Wolfgang Dahmen, Felix Gruber and Olga Mula
Math. Comp. 89 (2020), 1605-1646.
Abstract, references and article information

Many startups in Britain either do not intend to or cannot access the government's Coronavirus Business Interruption and Loan Scheme, and may be forced to respond with furloughs or layoffs, warns a report

Cătălin I. Cârstea, Gen Nakamura and Lauri Oksanen
Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 373 (2020), 3423-3443.
Abstract, references and article information

Hilaf Hasson and Jeffrey Yelton
Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 373 (2020), 3009-3030.
Abstract, references and article information

A. G. Kukush and O. O. Chernova
Theor. Probability and Math. Statist. 99 (2020), 125-135.
Abstract, references and article information

C. Tintarev
St. Petersburg Math. J. 31 (2020), 421-434.
Abstract, references and article information

You don't need a backer to start a business. Here's how to start a business from scratch.

To counter our adverse economic conditions, I have unveiled four sets of relief measures since last August. Totalling some $25 billion, the funds are focused on supporting businesses and lightening the burden weighing on the people of Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, we will continue to reach out to the community. Through wide-ranging dialogue communication and the pursuit of policies that address the deep-seated issues at the heart of our divide, I am hopeful that together we will find a path to peace and prosperity.

From an economic perspective, there is reason for optimism. I am heartened by the confidence private equity investors have shown in us. In the third quarter of 2019, some 560 private equity companies here managed US$153 billion.

We have nearly 50 more private equity (PE) firms based here when compared with the previous quarter. Among the world's top 10 PE fund managers, nine have a presence here in Hong Kong. That, ladies and gentlemen, underlines Hong Kong's formidable strengths in the Asian PE market. In that we trail only Mainland.

By channelling capital into corporations and startups in the innovation and technology field, PE and VC (venture capital) funds may well become as important as banks and IPO markets one day.

This Government is determined to help unlock the vast potential of the asset and wealth management business, because we believe you are critical to ensuring Hong Kong's status as one of the world's leading financial centres.

Fund-service centre 

That is why we have been stepping up efforts to sharpen Hong Kong's competitive edge on asset and wealth management through a multi-pronged approach including: (a) diversifying our fund structures and streamlining the licensing process to encourage fund formation; (b) adopting a more user-friendly approach to attract family offices; (c) providing a more facilitative tax environment for funds; and (d) expanding our fund distribution network through deepening our mutual access arrangements with other major financial markets.

On fund structure, the long-awaited, limited-partnership fund regime is close to reality, thanks in part to your favourable feedback. Indeed, we are now developing the necessary legislation. Because of the current filibustering at the Legislative Council, the tabling of the legislation got a little delayed, but it remains our top policy priority for the rest of this year to put this forward.

We are confident that the new regime will attract PE and VC funds, and we count on your support for that. With the new regime in place, we aim to bring in as many offshore funds as possible onshore to Hong Kong. We are well positioned to capture the opportunity arising from what happened on the international front over tax base erosion. This is mutually beneficial to Hong Kong as a fund hub and also the PE industry at large as you search for a new home for the funds you manage.

PE and VC funds, whether onshore or offshore, have enjoyed a profits tax exemption since last April. A tax-exempt fund can invest in local and overseas private companies. Hong Kong, by now, has a tax regime at fund level that is competitive and caters to the needs of the PE industry. I fully understand that resolving the tax issues at fund level is not enough in itself. It is of even greater importance to tackle head-on the tax arrangement for investment managers. This is a hard nut to crack, but one that I am determined to look into and come up with solutions that will strengthen Hong Kong's position as a leading fund hub with one of the most competitive tax arrangements for investment managers in the PE industry.

The significance of the limited partnership fund regime in completing Hong Kong's fund manufacturing infrastructure is underpinned by its precursor - the open-ended fund company regime. Since its operation in July 2018, a number of open-ended fund companies have sprouted. The SFC (Securities & Futures Commission) is also looking into how to make the regime more business-friendly to facilitate the take-up.

In short, the Government and our regulators are committed to developing Hong Kong into a full-fledged fund-service centre.

We are equally intent on expanding our fund-distribution network. We continue to expand our Mutual Recognition of Funds arrangements. Last year, Luxembourg and the Netherlands joined existing partners, the Mainland, Switzerland, France and the United Kingdom. More international partnerships will follow.

Family offices
Hong Kong is also an ideal location for the establishment of family offices, and we are boosting our promotional efforts in this regard.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority and InvestHK will provide comprehensive services to attract family offices to Hong Kong. The SFC has also recently issued licensing guidance for PE firms and family offices. This will enhance clarity and would help address the industry's concerns.

Without a steady flow of talented professionals, of course, we will not be able to cash in on all the opportunities there for us. That is why the Government's Pilot Programme to Enhance Talent Training for the Asset & Wealth Management Sector has been supporting the industry since 2016.

