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The following is issued on behalf of the Business Facilitation Advisory Committee Secretariat:
The Business Facilitation Advisory Committee held its seventh meeting today (February 25).
The committee was pleased that the Government is making good progress under the ¡°Be the Smart Regulator¡± Programme. Some noteworthy progress/developments include:
(a) The Government will extend the scope of its comprehensive licensing review to cover more business sectors with a view to further streamlining licensing processes and application procedures;
(b) Nine Business Liaison Groups (BLGs) for major business sectors have been set up. So far, through the BLG meetings, the trades have raised 322 regulatory/licensing issues, of which 226 have been clarified or resolved;
(c) Three Application Tracking Facilities (ATFs) set up for the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD), Home Affairs Department (HAD) and Social Welfare Department (SWD) are operating smoothly. FEHD¡¯s ATF covering 10 food business-related licences (i.e. General Restaurant Licence, Light Refreshment Restaurant Licence, Marine Restaurant Licence, Food Factory Licence, Bakery Licence, Factory Canteen Licence, Fresh Provision Shop Licence, Frozen Confections Factory Licence, Milk Factory Licence, and Siu Mei and Lo Mei Shop Licence) was opened up to applicants for their on-line checking of their application status on February 18, 2008. The ATFs for HAD and SWD will be opened up later this year. The ATFs help improve the efficiency and transparency of the licensing processes; and
(d) The Government has streamlined the licensing procedures for small-scale building construction projects (such as building a two-storey warehouse) by eight from 23 to 15, and shortened the processing time by 43 days from 155 to 112 days. The construction industry will benefit from this efficiency improvement measure.
The committee reviewed the work of the four business facilitation task forces. Some notable progress/developments include:
(a) As an initiative to expedite the processing of lease modification and land exchange applications as recommended in a consultancy study completed under the steering of the Pre-construction Task Force, the Government will launch a pilot scheme in April 2008 by setting up a dedicated team in the District Lands Office (Hong Kong West and South), and the Lands Department (LandsD) is monitoring more closely the progress of processing these types of applications. As part of this pilot scheme to be implemented in the District Lands Office (Hong Kong West and South), LandsD will experiment to see if premium assessments can be dealt with in a more centralised manner, in response to a recommendation of the Working Group on Review of Premium Valuation Process formed under the Pre-construction Task Force;
(b) As recommended by the Town Planning Task Force, the Government has implemented a range of measures to speed up the planning applications, planning appeals and plan making process. The Town Planning Task Force will be disbanded upon completion of its work programme. The Pre-construction Task Force will follow up any outstanding recommendations;
(c) The Food Business Task Force has completed two regulatory reviews, one on food factory licences and another on the transfer of food business licences. A number of recommendations has been developed to help remove unnecessary regulatory controls on food factories and to streamline the transfer process of all types of food business licences;
(d) The Retail Task Force will continue to facilitate the communication between the Department of Health and the trade in addressing issues in connection with the regulatory control of proprietary Chinese medicine;
(e) The committee was briefed of the Government¡¯s latest proposal on a nutrition labelling scheme for pre-packaged food in Hong Kong. The committee welcomed the efforts made by the Government to facilitate the trade. The committee appealed to the Administration to continue thrashing out the implementation details with the trade and refine the revised proposal as appropriate with a view to reducing the compliance costs to business and keeping the wide selection of food products available to consumers. The Retail Task Force will continue with its business facilitation work with the trade and the Government; and
(f) The committee generally supported the proposed Food Safety Bill, which is under public consultation. The committee urged the Administration to fully consult the trade and strive to reduce compliance costs on the trade in working out the implementation details.
Papers for the committee meeting will be uploaded onto the Internet (www.eabfu.gov.hk/en/committee/index.htm) for access by the public.
Ends/Monday, February 25, 2008
Issued at HKT 19:12
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