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The Executive Director's Statement to the 150th Meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives

In these unusual and tragic times, I am indeed grateful that we are able to connect virtually to continue the business of environmental governance. While the efforts of all your capitals are correctly focused on preventing human suffering, as parts of the world move slowly towards recovery, the environmental agenda remains one of our most powerful insurance policies in preventing future global pandemics like COVID-19.




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Report of the fifth meeting of the Compliance Committee now available.




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Report of the sixth meeting of the Compliance Committee now available.




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Summary Outcomes of the Fifth Meeting of the BCH Informal Advisory Committee (BCH IAC). The BCH IAC provides guidance regarding the technical issues associated with the ongoing development of the BCH.




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Report of the eighth meeting of the Compliance Committee




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Report of the ninth meeting of the Compliance Committee under the Cartagena Protocol




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The Report of the Compliance Committee under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety on the Work of Its Tenth Meeting is now available.




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The summary outcomes of of the ninth meeting of the Informal Advisory Committee on the Biosafety Clearing-House is now available.




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The report of the twelfth meeting of the Compliance Committee under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is now available.




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The report of the fourteenth meeting of the Compliance Committee under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is now available.




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CBD News: Statement by Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity to the Second Committee at the Sixty-Third Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, New York, 27 October 2008.




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CBD News: Statement by the Executive Secretary, Dr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, at the 28th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention, Strasbourg, France, 24 November 2008.




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CBD News: Statement by Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary, at the Meeting of Steering Committee Global Form on Oceans, Coasts and Islands, Washington DC, USA, 5 - 6 February 2009.




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CBD News: The President of the Conference of the Parties and Executive Secretary Congratulate Countries that Have Submitted on Time Their Fourth National Reports and Urge all Parties to Meet Their Reporting Obligations Under the Convention




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CBD News: Statement by Mr Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, on the occasion of Asia-Europe Environment Forum 7th Roundtable Panel Discussion on Asia and Europe - Committed to Conserving Ecosystem Services for P




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CBD News: Statement by Mr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, on the occasion of the Aichi-Nagoya COP 10 Promotion Committee Symposium, 11 October 2009, Nagoya, Japan.




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CBD News: Statement by Mr Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, on the occasion of the First Meeting of the Steering Committee for South-South Cooperation on Biodiversity, Montreal, 29 October 2009.




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CBD News: Statement by Mr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, to the Second Committee of the General Assembly of the United Nations at Its Sixty-Fourth Session, New York, 3 November 2009.




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CBD News: Statement by Mr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, on the occasion of the Twenty-Ninth Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats




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CBD News: Statement by Mr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, on the occasion of the Inaugural Meeting of the Local Action for Biodiversity (LAB) Advisory Committee, 24 March 2010, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.




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CBD News: Draft decision submitted by the President of the General Assembly - High-level meetings of the General Assembly in September 2010




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CBD News: Statement by Ahmed Djoghlaf, CBD Executive Secretary,on the occasion of the 65th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Second Committee, New York, 1 November 2010.




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CBD Notification: Report of the Second Committee of the United Nations General Assembly. Sustainable development: report of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme on its eleventh special session.




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CBD Notification: Report of the Second Committee of the United Nations General Assembly. Sustainable development: Convention on Biological Diversity.




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CBD News: Statement by Mr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, CBD Executive Secretary, on the occasion of the Meeting of the Second Standing Committee of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, 17 April 2011, Panama City, Panama




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CBD News: Statement by Mr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, CBD Executive, on the occasion of the first meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Nagoya Protocol on access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits arising from their util




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CBD News: In conjunction with the 61st meeting of the Standing Committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the Government of Switzerland, in partnership with the Japanese presidency of the tent




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CBD Communiqué: Partnership forged between Japan Committee for the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity




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CBD News: Statement by Mr. Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, CBD Executive Secretary, on the occasion of the Second Meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee of the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefi




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CBD News: In preparation of a major international biodiversity conference in October 2014, Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are currently submitting their fifth national reports that will enable a global assessment of progress made




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CBD News: The Convention on Biological Diversity closed the 12th meeting of the Conference of the Parties today with Governments committing to step up actions to achieve, by the end of the decade, the Aichi Biodiversity Targets agreed four years ago, and




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CBD News: Message of the CBD Executive Secretary, Mr. Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, on the occasion of the 6th Meeting of the MEA Information and Knowledge Management Steering Committee, 15 to 17 September 2015 - Montreux, Switzerland




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CBD News: It is a great pleasure to welcome you all to Montreal for this inaugural meeting of the Compliance Committee under the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization.