I encourage you to offer exposure, opportunity and jobs for our youth. To give them a stake in the society through the programme.

Business bridge 

Zooming out a bit, the Government will continue to boost Hong Kong's singular advantage as the business and financial bridge between international markets and investors and their counterparts on the Mainland.

To that end, we continue to emphasise the established channels - our Stock Connects, Bond Connect and the Mutual Recognition of Funds arrangements. We will also strengthen our position as the global offshore Renminbi business hub.

Then there is the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Development, and the extraordinary opportunity that it presents to Hong Kong.

With a GDP in excess of US$1.6 trillion and more than 70 million prosperous consumers, the Greater Bay Area presents vast potential for the asset and wealth management sector. For each and every one of you. The establishment of a Greater Bay Area wealth-management connect scheme, which was, as you know, recently announced, will go a long way towards realising that promise.

Our regulators are working out the details with their counterparts on the Mainland, and we will keep you posted and we are determined to push that forward as soon as possible. 

Financial Secretary Paul Chan gave these remarks at the Asia Private Equity Forum 2020 on January 15.

The Financial Secretary just delivered the latest Budget on Wednesday. The Department of Justice would foster the policy initiatives relating to "Diversified Economy" and continue our ongoing works. The Inclusive Dispute Avoidance & Resolution Office (IDAR Office, email: idar@doj.gov.hk), which was set up in January last year, is to better co-ordinate and implement initiatives in the areas of dispute avoidance and resolution, thereby further consolidating our position as an international legal and dispute resolution services centre in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Department of Justice has always been actively striving for the presence of international dispute resolution bodies in Hong Kong in order to meet the upsurge in demand for legal and dispute resolution services arising from the Belt & Road Initiative and the Greater Bay Area Plan. Their presence in Hong Kong would also enhance our status as a leading centre for international legal and dispute resolution services. With the support of the Central People's Government, we are now exploring the possibility for the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization (AALCO) to establish a regional centre for international commercial arbitration in Hong Kong.

Last year, the inter-sessional meetings of the Judgments Project of the Hague Conference on Private International Law were successfully concluded in Hong Kong. This invaluable experience has reinforced our determination in looking for decision-making meetings of international and intergovernmental organisations to be held in Hong Kong, including hosting the 59th Annual Session of AALCO and an intersessional meeting of UNCITRAL's Working Group III this year. High ranking government officials and legal experts from member states would take part in these meetings to discuss matters such as maritime law and cyber space law.

In addition, we are committed to strengthening Hong Kong's status as a regional capacity building centre which seeks to enhance legal infrastructure in the neighbouring regions and facilitate cross-border mobility and business activities. For instance, the Department of Justice organised the Investment Law & Investor-State Mediator Training Course for two consecutive years since 2018. World-renowned trainers were invited to share with the participants their experience in international investment law and investor-state mediation. We would be stepping up our efforts in organising capacity building courses in dispute resolution.

At the same time, the Department of Justice has reached an agreement with the Hague Academy of International Law, one of the world's leading academic institutes on international law, to support them in organising law courses in Hong Kong regularly in collaboration with the Asian Academy of International Law from this year. We anticipate this cooperation would provide Hong Kong and the neighbouring regions with high quality training for legal professionals, which helps further raise our international profile.

Looking ahead, colleagues in the Department of Justice would keep pursuing co-operation or partnership agreements with other jurisdictions and international organisations and host important events in Hong Kong, with a view to raising the international profile of Hong Kong in deal-making and dispute resolution through overseas capacity building and promotional activities.

Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng wrote this article and posted it on her blog on March 1.

Maggie B. Covington
Aug 1, 2001; 14:
Articles

The Food & Environmental Hygiene Department announced that applications for the Catering Business (Social Distancing) Subsidy Scheme, under the second round of the Anti-epidemic Fund, will start from May 5.

The department said the scheme, which is estimated to benefit 16,000 catering outlets and their employees, will provide financial relief measures to the catering businesses which have been hard hit by the COVID-19 epidemic and social distancing measures.

It will provide subsidies ranging from $250,000 to $2,200,000 to eligible licence holders of general restaurants, light refreshment restaurants, marine restaurants and factory canteens in operation according to the floor area of the premises as specified on the licence.

The primary goal of the scheme is to support the payment of employees' salaries during a six-month period following application approval.

To provide immediate relief to the catering sector, the subsidy will be dished out upfront, in two tranches.

To avoid abuse, applicants should undertake that there will be no redundancy of staff for three months on receipt of the first tranche of subsidy and another three months on receipt of the second tranche.

They should also undertake that not less than 80% of the subsidies for respective months would be used to pay salaries of staff working at the premises.

