No surprise for InnoTech minister post; Pro-reform staff members elected into HKU Council; Appointments to HKMA and protest appeal board.
No surprise for InnoTech minister post
Nicholas Yang was finally appointed as Secretary for Innovation and Technology. The Commerce and Economic Development Bureau (CEDB)’s Innovation and Technology Commission and Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) will put under the realm of the new bureau. The Communications and Creative Industries Branch (CCIB), meanwhile, will remain as part of CEDB’s portfolio.
Yang will no longer serve as Advisor to the Chief Executive on Innovation and Technology, but will still chair the Advisory Committee on Innovation & Technology.
His deputy was yet to be named.
Pro-reform staff members elected into HKU Council
Three teaching staff members were elected to the HKU Council, namely Professor Joseph Chan (陳祖為) of the Department of Politics and Public Administration, Head of the School of Humanities and Professor in the Department of Philosophy Timothy E. O’Leary, and the incumbent Dr Cheung Kie-chung (張祺忠), Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The term will be from December 2015 to 2018.
Chan is also chairman of the University’s Common Core Curriculum Committee and a member of the University’s Steering Committee on the four-year undergraduate curriculum.
All three academics reportedly back reform of the troubled Council, while Chan said there was a “consensus” within the campus that Council member Arthur Li is not an appropriate candidate to claim the council chairman post.
Appointments to HKMA and Appeal Board on Public Meetings and Processions
The Government approved the appointments of Howard Lee (李達志), Raymond Li (李令翔) as Senior Executive Directors and Raymond Chan (陳景宏) as Executive Director of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) with effect from February 26, 2016, and Li Shu-pui (李樹培) as Executive Director with effect from August 7, 2016.
Howard Lee joined the HKMA in 2009 and assumed his current position as Executive Director (Monetary Management) in 2013. He will replace the retiring Peter Pang (彭醒棠).
Raymond Li was the Principal Assistant Secretary with the former Monetary Affairs Branch of the government before joining the HKMA in 1993. Li is also CEO of the Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation Limited since 2013.
Raymond Chan will succeed Henry Cheng (鄭發) as Executive Director (Banking Supervision) as Cheng takes over Howard Lee’s current post as Executive Director (Monetary Management)
Li Shu-pui will succeed the retiring Esmond Lee (李建英) as Executive Director (Financial Infrastructure).
The Government also announced the appointments of Pang Kin-kee (彭鍵基) and Nicholas Chan Hiu-fung (陳曉峰) as Chairman and member of the Appeal Board on Public Meetings and Processions respectively with effect from December 2015.
Pang Kin-kee is a retired Judge of the Court of First Instance of the High Court and is current chairman of the Steering Committee on the Provision of Legal Advice for Litigants in Person, president of Long-term Prison Sentences Review Board, and member of Torture Claims Appeal Board. Back in 2011, Pang put himself in the middle of a legal scandal by mistakenly rejecting a court appeal seven months after verbally approving it in the court.
Chan is a practicing lawyer of the High Court and is a member of the Buildings Appeal Tribunal Panel, Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal Panel, Obscene and Indecent Articles Panel of Adjudicators, Passports Appeal Board, Immigration Tribunal, and the Fishermen Claims Appeal Board (Trawl Ban).
