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The following is issued on behalf of the Business Facilitation Advisory Committee Secretariat:
The Financial Secretary has appointed 15 non-official members to the Business Facilitation Advisory Committee, which will be chaired by Mr Anthony Nightingale with Legislative Councillor the Hon Emily Lau as deputy chairman. The non-official members include businessmen, academics, professionals and LegCo members. The seven official members are drawn from relevant bureaus. The full list of members is at the Annex. The committee will hold its first meeting on Tuesday (February 14).
The terms of reference for the committee are:
* Advise and report to the Financial Secretary the development and implementation of programmes and measures to facilitate business;
* Develop and oversee a programme to review government regulations and procedures impacting on business, with the aims of eliminating outdated or burdensome regulations on business, enhancing the quality of delivery and business-friendliness of government services to facilitate business operations and development, and reducing regulatory impact and compliance cost to the business sector;
* Set up and steer task forces to take forward the regulatory reviews or other business facilitation initiatives; and
* Examine other relevant areas to facilitate business as appropriate.
The committee is set up to take forward the business facilitation efforts of the former Economic and Employment Council and will provide steering for the work of four task forces, namely, Pre-construction Task Force, Task Force to Review the Construction Stage of the Development Process, Town Planning Task Force and Retail Task Force.
The Economic Analysis and Business Facilitation Unit under the Financial Secretary's Office will provide secretariat and other executive support to the committee.
Ends/Saturday, February 11, 2006
Issued at HKT 12:10
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