Applicants should submit within a specified period a certificate issued by a Certified Public Accountant (practising) on its total staff salaries and total number of salaried staff for each of the months covered by the subsidy.

They should also submit a certificate issued by a CPA on its total staff salaries and total number of staff working at the premises for the month of March this year.

To avoid double benefits, applicants should declare that they have not and will not submit any application under the Employment Support Scheme.

Each catering outlet directed to close its licensed premises under the Prevention & Control of Disease (Requirements & Directions) (Business & Premises) Regulation, including karaoke establishments, nightclubs and bars or pubs, is eligible for a further one-off subsidy of $50,000.

Applications should be submitted to the department's District Environmental Hygiene Offices in person or by mail. Food licence holders can also submit their applications through the website.

The deadline for application is June 5.

Upon receipt of the completed application form and supporting documents and after verification, the disbursement of the first tranche of subsidies can generally be made in two to three weeks by crossed cheques to the corresponding licensed food premises.

"Driverless cars, robot butlers and reusable rockets--if the big inventions of the past decade and the artificial intelligence developed to create them have taught us anything, it's that maths is undeniably cool. And if you’re still not convinced, chances are you’ve never had it explained to you via a live experiment with a pigeon before. Temporary pigeon handler and queen of making numbers fun is Dr Hannah Fry, the host of this year's annual Royal Institution Christmas Lectures." Learn more in "Christmas Lectures presenter Dr Hannah Fry on pigeons, AI and the awesome power of maths," by Rachael Pells, inews, December 23, 2019.

Haploinsufficiency of Meis homeobox 2 (MEIS2), encoding a transcriptional regulator, is associated with human cleft palate, and Meis2 inactivation leads to abnormal palate development in mice, implicating MEIS2 functions in palate development. However, its functional mechanisms remain unknown. Here we observed widespread MEIS2 expression in the developing palate in mice. Wnt1Cre-mediated Meis2 inactivation in cranial neural crest cells led to a secondary palate cleft. Importantly, about half of the Wnt1Cre;Meis2f/f mice exhibited a submucous cleft, providing a model for studying palatal bone formation and patterning. Consistent with complete absence of palatal bones, the results from integrative analyses of MEIS2 by ChIP sequencing, RNA-Seq, and an assay for transposase-accessible chromatin sequencing identified key osteogenic genes regulated directly by MEIS2, indicating that it plays a fundamental role in palatal osteogenesis. De novo motif analysis uncovered that the MEIS2-bound regions are highly enriched in binding motifs for several key osteogenic transcription factors, particularly short stature homeobox 2 (SHOX2). Comparative ChIP sequencing analyses revealed genome-wide co-occupancy of MEIS2 and SHOX2 in addition to their colocalization in the developing palate and physical interaction, suggesting that SHOX2 and MEIS2 functionally interact. However, although SHOX2 was required for proper palatal bone formation and was a direct downstream target of MEIS2, Shox2 overexpression failed to rescue the palatal bone defects in a Meis2-mutant background. These results, together with the fact that Meis2 expression is associated with high osteogenic potential and required for chromatin accessibility of osteogenic genes, support a vital function of MEIS2 in setting up a ground state for palatal osteogenesis.

Fatty acid transport protein 2 (FATP2) is highly expressed in the liver, small intestine, and kidney, where it functions in both the transport of exogenous long-chain fatty acids and the activation of very-long-chain fatty acids. Here, using a murine model, we investigated the phenotypic impacts of deleting FATP2, followed by a transcriptomic analysis using unbiased RNA-Seq to identify concomitant changes in the liver transcriptome. WT and FATP2-null (Fatp2−/−) mice (5 weeks) were maintained on a standard chow diet for 6 weeks. The Fatp2−/− mice had reduced weight gain, lowered serum triglyceride, and increased serum cholesterol levels and attenuated dietary fatty acid absorption. Transcriptomic analysis of the liver revealed 258 differentially expressed genes in male Fatp2−/− mice and a total of 91 in female Fatp2−/− mice. These genes mapped to the following gene ontology categories: fatty acid degradation, peroxisome biogenesis, fatty acid synthesis, and retinol and arachidonic acid metabolism. Targeted RT-quantitative PCR verified the altered expression of selected genes. Of note, most of the genes with increased expression were known to be regulated by peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor α (PPARα), suggesting that FATP2 activity is linked to a PPARα-specific proximal ligand. Targeted metabolomic experiments in the Fatp2−/− liver revealed increases of total C16:0, C16:1, and C18:1 fatty acids; increases in lipoxin A4 and prostaglandin J2; and a decrease in 20-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid. We conclude that the expression of FATP2 in the liver broadly affects the metabolic landscape through PPARα, indicating that FATP2 provides an important role in liver lipid metabolism through its transport or activation activities.