May

"Hong Kong continues to attract companies looking to gain a foothold in Asia, but talented professionals are in short supply. The 'Michael Page Hong Kong 2014 Salary & Employment Forecast ' shows average salaries in Hong Kong are expected to increase over the next 12 months, with 71% of all surveyed employers expected to offer salary increases of between 1% and 5%. Sectors expected to provide employees with higher salary increases of 6-10% include procurement & supply chain (50%), secretarial & office support (42%) and legal (33%). Andy Bentote, senior managing director of PageGroup, comments: ""While some established businesses are beginning to look at setting up in other cities such as Shanghai and Singapore, Hong Kong 's deep pool of talent makes it hard to beat for companies starting out in the region."" Michael Page also witnessed growth in Greater China and achieved record revenue for the region in 2013, in particular, a resurgence in financial services in Hong Kong contributed to its revenue growth. Bentote adds: ""For 2014, we believe that staff retention will be the key theme for employers in Hong Kong as competition for the best performers will be strong."""

"Backgrounds of candidates will be reviewed and cross-checked with other departments before they can be hired into the civil service.

The checking would be done through an information system that has been implemented by the Public Services Commission (PSC). Minister in Prime Minister's Department Datuk Joseph Entulu Belaun, said the individual review information system (SSMI), was an effective and good system to screen the background of candidates. The information system was tested via a proof of concept.

A total of 2,384 candidates were screened and only two candidates were found to be problematic. Joseph lauded the system as it would enable the commission to conduct background checks on applicants in case they hold criminal records, if they are not a valid Malaysian citizen, or if they have been declared bankrupt by the Insolvency Department. ""It is a collaborative effort and a total of 31 agencies will be using the new system,"" he said. Joseph added that the timeframe to obtain the results from the screening were one day for both NRD and the Insolvency Department, and five to six days for the Chief Government Security Office.
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"The Privacy (Giving Privacy Commissioner Necessary Tools) Amendment Bill that would have given greater powers of control to the New Zealand data protection authority, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (the DPA), has been blocked by a negative vote in New Zealand Parliament. The draft bill proposed by the Labour opposition party states, ""At the moment, enforcement of the Privacy Act 1993 is complaints-driven. People can complain to the Privacy Commissioner about breaches of their privacy rights under the Act. But the Commissioner has only limited powers to take action about breaches of the Act of its own initiative. Such a system is not well suited to addressing underlying systematic problems."""