Why this ridiculous secrecy over Hong Kong associations?
We have recently taken an interest in a group called the Hong Kong Islands District Association (HKIDA). This is because a few months ago it suddenly showed up in the middle of the Shek Kwu Chau incinerator saga and was able to access environmental funds controlled by the Environment Bureau and take islanders off on subsidised trips to Singapore and Taiwan to look at incinerators. It has subsequently held surreptitious meetings with islanders in which it has sought to boost the government's plan of building a super incinerator at Shek Kwu Chau. Interestingly, the meetings have been chaired by Randy Yu, son-in-law of Heung Yee Kuk chairman Lau Wong-fat. Lau has been a staunch government supporter and has made no secret of the fact that he does want the incinerator in his backyard, that is at Tsang Tsui in Tuen Mun, which is one of the locations that has been considered for the project.
The government has come round to his way of thinking. But we have been thwarted in our efforts to find out more about the HKIDA by the byzantine regulations surrounding societies. These organisations have to be registered with the Police Licensing Office. While we have discovered when the HKIDA was set up and its office address, we cannot find out who the office-bearers are. The police said we required the written consent of the office-bearers before information could be released. Since we don't know them, getting their permission may be difficult. The situation is clearly absurd, particularly when you consider that we can now go online, pay a fee, and search the records of a company in the companies registry. This secrecy over societies is anachronistic and the process should be modernised.
Golden moment
Many will have heard the old joke about the definition of a gold mine being a hole in the ground with a liar at the top. Fortunately that does not apply to Hong Kong-listed gold miner G-Resources. There is considerable joy in the company at present on account of it recently pouring the first gold and silver from its Martabe mine in North Sumatra, Indonesia. The company listed by way of a backdoor listing and then raised additional capital in July 2009 on the back of its Indonesia project. The aim was to ramp up production over the next few months to full capacity, the company said in a statement yesterday. That is, to reach production of 250,000 ounces per annum of gold and 2.5 million ounces per annum of silver. The news gave the share price a nice 4.5 per cent bounce to HK$0.465 in a lacklustre market.
Passengers behaving badly