular respect, we are a lot more competitive.   "So in terms of competitiveness, the increase in stamp duty won’t harm us."   He stressed there are other aspects which are more important to market development.   "In order to develop our market, maintain our international financial centre status, it is important to make ourselves more competitive in terms of product offering, in terms of liquidity.   "So what is important is to expand the product offering and expand the liquidity to attract more investors." 
http://dlvr.it/RtWY51

Popular posts from this blog

Legal officer changes proposed

The Government has proposed to amend the law to allow legal officers of the Department of Justice to be appointed as a senior counsel.   At a media session after attending a Legislative Council meeting today, Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng explained the rationale behind the Government's proposal.   She said: “Why is it that my colleagues in the Department of Justice - who by their qualifications are solicitors but are actually arguing very well and very efficiently with great eloquence and efficacy in the Court of Final Appeal - are not being recognised when they are actually even better than their counterparts? That has always been something that sometimes troubles me.   “And for that reason, I have always been thinking about how we are going to overcome that problem.   “Now, what really triggers my determination to take this further forward is when one of our Deputy Directors of Public Prosecutions, Vinci Lam, took silk on May 29.   “That really showed that the form

CE to meet Congo president

Chief Executive John Lee will meet Democratic Republic of Congo President FĂ©lix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo at Government House tomorrow, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government announced today.   The Congo president is in the People’s Republic of China for a state visit and will arrive in Hong Kong for a two-day trip. http://dlvr.it/Spnmcs

Skewed remarks about NSL rejected

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government today said it strongly disapproved of and firmly rejected the wanton slanders and smears concerning the implementation of “one country, two systems” and the National Security Law (NSL) in Hong Kong by certain US and UK politicians.   In a statement issued tonight, the Hong Kong SAR Government noted that such slanders and smears were recently made through a statement by certain members of the US Senate on the 26th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to the motherland and the third anniversary of the implementation of the NSL, and by the House of Commons of the UK Parliament through a debate on the aforesaid third anniversary.   It said it strongly disapproves of and firmly rejects the unfounded remarks and slanders by the US and UK politicians regarding the Hong Kong SAR where “one country, two systems” is successfully implemented.   It also strongly urges the politicians to immediately stop acting against the international law and