Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam delivers her annual policy address in Hong Kong on Oct 10, 2018. [Photo/VCG] Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, said on Wednesday that the government will fearlessly move in accordance with the law against acts that advocate Hong Kong independence. In summarizing this year's Policy Address to the Legislative Council, Lam emphasized the government's firm stance on national security. Lam said neither she nor the government will tolerate any advocacy of independence for Hong Kong or acts that threaten national security, sovereignty or development. She also announced an ambitious plan to greatly increase the city's land supply to address its housing issues. In discussing no fewer than 250 new initiatives this year, Lam mentioned housing 84 times, compared with 45 times a year ago, making it the most frequently used word in her speech. Land was brought up 71 times, more than double the 34 times last year. Lam made land supply and housing a separate section of her speech, placing it before economy and people's livelihoods. The purpose is to demonstrate clearly that the shortage of land not only directly leads to a shortage of housing, but also affects people's quality of life, she said. Leading Lam's plans was a reclamation project dubbed Lantau Tomorrow Vision. The new, long-term project aims to develop artificial islands with a total area of 1700 hectares east of Lantau Island. It is estimated it could provide residential units for 700,000 to 1.1 million people, with 70 percent being public housing, she said. The reclamation's study and design work will start soon, with the aim of starting the first phase in 2025. Lam said the SAR government will persevere in developing new land and building a land reserve. The determination will never waver in the face of short-term fluctuations in the economy or the rise and fall of property prices, she said. Lantau, the city's largest outlying island, which hosts Hong Kong International Airport, is seen as becoming a gateway to the world and other Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area cities after the commissioning of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. Also planned are development of brownfield sites and revitalization of industrial buildings. In addition, Lam unveiled other policies such as improving women's rights and innovation. The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, the largest city political party in the legislature, showed its support for land and housing measures. Starry Lee Waiking, the party chairwoman, said the speech responded to the public's expectations. The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce called the speech visionary in a way that will address the city's difficulties. The University Grants Committee, responsible for advising the SAR government on the funding and development of higher education, welcomed the new research initiatives. Yang Zekun contributed to this story. custom bar braceletcustom sports braceletscustom logo wristbandsde securite pour personne ageeembossed wristbandscolorfilled wristbandsembossed printed wristbandsdual layer wristbands
Employees of a clothing startup sell products online at an e-commerce incubator in Guangshan, Henan province, in June. SHENG PENG/FOR CHINA DAILY E-commerce is helping add value to homegrown products in an impoverished rural county and improving the lives of thousands of farmers. Zhou Furong used to grow flowers in Guangshan county, Henan province. Three years ago, the 40-year-old picked up the basics of running online shops at a free training session organized by the local government. She found the knowledge made all the difference. As soon as my flowers went online, they were soon sold out, she said. Later, Zhou began to help farmers sell their homegrown products to online shoppers craving organic foods. Organically raised chickens and their eggs, along with sweet potatoes and even their leaves, have been seeing strong sales, even at much higher prices. The price of sweet potatoes used to be 0.8 yuan (13 US cents) a kilogram, but now even their leaves sell for 6 yuan, she said, adding that many believe the leaves of sweet potatoes have cancer-fighting qualities. Receiving over 100 orders a day with daily sales surpassing 5,000 yuan, Zhou now heads a team of five who help villagers sell their goods. They are much more motivated after seeing my success, she said. Zhou and the impoverished families she helps are just some of the 30,000 engaged in e-commerce in the county, and many of them are beneficiaries of China's efforts to relieve poverty through online sales, a program that began in 2014. Since then, Guangshan has held more than 98 free training sessions on running online businesses. It set up e-commerce associations to facilitate better understanding of the platform and has offered subsidies to encourage more farmers to join in. The local government also set up businesses in impoverished villages, such as organic tea plantations and chicken farms, to ensure and diversify the product supply. Now, the county has more than 17,000 hectares of Maojian tea plantations and 20 tea-processing enterprises. According to the county government, the online sales volume of Guangshan reached 1 billion yuan in 2014, tripled two years later, and has since stabilized at around 3 billion yuan. On last year's Singles Day - the nation's largest online shopping day - Guangshan brought in 150 million yuan. Qiu Xueming, a county government official, said e-commerce has added value to farm products and created jobs for farmers, thus contributing greatly to the economy. E-commerce has no time limit for conducting business online. Anyone, regardless of age or gender, can access the online market via the internet, he said. [email protected]
