ENG-2015 — Page 19

Calendar of Events

2015

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8

13

21

22

The Chief Executive officially opens the HKSAR Government's Economic and Trade Office in Wuhan. The office covers five provinces in the Mainland's central region: Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi and Shanxi.

The Central People's Government will, with immediate effect, replace multiple-entry Individual Visit Endorsements for permanent residents of Shenzhen travelling to Hong Kong with one-trip-per-week Individual Visit Endorsements, following concerns raised about parallel-goods trading and Hong Kong's capacity to cope with an increasing number of visiting Mainland residents.

Hong Kong's snooker player Ng On-yee wins the World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Championship in Leeds, England.

The government releases its proposal for selecting the Chief Executive by universal suffrage. Among the main elements is a two-stage nominating process that would accept five to 10 initial nominees, from which a 1,200-member Nominating Committee that is modelled after the existing Election Committee would choose two or three candidates. All five million electors may then cast their votes on the shortlisted candidates in a one-person-one-vote, first-past-the-post system.

May

1

4

12

28

The statutory minimum wage is raised from $30 to $32.50 per hour.

A pilot admission scheme is launched to attract the second generation of Chinese Hong Kong permanent residents who have emigrated overseas to return to Hong Kong.

The government announces the Chief Executive in Council's decision to renew Television Broadcasts Limited's free-television licence for 12 years with effect from 1 December 2015.

The Chief Executive and the Governor of Guangdong Province, Mr Zhu Xiaodan, attend a ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of the Dongjiang supplying water to Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is ranked the world's second most competitive economy, up from fourth in 2014 and behind only the United States, according to the International institute for Management Development's World Competitiveness Yearbook 2015.

June

1

2

5

9

The retirement age for new recruits appointed to the civil service from this day is raised to 65 for civilian grades, and to 60 for disciplined services grades.

The government notifies the Legislative Council that it will move a motion at a 17 June legislative meeting on an amendment to the method for selecting the Chief Executive. The motion is the same as that set out in the government's proposal published on 22 April.

The three-day Hong Kong Ladies Open Golf Championship begins, the first world- class ladies professional open tournament staged in Hong Kong.

The government issues a Red Outbound Travel Alert for South Korea, a day after raising its response level in the Preparedness Plan for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) from 'alert' to 'serious'