Subject(Q4): Direct issue of full Hong Kong driving licence
MR CHAN CHUN-YING: Thank you, President. Regarding the verification in each case, since 90% of the applicants currently hold Mainland driving licences, it is also mentioned in the main reply that a regular mechanism has been established with the vehicle administration offices in the Mainland for verification. However, I believe instant verification is not yet available under this regular mechanism, which may cause delays in processing applications. The Secretary also mentioned earlier the aspiration to digitalize the entire process. May I ask the Secretary whether consideration will be given to establishing a simple “red light/green light” digitalized system? Should there be any doubt about a case, an enquiry would be made to the vehicle administration offices in the Mainland. If the application is found to be fraudulent, a “red light” would be triggered, allowing TD to immediately reject the application. I believe this would expedite the entire vetting and approval process. Thank you.
SECRETARY FOR TRANSPORT AND LOGISTICS: I thank Mr CHAN for the supplementary question. In fact, we have observed a multiplication of “direct issue” applications over the past few years. Currently, there are over 80 000 applications, which is four times the number of over 20 000 applications a few years ago. With the rising demand in this area, we have established a close communication mechanism with the relevant document issuing authorities, including the vehicle administration offices in the Mainland. Most importantly, this is based on mutual recognition and trust. I believe that regardless of the method employed, whether it is through communication, mechanisms, or the use of technology to shorten the time required for two-way communication and verification, or even, as Mr CHAN mentioned, with the support of technology and technical means, we will consider ways to achieve instant or accelerated processing. I believe that particularly for the more common and straightforward cases, we may be able to adopt this approach, but for the more complex cases, we may need to conduct multiple rounds of back-and-forth verification. Thank you, President.