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CBD News: One hundred and one Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) have submitted new national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs), setting out their national contributions to the achievement of the Aichi Biodiversity Tar




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CBD News: Montreal/Rome, 9 August 2016 - The 23rd session of the Committee on Forestry (COFO23), which took place in Rome, Italy 18-22 July 2016, took an effective approach that focused on the interlinkages between forest and other sectors and issues, in




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CBD News: I am honoured to address the second committee of the UN General Assembly under your chairmanship.




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CBD News: Statement of the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity on the occasion of the Fifty-Second Session of the International Tropical Timber Council and Associated Sessions of the Committees, 10 November 2016, Yokohama, Japan




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CBD News: Ministers from around the world committed to working together to save biodiversity and take urgent action to achieve the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, and backed this with a host of specific commitments.




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CBD News: Statement by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity on behalf of the Executive Secretary at the 4th Session of the Preparatory Committee established by General Assembly resolution 69/292, New York, United States of America, 10




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CBD News: African Ministers of Environment together with partner organizations committed to an ambitious action agenda taking a coherent approach to addressing the interlinked challenges of biodiversity loss, land degradation and climate change.




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Submitting

Recently, I have been re-reading Michel Houellebecq’s 2015 novel Submission. It’s about a hedonistic literature professor who sleeps with his students, has the diet of a frat boy, and occasionally does “work” researching an obscure (at least, to me) 19th-century … Continue reading




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Anti-epidemic fund committee meets

Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung today chaired the fourth meeting of the Anti-epidemic Fund Steering Committee, during which the funding commitment for 33 measures under the second-round of the fund was approved.

 

The Legislative Council Finance Committee last Saturday approved a funding application of $137.5 billion, including an injection of $120.5 billion to the Anti-epidemic Fund to roll out the second round of measures to provide further assistance or relief to the public and enterprises hard hit by the current epidemic or affected by anti-epidemic measures.

 

Mr Cheung said: "The pandemic has caused an unprecedented impact on Hong Kong's economy and various sectors have been hard hit.

 

“The Government will take resolute and unprecedented measures to expeditiously relieve the imminent needs of the businesses and members of the public.

 

"To provide assistance and relief to relevant enterprises and members of the public as soon as possible, I have asked the bureaus and departments to implement the measures at full steam to address the pressing needs of the community promptly and achieve the effect of safeguarding jobs and supporting enterprises."

 

Separately, the Education Bureau said the Finance Committee’s approval of the funding application for the second round of the fund and other relief measures included a one-off interest-free deferral of loan repayment for two years to self-financing post-secondary institutions under the Start-up Loan Scheme, non-profit-making international schools and student loan repayers.

 

All borrowers of the Tertiary Student Finance Scheme - Publicly-funded Programmes, Financial Assistance Scheme for Post-secondary Students, Non-means-tested Loan Scheme for Full-time Tertiary Students, Non-means-tested Loan Scheme for Post-secondary Students and Extended Non-means-tested Loan Scheme will be offered an interest-free deferral of loan repayment from April 1 this year to March 31, 2022, including their loan instalments and interests.

 

The annual administrative fee of $180 charged on the non-means-tested loan repayers during the suspension period will be waived. The risk-adjusted-factor rate for setting the interest rate will also be maintained at zero.

 

Additionally, support for the construction sector will be enhanced.

 

The Development Bureau today said a one-off subsidy of $7,500 will be offered to each eligible construction worker.

