Independent Committee Begins Work on Wang Fuk Court Fire Relief and Support Efforts

Government announces updates on follow-up work on Tai Po fire

​The Independent Committee in relation to the fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po convened the first meeting today (December 19). The Committee has formally commenced work.

Moreover, the three task forces set up by the Government for the fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po - the Task Force on Investigation and Regulation, the Task Force on Emergency Support and Fund-Raising, and the Task Force on Emergency Accommodation Arrangements - are making full efforts to follow up on the support, relief, and investigation work related to the incident. Details are as follows:

Financial and welfare support

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For the Support Fund for Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po, established by the Government, donations received are about $3.5 billion as of noon today. With the start-up capital of $300 million from the Government, the fund's total has now reached around $3.8 billion. The fund will be used to assist residents in rebuilding their homes and providing long-term and sustained support.

The Government earlier announced that a living allowance from the Support Fund will be provided to each affected household, and the amount has been increased from $50,000 to $100,000. As of today, 1 929 cases have been processed. In addition, the Government will provide families of each deceased victim with a token of solidarity of $200,000, as well as $50,000 to cover funeral costs. As of today, a total of 144 cases have been processed. The allowance will be disbursed in phases.

Social workers from the Social Welfare Department (SWD) have been in contact with more than 1 980 affected households, providing the "one social worker per household" follow-up service to more than 4 900 residents. The SWD will maintain liaison with the affected households to provide all necessary assistance while fully supporting the relief work of the Government.

Accommodation support

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Currently, there is still a supply of more than 1 000 units that can provide affected residents with longer-term accommodation. The transitional housing and the Hong Kong Housing Society (HKHS) projects in different districts can altogether provide around 400 units at the moment. Moreover, Po Tin Interim Housing in Tuen Mun and Runway 1331 at Kai Tak can provide a supply of around 900 units.

As of this morning, a total of 613 residents are staying in hotel rooms through the co-ordination of the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau, and 552 residents are staying in youth hostels/camps. Another 3 503 residents are currently living in transitional housing units provided by the Housing Bureau, units from the HKHS or Po Tin Interim Housing in Tuen Mun.

The Transport Department (TD) has been steering public transport operators (PTOs) to enhance services of franchised buses, green minibuses and residents' services by deploying additional vehicles and manpower to support residents affected by the fire who have been admitted into transitional housing in various districts, facilitating transfers to other services to and from different districts. Among them, an additional shuttle bus service will be launched connecting Lok Sin Village in Tai Po and Tai Po Market Station; while KMB will extend the service hours of 75K. The TD will closely co-ordinate with operating organisations of transitional housing projects concerned and PTOs to cater for residents' commuting needs.

Relief supplies and donations

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Thesupplies donation online platform, established by the Government and the information technology sector, continues to operate, facilitating the registration of supplies donations from organisations and the public. The Government has so far received around 2 000 registrations, of which approximately 30 per cent were submitted by organisations, whereas the others were contributed by the public. The various registered donation items include food and beverages, clothing, daily necessities, bedding, and electrical appliances. The Government is actively assessing residents' actual needs through the relevant policy bureau, government departments, and service organisations for the matching of donated supplies in order to distribute appropriate items in phases to places in need. So far, over 29 000 donation items covering various categories have been distributed to different places. The matching and distribution of supplies will continue.

Regulation and inspection work

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The Buildings Department (BD) today issued a practice note (available in Chinese only) to registered contractors, setting out a new mechanism for sampling scaffold nets in Hong Kong announced last week. The new mechanism applies to scaffold nets used in repair projects, as well as to those used in new building works.

To facilitate the implementation of the new mechanism, the BD announced on its website the first batch of designated laboratories and will continuously update the list. Furthermore, the Construction Industry Council (CIC) is preparing for collective bulk procurement and coordinating testing services. The Hong Kong Institute of Construction San Tin Training Ground has been selected as the site for the industry to arrange off-site sampling. The Government and the CIC will work towards having the first batch of scaffold nets reinstalled within a month after procurement and testing.

