RTHK：Video News RTHK.HK

The nation's first homegrown passenger aircraft made its return to Hong Kong on Saturday to fly more than 100 university students for a visit to Shanghai.

The C919 made its debut in the SAR in December, delighting spectators with a spectacular flypast over Victoria Harbour. This time it's serving a charter flight for participants in a youth internship programme.

Speaking at a ceremony at the airport, Chief Secretary Eric Chan welcomed the aircraft's return.

"The C919 returns to Hong Kong today, taking young people in Hong Kong to Shanghai to experience life at a mainland airport," he said.

"At the same time, they will experience national affairs and development at first hand.I believe this experience will be unforgettable for all the students and will be useful for their lives."

Students onboard the flight told RTHK that they were excited to learn more about the aviation industry on the mainland.

"I'm very honoured to have this opportunity to take the first C919 flight from Hong Kong to Shanghai. Through this opportunity, I can learn more about the homegrown aircraft industry on the mainland," said one student.

She said she hoped the seats would be comfy and wondered whether meals would be served.

"This is my first time to take the domestically-made plane. I'm interested to know whether the facilities on the plane will be different than those from other countries," said another student.

Meanwhile, Andrew Yao who chairs the Federation of Hong Kong-Shanghai Associations, said he hopes students can learn more about the development of the Belt and Road initiative through the internship programme.

Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan on Saturday said a proposal to integrate waste management across the Greater Bay Area does not simply mean Hong Kong will send its rubbish for disposal across the border.

The minister confirmed that the authorities are mulling working with mainland counterparts on handling and recycling waste to achieve carbon neutrality and build a waste-free bay area.

Speaking on an RTHK programme, Tse said the plan is not to ship waste to the rest of the Greater Bay Area for incineration, but to recycle and reuse it.

"To achieve carbon neutrality, many countries have been promoting resource circulation. This concept is not difficult to understand. It simply means turning resources into products, such as the clothes you are wearing or the chair you are sitting on. It's not sustainable if all these products end up turning into garbage," he said.

Tse added he is confident that Hong Kong will be able to deal with a daily average of around 11,000 tonnes of garbage after the territory's three incinerators are put into operation.

The waste integration proposal came after the SAR announced on Monday that it was shelving a territory-wide waste charging scheme for a third time. The minister reiterated that the move does not mean the government is pausing its waste reduction efforts.

A paediatrics expert on Saturday said there's been no easing of the winter flu outbreak in Hong Kong, and he expects the situation to continue for several more weeks.

Professor Patrick Ip from the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Hong Kong said the number of influenza cases would usually fall off in April.

"The condition of the influenza outbreak [had] been persistent throughout May, and we are expecting actually even in June, there will still be a few more weeks of influenza outbreak affecting many of our young children," he said.

"So far, we find most of those severe influenza cases, including the death cases, occur more dominantly in young children, particularly with those without any influenza vaccination."

He urged parents to get their children vaccinated. Four children have died of flu so far this year.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan said on Friday that businesses he met on a visit to California only wanted to talk about the business environment in Hong Kong and did not raise national security matters.

Chan made a visit to San Francisco, together with delegations from Guangdong Province and Macau.

He said Hong Kong and partners in San Francisco signed three memorandums of understanding on developing carbon markets, sustainable finance, investment promotion and the nurturing of talent.

The financial chief said businesses in the United States were "curious" and "interested" in the opportunities available in Hong Kong.

"The business proposition we put to the business sector here is that the Greater Bay Area as a market is of huge size: 87 million people. This is one of the most affluent, most dynamic, economically very high vitality areas," he told reporters in San Francisco.

"Presenting tremendous opportunities for the business sector here, no matter if it is for consumer market or for extending the service or solutions onto the mainland, the exchanges that we have with them proved this proposition to be quite attractive."

Regarding national security, Chan said businesses in the United States had other concerns.

"No question has ever been raised in this respect... In fact, the concern and the interest of the business sector here is the stability of Hong Kong, the overall business environment, the impact of high interest rates on Hong Kong, and also the performance of stock market, the property market, as well as foreign business interest and investment in Hong Kong," he said.

Chan was due to arrive back in the SAR on Saturday morning.

The Chinese and American defence chiefs held talks in Singapore on Friday, offering hopes for more military dialogue that could help prevent disputes.

Defence Minister Dong Jun met with US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin on the sidelines of the Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore.

It was the first meeting between the defence chiefs of the two countries since 2022.

Dong and Austin began the talks at the luxury hotel hosting the security forum, a member of the US delegation told reporters.

Defence chiefs and officials from around the world are attending the annual forum that has in recent years become a barometer of China-US relations.

The two sides agreed after a summit between President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden in November last year to restart high-level military talks. That includes a communications channel between the US Indo-Pacific Command chief and Chinese commanders responsible for military operations near Taiwan, Japan and in the South China Sea. (Agencies)

Licence applications for taxi fleets ended on Friday, with an industry representative saying his group would invest more than HK$100 million in a squad of cabs.

The licensed taxi fleet system is part of wider efforts to improve the service quality of point-to-point transport.

According to the government, fleets operating in urban areas should have 300 to 1,000 taxis each, whereas those in the New Territories should have 100 to 350 cabs each.

And participating taxis must not be in use for more than three years when a licence is offered.

Transport authorities are expected to issue a maximum of five licences.

Wong Yue-ting, from the Hong Kong Tele-call Taxi Association, said he believes around eight applications were submitted before the noon deadline.

On an RTHK programme, Wong said he and 12 other operators have joined hands in applying for a licence in the New Territories, in hopes of improving cab services there.

He said the group would have to invest at least HK$100 million.

"I estimate that, for the first six months, we would invest HK$3 million to HK$5 million in a taxi-hailing service, plus dash cameras and other systems in the vehicles," Wong said.

“As for the vehicles, we'll mostly have to replace the existing ones because many of them would have been in use for more than three years when they are licensed. I think more than 80 percent of the taxis no longer fit the requirement. Each taxi will cost about HK$400,000, which means an expenditure of HK$100 million to replace some 300 vehicles."

Chow Kwok-keung, who chairs the Hong Kong Taxi and Public Light Bus Association, said he submitted an application for a fleet of about 400 taxis.

He said mainland ride-hailing giants Didi Chuxing and Gaode had contacted him on proposing to work together.