 

More than 530,000 workers will benefit from the subsidy, including workers of construction sites as well as those registered under the Electrical & Mechanical Services Department, the Buildings Department, the Water Supplies Department and the Fire Services Department.

 

At the same time, a one-off subsidy will be provided to 30,000 construction-related enterprises, generally small-scaled, which cannot benefit from the first round of the Anti-epidemic Fund.

 

Each eligible contractor, specialist contractor, works contractor and supplier can receive a one-off subsidy of $20,000, while minor works contractors, registered contractors of electrical, gas, lift, escalator and fire service installation along with suppliers of construction-related machinery and equipment rental can receive $10,000 each.

 

About 600 consultant firms offering engineering, architectural and related professional services will receive a subsidy of $50,000 each to support professionals in the sector.

 

The Government will also provide a direct subsidy of $3 million to each non-profit-making organisation running the 10 projects under the Revitalising Historic Buildings Through Partnership Scheme, PMQ and the Energizing Kowloon East - Fly the Flyover Operation.




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Gov't committed to labour rights

The Government said it will continue to spare no effort in improving workers' benefits and protection and enhance occupational safety and health in various industries at a pace commensurate with Hong Kong's overall socio-economic development.

 

The Government made the statement today in response to the demands of different labour groups, noting that it would take into account both employees' interests and employers' abilities to afford the benefits, despite the severe blow dealt by the COVID-19 epidemic to the local economy.

 

"The seasonally adjusted unemployment and underemployment rates for January to March this year have soared to their highest levels in recent years. The labour market will continue to face significant pressure in the near term.

 

“The Government has rolled out relief measures of unprecedented scale, including the one-off measures in the 2020-21 Budget and two rounds of measures under the Anti-epidemic Fund (AEF) totalling $287.5 billion, with a view to preserving the vitality of the economy and relieving people's financial burden.

 

“The Government will launch as soon as possible the Employment Support Scheme under the second round of the AEF, with a total commitment of $81 billion, to provide time-limited financial support to employers to help them retain employees who will otherwise be made redundant.”

 

Moreover, the Government explained that it has earmarked $6 billion to create around 30,000 time-limited jobs in the public and private sectors in the coming two years for people with different skills and academic qualifications.

 

It emphasised that the Labour Department will raise the ceiling of on-the-job training allowance payable to employers under the Employment Programme for the Elderly & Middle-aged, the Youth Employment & Training Programme and the Work Orientation & Placement Scheme in the second half of this year.

 

It will also launch a pilot scheme to encourage eligible participants of these programmes to undergo and complete the training by offering a retention allowance.

 

On improvements to other labour benefits, the Government pointed out that it is working at full steam on the preparatory work to abolish the arrangement of 'offsetting' severance payments and long service payments with employers' mandatory contributions under the Mandatory Provident Fund System.

 

It stressed that it will strive to introduce the enabling bill into the Legislative Council by the end of this year, aiming to secure its passage by 2022.

 

Meanwhile, the Government introduced the Employment (Amendment) Bill 2019 into LegCo on January 8 this year. The bill, which proposes to extend statutory maternity leave by four weeks, is now being handled by the LegCo Panel on Manpower.

 

The Chief Executive announced on January 14 this year 10 new initiatives on improving people's livelihood, one of which is to increase progressively the number of statutory holidays so that it will be on par with that of general holidays.

 

The Government stated that it will work out the relevant proposal, invite the Labour Advisory Board to discuss, and will facilitate and support its work.

 

The Minimum Wage Commission is conducting a new round of review on the Statutory Minimum Wage rate and will submit a report on its recommendation to the Chief Executive in Council by end-October.

 

The Government added that it attaches great importance to employees' occupational safety and health.

 

It said the Labour Department has been adjusting its strategies of inspection and enforcement, publicity and promotion, education and training according to the occupational safety and health risk levels of different industries as well as taking sufficient precautionary measures to prevent accidents by driving employers and employees to work together.




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House Committee status explained

(To watch the full media session with sign language interpretation, click here.)