Others

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The Government today invoked Section 31 of the Building Management Ordinance (Cap. 344) and submitted an application to the Lands Tribunal for the dissolution of the existing management committee of the owners' corporation (OC) of Wang Fuk Court. It has also proposed appointing Hop On Management Company Limited (Hop On) under the Chinachem Group as the designated administrator to assist the owners of Wang Fuk Court in handling various management and follow-up matters after the fire. If the Lands Tribunal approves the application, the Home Affairs Department will establish a dedicated team to work closely with Hop On in closely following up on various aspects of building management. This includes handling works contract, following up on insurance claims, financial management, and offering support to residents, etc. Hop On has explicitly stated that it will operate on a pro bono basis for this appointment. At the same time, Nina Wang Charity Management Limited has also expressed that if the Lands Tribunal approves the application, it will donate $5 million to the OC to cover the costs associated with employing lawyers, accountants, or other professional services.

Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po, Photo by Bastille Post

Hong Kong rises to world's fifth-largest trading entity in merchandise trade

According to the report "Global Trade Outlook and Statistics" published by World Trade Organization (WTO), Hong Kong ranked as the world's fifth-largest trading entity in merchandise trade in 2025, two places up from 2024. The total merchandise trade recorded a year-on-year increase of 17.5 per cent to US$1,585 billion, accounting for 3 per cent of the world's total.

The Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Algernon Yau, said today (April 2), "The WTO report fully demonstrated that despite the challenges brought about by geopolitics and trade protectionism in the past year, Hong Kong's external trade remained resilient and achieved an encouraging result, making the city the world's fifth-largest trading entity in merchandise trade after the Chinese Mainland, the United States, Germany and the Netherlands. If the European Union is taken as a single trading entity, Hong Kong ranks fourth."

Mr Yau noted that Hong Kong has long adopted free trade and firmly supports and has upheld the rules-based multilateral trading system to provide trading partners with a predictable and transparent market. In addition, leveraging the institutional advantages under the "one country, two systems" framework and the highly internationalised business environment, Hong Kong has become the most important and agile gateway for business and trade in the region.

"The report also showed that a series of measures carried out by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government(HKSARG) for promoting trade, including expanding economic and trade networks, stepping up efforts in attracting enterprises and investment, deepening ties with international markets, exploring emerging markets, enhancing support for small and medium-sized enterprises, and promoting Hong Kong's participation in the Belt and Road initiative and opening up the Mainland market, have achieved fruitful results, enabling Hong Kong to continue to play a pivotal role in international trade," Mr Yau added.

He said, "This year marks the beginning of the country's 15th Five-Year Plan and the HKSARG is also formulating Hong Kong's five-year plan to actively align with it. The 15th Five-Year Plan explicitly supports Hong Kong in better integrating into and serving the overall national development to further consolidate and enhance Hong Kong's status as an international trade centre, leveraging its unique advantages of being backed by the motherland and connected to the world. The HKSARG will continue to promote trade and focus on further assisting Mainland enterprises in going global through Hong Kong as a platform to explore new areas of economic growth in addition to strengthening the aforesaid measures, with a view to fulfilling our roles as a 'super connector' and a 'super value-adder'."

Riding on the good performance last year, merchandise exports continued to show strong performance in early 2026. In February 2026, the values of Hong Kong's total exports and imports of goods both recorded year-on-year increases, at 24.7 per cent and 29.9 per cent respectively. Taking January and February of 2026 together, the value of total exports of goods increased by 29.6 per cent over the same period in 2025. Concurrently, the value of imports of goods increased by 34.1 per cent.

According to the WTO report, Hong Kong ranked as the world's fifth-largest trading entity in merchandise trade in 2025. Hong Kong was the world's fifth-largest exporter and the sixth-largest importer of goods (both were three places up from 2024).

Globally, the world's top 10 merchandise traders in 2025 were basically the same as those in 2024. While the top four traders, namely the Chinese Mainland, the United States, Germany and the Netherlands, remained unchanged in ranking, Hong Kong moved two places up to the fifth position, followed by the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Italy and Mexico.

For commercial service trading, Hong Kong was the world's 22nd-largest commercial service trading entity in 2025. It was the world's 23rd-largest commercial services exporter and the 25th importer (both remained the same ranking as that in 2024). Hong Kong's total trade in commercial services amounted to US$211 billion in 2025, accounting for 1.2 per cent of the world's total and representing a 6.6 per cent increase from 2024.

The "Global Trade Outlook and Statistics" report is available at www.wto.org/english/res_e/reser_e/gots_e.htm.

Source: AI-found images