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Feb exports value down 0.8%

The value of Hong Kong’s total exports decreased to $284.1 billion in February, down 0.8% on the same month last year, the Census & Statistics Department announced today.   The value of imports of goods fell 1.8% to $325.7 billion for the same period.   A trade deficit of $41.7 billion, or 12.8% of the value of imports, was recorded in February.   Comparing the three-month period ending February with the preceding three months on a seasonally adjusted basis, the value of exports rose 5.5%, while that of imports also increased 3.3%.   The Government noted that taking the first two months of the year together to remove the volatility caused by the difference in timing of the Lunar New Year, the value of exports posted a 16.6% growth against a very low base of comparison a year ago.   Exports to the Mainland and the US rose notably, while those to the European Union fell. Those to other major Asian markets recorded a mixed performance.   Looking ahead, the Gove

Encourage staff to get vaccinated: CE

(To watch the full media session with sign language interpretation, click here.)   Enterprises should require employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 so that Hong Kong could build up a defence promptly to enable the Government to relax social distancing measures that will benefit businesses.   Chief Executive Carrie Lam made the statement ahead of today’s Executive Council meeting and stressed that raising the COVID-19 vaccination rate serves the interest of the business community.   “Encouraging, promoting or even urging enterprises and corporations to require their staff to (get) vaccinated (against COVID-19) is one of the strategies to raise the vaccination rate. I do not think we need to provide sort of tangible incentives for the private sector.   “It is to their own benefit to require their employees to be vaccinated so that Hong Kong could build up this defence as soon as possible to enable the Government to decide on more relaxations that they want to see - relaxations in the form of allowing more people or tourists to come in, relaxation in terms of the social distancing measures - so that they could do more business.   “So there is a common objective between the business world and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government to increase the vaccination rate.   “But if they want a very strong and clear message from the Government, I am now giving that very strong signal and message that they should move into the situation of requiring their employees to be vaccinated.”   Mrs Lam added that for employees who are unable to or refuse to get vaccinated, they should at least be required to produce a negative COVID-19 test result on a regular basis.
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