  

Chief Executive Carrie Lam today said the prevailing chairwoman of the Legislative Council House Committee should have the responsibility and power to deal with the matters of the committee.

 

Mrs Lam made the statement ahead of the Executive Council meeting this morning, noting LegCo President Andrew Leung had sought advice from outside senior counsel on how to address the delay in electing the committee’s chairman.

 

She said the senior counsels have observed that many of the matters raised in the House Committee’s meetings by the presiding member in the past six months have been irrelevant to the purpose of electing the committee’s chairman and vice-chairman.

 

“The second point that the senior counsels have observed during their very detailed scrutiny of the deliberations is that there was at least one occasion on March 13 in the House Committee meeting that gave people a very clear impression that the delaying of the election by the presiding member of the House Committee was quite deliberate and deliberate for political reasons.

 

“And the third thing that I observed from the senior counsels’ advice is, having regard to all these circumstances, they are of the firm view - this is the word taken from the senior counsels’ statement - that the prevailing chairwoman of the House Committee should have the responsibility and the power to deal with the business of the House Committee.”

 

The Chief Executive added that she expects the committee’s prevailing chairwoman Starry Lee to exercise her power.




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Anti-epidemic fund committee meets

Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung today chaired the Anti-epidemic Fund Steering Committee's fifth meeting to examine the implementation progress of the host of measures launched under the fund.

 

The committee noted the details of over 20 second-round relief measures have been announced since the Legislative Council Finance Committee approved the $120.5 billion injection to the fund on April 18.

 

Other measures will be launched as soon as possible to provide timely relief to the affected sectors and individuals. 

 

The committee also noted that the fund has paid out over $13 billion, and many businesses and members of the public have gradually received subsidies.

 

Mr Cheung said the measures aim to preserve employment and assist the self-employed, provide additional relief to those sectors hard hit by the pandemic and pave the way for the post-pandemic economic recovery. 

 

“We will continue to process applications and disburse subsidies as soon as possible to help businesses and members of the public tackle the challenges caused by the pandemic and to support enterprises, safeguard jobs and relieve people’s burden," he stressed. 

 

For the Retail Sector Subsidy Scheme which provides a one-off subsidy of $80,000 to eligible retailers, about 93,000 applications were received.

 

The committee was pleased to note that the scheme has been disbursing subsidies progressively and over $2.7 billion in subsidies have been approved so far, involving about 33,000 applications.




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Land advisory committee meets

The Development Bureau today briefed the Land & Development Advisory Committee on the major recommendations of the Planning & Urban Design Review for Developments at Kai Tak Runway Tip (KTRT).

 

Members noted the planning objectives, design principles and key study recommendations for the KTRT developments, including the existing and planned public open spaces as well as the Tourism Node site included in the 2020-21 Land Sale Programme.

 

They generally supported the recommendations of the KTRT study and provided comments on various aspects, such as ways to attract people to KTRT, the connectivity to and within the area, and promotion of healthy city and kid-friendly concepts.

 

The committee was also briefed on the proposed two-envelope tender arrangement, which refers to evaluation of both design and price proposals, for disposal of Site 3 of the New Central Harbourfront.

 

With a total area of 4.75 hectares, the site will comprise a commercial development in separate blocks mainly for office and retail, with a total gross floor area not exceeding 150,000 sq m, to be built alongside a spacious public open space of no less than 25,000 sq m to be opened round-the-clock.

 

There will be a continuous landscaped deck spanning across the site in a north-south direction, allowing visitors to walk all the way from the hinterland of the Central Business District to the harbourfront.

 

While noting that the two-envelope approach was rather unconventional for government land sale, members agreed that the approach would allow both quality and price considerations to be taken into account, and the setting of a reserve price would ensure reasonable protection to public revenue.




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Revamp of Committee on Self-financing Post-secondary Education announced




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Appointments to Quality Education Fund Steering Committee




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SED's opening remarks at LegCo Finance Committee special meeting




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Appointment of new member to Advisory Committee on Gifted Education