Submissions and Reports

The Chamber welcomes the opportunity to respond to the public consultation regarding the review of Statutory Minimum Wage rate. We recommend the Minimum Wage Commission to keep the Statutory Minimum Wage rate unchanged at the current level of $37.5 per hour in consideration of Hong Kong’s economic outlook and pressure facing by local businesses.

The Chamber has made a number of recommendations to the government on providing tax relief measures to further assist businesses that have been hard-hit by the effects of COVID-19. Although the government has rolled out two rounds of anti-epidemic relief measures, in addition to those announced in this year’s Budget, we believe more could be done in the area of taxation policy to help companies weather the severe economic downturn.

In response to an invitation by the LegCo Panel on Commerce and Industry to submit views on innovation and technology development and re-industrialization policy in Hong Kong, the Chamber has put forward a number of recommendations. These include, among other things, enhancing existing regulations and funding programmes, grooming local and attracting international talent, and creating synergies within the Greater Bay Area through a division of labour approach.

The Chamber welcomes the opportunity to comment on the HKEX’s proposed introduction of corporate WVR structures. Prior to committing our support for this proposal, we recommend that the HKEx provide further elaboration on the necessity for establishing such a regime as well as the effectiveness of investor safeguards raised in the consultation paper.

The Chamber has sent its proposals to the Financial Secretary Paul Chan for his upcoming Budget. We urge him to implement measures to help SMEs badly battered by the challenging business environment. We also recommend that the Government should give serious consideration to improving its policy-making process by making it more transparent and inclusive. Read the full report online.

The Chamber welcomes and appreciates opportunity to comment on measures to promote the use of electric vehicles (EVs) in Hong Kong. We believe Hong Kong should look to EVs as a viable means to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and play to our advantages with respect to the city’s size, compactness and developed infrastructure in popularising the use of EVs.

The Ministry of Finance of the People's Republic of China and the State Taxation Administration announced in November that it was seeking public opinion on the "Law of the People's Republic of China on Value-added Tax (Draft for Consultation)." The draft reduces the uncertainty in the current VAT law, and is a significant step in the reform of Chinese tax laws. The Chamber submitted a number of suggestions to the authorities on 20 December, after consolidating members’ opinions on the draft.

The aim of the “Regulations for the Implementation of the Foreign Investment Law” is to provide implementational details of the regulatory framework of the “Foreign Investment Law”. The “Regulations for the Implementation of the Foreign Investment Law” and the “Foreign Investment Law” will be in effect on 1 January 2020.

The Chamber welcomes and supports efforts by the Government to progressively tighten the Air Quality Objectives. We believe air pollution remains very much a public health challenge that needs to be addressed through more ambitious targets and closer collaboration among businesses, civil society and policy makers.