Latest news with #MichaelTien
RTHK
11-07-2025
- Health
- RTHK
Spinal muscular atrophy drug subsidy 'set for adults'
Spinal muscular atrophy drug subsidy 'set for adults' Michael Tien, standing centre, hopes the new arrangement to widen the application of a subsidy to more spinal muscular atrophy patients can be implemented within months. Photo: RTHK More Hong Kong patients suffering from spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) will be able to enjoy a government subsidy to control the symptoms of their disorder with two drugs, Roundtable lawmaker Michael Tien said. Currently, only infants and children suffering from two types of SMA, a group of neuromuscular disorders, are entitled to government assistance to purchase the drugs – Nusinersen and Risdiplam. The health authorities, Tien said on Friday, have recently given the green light for adult patients suffering from two other types of the disorder to apply for the subsidy as well. Tien said he aims to push for the new arrangement to be implemented before his Legco term ends by the end of the year. He also urged the government to refer to mainland data in vetting drugs in the future. 'Hong Kong experts, when they decide whether to use public money to help patients with a particular disease, look at their own research…they look at worldwide papers,' Tien said. 'My argument is that those [patients] are not of the same race as us, our blood types are different, our DNAs are different. "Why can't the Hong Kong government look more at the mainland situation?' Tien also said the newly introduced 1+ mechanism that speeds up registration of new drugs in Hong Kong will also facilitate the SAR in price negotiations with global pharmaceutical companies.
South China Morning Post
08-07-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Does Hong Kong's loan shark law proposal lack bite needed to tame debt collectors?
A proposal to tighten regulations over Hong Kong's notorious loan sharks is too narrowly focused and will not tackle the root problem of unruly debt collectors, according to lawmakers and legal experts. Advertisement The legislators and specialists criticised the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau's plan to set a cap on borrowing activity for low-income earners and impose stricter rules for loan 'referees', saying it failed to tackle the shadowy network of intermediaries who enabled predatory lending. The bureau is seeking public feedback between June and August over proposals to tie unsecured personal loans to a borrower's income, either through an aggregate loan cap or a debt servicing ratio. It has also floated the idea of banning the use of referees altogether to stop the widespread harassment of third parties. 'Harassment is against the law, but harassment happens every day,' lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun said. 'People wonder if there is lawlessness in Hong Kong.' At a Legislative Council meeting on Monday, the government said that the Companies Registry had received 725 complaints about money lenders in the past five years. Referrals to police were made in 509 of the cases, which authorities said showed the need for tougher regulation. Advertisement Last year, the registry received 214 complaints, conducted 561 inspections and issued 22 warning letters. These included 58 complaints involving domestic helpers, of which 18 directly concerned moneylenders harassing loan referees.
RTHK
28-05-2025
- Business
- RTHK
Tien not on board with MTR over need for shutdown
Tien not on board with MTR over need for shutdown Michael Tien said he didn't think it was necessary to shut down the entire Tseung Kwan O line on Thursday. File photo: RTHK A lawmaker has questioned why the MTR Corporation had to shut down the entire Tseung Kwan O line last Thursday, when power and signalling failures halted services for five hours starting from the evening rush hour. Roundtable's Michael Tien quoted the railway company as telling him that it couldn't switch to manual operation and use the one available track for trains to go both ways because the section was still running on the old signalling system. Tien, who chaired the Kowloon–Canton Railway Corporation before the merger of the two rail companies, said he didn't find the explanation acceptable. "When you look at the past two, three years, service disruptions didn't affect the whole Tsuen Wan and Island lines – with both of them also running on the old signalling system," he told RTHK's In the Chamber programme. "They just switched to manual. "The design is that, once the automated system isn't safe enough, you can go manual so that the trains would go at a slower speed." The government has said the MTR has to spend more than HK$19 million on passenger rebates because of the service disruption. As a result of the Tseung Kwan O stoppage and two others earlier in February and April, the MTRC will be having a day of half-priced fares on a Saturday or Sunday. Tien said he found it "a bit funny" that passengers across the entire network would benefit, when it was mostly those taking the Tseung Kwan O line trains that bore the brunt of the shutdown.
South China Morning Post
12-05-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong lawmakers slam HK$20 billion welfare property plan as ‘failed policy'
Hong Kong lawmakers have labelled the government's HK$20 billion (US$2.6 billion) plan to buy properties for social welfare purposes as one of the biggest 'failed policies', citing that only up to HK$240 million has been spent on five premises over the past five years. Advertisement The government had earlier decided to downsize the scheme to HK$5 billion, saying it would not be 'suckers' in deals with landlords even if there was an urgent need for places for social welfare. The Labour and Welfare Bureau on Monday said in a Legislative Council panel meeting that the Social Welfare Department had considered 191 sale proposals as of March 31 this year and bought only five premises at about HK$240 million under the scheme launched in 2020. The expenditure represented just 1.3 per cent of the original HK$20 billion earmarked by Finance Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po in 2019, for a plan to ease a long-term shortage of space for the elderly and children by providing service facilities to about 86,000 people. 'This policy has been one of the most failed policies in recent years,' lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun said. 'The policy means you tell people you want to buy something while showing them what's in your coffers. How much do you expect them to offer?' Advertisement He said the policy did not allow the government to report to Legco about each property deal with landlords. He said he had already warned the authorities at the time that they had to study first using government vacant premises instead of buying on the market.
