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The following is issued on behalf of the Business Facilitation Advisory Committee Secretariat:
The Business Facilitation Advisory Committee held its 15th meeting today (November 30).
The Administration briefed the committee on the major components of the Competition Bill.
The committee also reviewed the work of the three business facilitation task forces. Some notable progress/developments are:
(a) The Retail Task Force (RTF) has offered useful comments on the Administration's legislative proposals to enhance protection for consumers against unfair trade practices;
(b) The Administration is making steady progress in implementing relevant recommendations of the Review Committee on Regulation of Pharmaceutical Products in Hong Kong. The RTF welcomes the Administration's plan to conduct a Regulatory Impact Assessment on the proposed amendments to the Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance;
(c) The Administration has gazetted notices proposing the commencement of mandatory registration of proprietary Chinese medicine on December 3, 2010 and label and package insert requirements on December 1, 2011. The RTF appreciates that commencing these provisions will provide a legal basis for combating more effectively the selling of unregistered proprietary Chinese medicine and in turn contribute to a favourable and fair business environment;
(d) The Food Business Task Force (FBTF) is pleased that as a follow-up to the Review on Liquor Licensing, the Administration has recently rolled out a comprehensive Liquor Licence Processing System that allows the trade online submission of Liquor Licence and Club Liquor Licence applications, electronic payment of related licence fees, and online tracking of case status;
(e) The FBTF is pleased to note that the Administration has recently included prepackaged snacks and small tissue packs as sideline business in the permitted commodity list of small ice-cream vendors who were previously restricted to selling ice-cream and non-alcoholic bottled drinks only;
(f) To assist the trade in complying with the record-keeping requirements of the Food Safety Bill, the Administration will issue a Code of Practice on Record-Keeping Relating to Food. The FBTF has offered views on the draft Code of Practice;
(g) The Administration has recently briefed the Pre-construction Task Force (PCTF) on the full details of the package of new measures to foster a quality and sustainable built environment. As suggested by the PCTF, the Administration has undertaken to provide a clear definition of underground car parks in the revised practice notes;
(h) The Administration has addressed the major concerns of the PCTF about the Visual Impact Assessment in finalising the relevant Town Planning Board Guidelines, and clarified the criteria for evaluating the Visual Impact Assessment; and
(i) The PCTF is pleased that there is significant improvement in the processing time (on average over 50% reduction) in respect of lease modification and land exchange cases handled by the pilot dedicated team in the District Lands Office (Hong Kong West and South) (DLO/HKW&S), as well as premium assessments dealt with under a pilot scheme for centralising premium assessments at the Lands Department (LandsD) Headquarters for cases in DLO/HKW&S and District Lands Office (Kowloon West) and centralisation of premium assessments at the LandsD Headquarters for "high impact" cases.
The committee is pleased that the Administration sustains the work momentum of the "Be the Smart Regulator" Programme and that Hong Kong remains the second easiest place to do business in the world according to the World Bank's Doing Business 2011 Report. Some noteworthy progress/developments of the Programme are:
(a) The enhancement of the Central Licensing System of the Police Licensing Office will facilitate the processing of security personnel permit applications and help reduce the processing time for these applications from nine to six working days with effect from December 1, 2010;
(b) The launch of Phase I of the Food Import Control System in the Centre for Food Safety of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department enables traders to submit on-line applications for small volume exemption under the Nutrition Labelling Scheme and to report the monthly sales volume of the exempted products. The system also improves staff efficiency in processing exemption applications; and
(c) The Department of Health has recently launched Phase I of the Electronic Radiation Licensing System to enable paperless processing of applications for all radiation-related licences and services. The new system could bring about enhanced monitoring on radiation safety, convenience in payment for customers, and efficiency gain in processing of licence applications.
Papers for the committee meeting will be available at www.gov.hk/en/business/supportenterprises/bf/advisory/index.htm for public access.
Ends/Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Issued at HKT 17:33
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