Thank you, President. I would like to speak on several aspects in this session.

To start with, I wish to talk about Halal-friendly certification. The Chief Executive has mentioned a brand new idea in the new Policy Address, which is to develop visitor sources from the Middle East and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (“ASEAN”). We strongly agree with this and believe that it can boost the tourism industry and related trades, including hotels, catering and retailing, thereby creating more business opportunities for all of us.

Early this year, as some of my company’s business involved Malaysia, we received some local officials and business people from Malaysia. We went to a Halal-certified restaurant, where we had to wait for more than an hour because the restaurant was small. At that time, the official suggested to us that we could introduce the Malaysian Halal certification to Hong Kong. I therefore called the Federation of Hong Kong Industries (“FHKI”), to which you, President, belong, because the Q-Mark certification scheme was also established by it.

I am grateful to FHKI for following up on this matter all the way. Although the Malaysian Halal certification may not be introduced, the Halal-friendly registration has almost been completed recently. When the work on this registration is completed, I will work with the Hong Kong Tourism Board to promote it to restaurants and hotels. I hope we can properly handle the related work on all fronts, such as food and food manufacturing, to do a good job in this regard.

Besides, on the education front, the Policy Address mentioned that Hong Kong’s post-secondary education is international and highly diversified. Hong Kong is acclaimed to be the only city with 5 universities in the world’s top 100. The Government’s new initiatives include increasing the admission quota of non-local students to Government-funded post-secondary institutions. Institutions can take into account their capacity to gradually accept more non-local students, especially those from the Belt and Road countries and the Mainland, and stand to expand capacity and enhance standard through their high-quality teaching and supporting facilities. The Liberal Party is glad to see developments in this regard, as this is our proposal. Besides, we believe that Hong Kong’s private or Government-aided traditional secondary schools with hostel places are at present absolutely in a position to admit non-local students at the senior secondary level. The targets include Mainland and overseas students, thereby allowing them to continue to stay in Hong Kong to study in universities after finishing secondary school. In the cases we have come across, many relatively affluent Mainland families have always hoped to send their children and grandchildren to Hong Kong’s secondary schools and then to universities.

Earlier, when I participated in a delegation visit to ASEAN countries with you, President, I met with some overseas Chinese and heard that they also hope that their next generation can return to Hong Kong to study. In fact, when I was in secondary school in the 1960s, there were many Thai Chinese who studied in our school and grew up together with me. In this regard, I think Hong Kong can make efforts not only at the university level.

There is another piece of good news in the education sector recently. According to the ranking of the world’s top 150 private schools in 2024 by Carfax Education, a British educational institution, five private secondary schools in Hong Kong have been listed, namely Diocesan Boys’ College, which is my alma mater, Diocesan Girls’ College, St. Paul’s Co-Educational College, Kellett School (Hong Kong) and Harrow International School Hong Kong. Suffice it to say that our secondary schools are attractive and have built up their own brand names.

In addition, I would like to talk about the reduction in red and white wine duty, as well as the reduction in liquor duty this time around. In fact, as we can see, in order to promote the liquor trade and boost the development of high value‑added industries including logistics and storage, tourism as well as high‑end food and beverage consumption, the Government has made reference to the successful experience of driving the red and white wine trade through exemption of red and white wine duty more than 20 years ago. With immediate effect, the duty rate for liquor with an import price of over $200 has been reduced from 100% to 10% for the portion above $200, while the duty rate for the portion of $200 and below remains unchanged.

Looking back, the duty on red and white wine was reduced in two stages, first from 80% to 40%, and then from 40% to 0%. This was proposed by the Liberal Party to the then Financial Secretary some 10 years ago, and the results have exceeded our expectations. The duty concession on liquor this time is also proposed by the Liberal Party. On the day when the Policy Address was delivered, I immediately appealed to the catering industry and the retail industry. Although their existing stock was purchased without a duty concession, so they appear to have purchased their stock at higher prices, I suggested to them that they reduce the selling prices of liquors immediately, i.e. reduce the selling prices of liquors in accordance with the relevant duty concession, rather than wait until the next batch of new stock is purchased at the new duty rate. This will benefit the public immediately, otherwise the public would think that the liquor duty reduction only benefits the traders and not the public. The immediate reduction in prices will also enable the new policy to deliver results in the short term and provide an incentive to encourage the Government to introduce further concessions.

Regarding tourism, the Policy Address has mentioned that the SAR Government has proposed to the Central Government further enhancements on Mainland residents’ tourism visit endorsements to Hong Kong, including resuming the “multiple‑entry” Individual Visit Endorsements for Shenzhen residents and expanding the coverage of pilot cities for implementing policies on the “one trip per week” Individual Visit Endorsements. The Central Government has advised that relevant departments are proactively studying the expedited implementation of the proposal.

The Liberal Party is pleased to see that the Government has taken on board our suggestion to reinstate the “multiple-entry” endorsements for eligible Shenzhen residents, and has proposed new measures such as cruise tourism, horse racing tourism, etc. As early as 2003, the Liberal Party was the first to suggest to the then Chief Executive that he should propose to the Central Government the introduction of the “multiple‑entry” Individual Visit Endorsements for residents of Mainland cities to visit Hong Kong in order to revive the local economy, which had been badly hit by the SARS epidemic. Subsequent developments have proved that our proposal was both feasible and effective.

Lastly, the Policy Address also mentioned that the Government will introduce support measures, including re‑launching the principal moratorium, to address the challenges encountered by small and medium enterprises during economic restructuring. The Liberal Party supports all these measures since the relevant measures are those we have been urging the SAR Government to implement all along.

With these remarks, President, I support the Motion of Thanks.