SJ to lead government officials to attend joint conference on Belt and Road Initiative in Beijing
The Secretary for Justice, Mr Paul Lam, SC, in his capacity as the chair of the sub-group on Belt and Road development under the Steering Group on Integration into National Development, will lead Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government officials, including the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Algernon Yau, and the Under Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Joseph Chan, to depart for Beijing tomorrow (July 23) to attend the ninth Joint Conference on Advancing Hong Kong's Full Participation in and Contribution to the Belt and Road Initiative to be held on Friday morning (July 24).
Mr Lam will return to Hong Kong on the afternoon of July 24. During Mr Lam's absence, the Deputy Secretary for Justice, Dr Cheung Kwok-kwan, will be the Acting Secretary for Justice. During Mr Yau's absence, the Under Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Dr Bernard Chan, will be the Acting Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development.
The Secretary for Justice, Mr Paul Lam, SC, Photo source: reference image
Hong Kong Customs steps up enforcement operations to combat sea smuggling activities
Hong Kong Customs has mounted a special enforcement operation since late June against sea smuggling activities involving river trade vessels.
Since the operation began, through intelligence analysis and risk assessment, Customs has detected five cases involving river trade vessels departing from Hong Kong for Macao, seizing approximately 1.33 million suspected pharmaceutical products, 3 900 anti-obesity injections, 8 880 cosmetics injections, 59 kilograms of tobacco products, 9 700 cigarettes, 1 500 fishing tools and 723kg of suspected controlled sea cucumber, with an estimated value of about $87.5 million.
Investigations are ongoing. The likelihood of arrests is not ruled out.
Being a government department primarily responsible for tackling smuggling activities, Customs has long been combating various smuggling activities on all fronts. Customs will keep up its enforcement action and continue to resolutely combat sea smuggling activities through proactive risk management and intelligence-based enforcement strategies, and carry out targeted anti-smuggling operations at suitable times to crack down on relevant crimes.
Smuggling is a serious offence. Under the Import and Export Ordinance, any person found guilty of importing or exporting unmanifested cargo is liable upon conviction to a maximum fine of $2 million and imprisonment for seven years. Any person who imports pharmaceutical products and medicines without a valid import licence commits an offence. The maximum penalty upon conviction is a fine of $500,000 and imprisonment for two years.
Members of the public may report any suspected smuggling activities to Customs' 24-hour hotline 182 8080 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk) or online form (eform.cefs.gov.hk/form/ced002).
Hong Kong Customs steps up enforcement operations to combat sea smuggling activities Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
