A spokesman for the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) today (August 3) said that the FEHD encouraged members of the public to use the consumption voucher in its public markets and reduce cash transactions through the use of contactless payments, thereby enhancing public hygiene and reducing the risk of virus transmissions.

     To enable members of the public to identify the market stalls installed with contactless payment means, the FEHD has displayed floorplans of every floor at all of its markets, indicating the stall numbers and locations of the relevant market stalls. A list of relevant stall numbers will also be uploaded to the FEHD website.

     Deputy Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene, Miss Diane Wong, visited To Kwa Wan Market yesterday (August 2) and understood from the market stall tenants’ experiences that the application of the subsidy through the subsidy scheme for the promotion of contactless payments in public markets, installation and usage of contactless payment devices had been smooth. She also appealed to the public to make greater use of contactless payments.

     The Government launched earlier two rounds of the subsidy scheme for the promotion of contactless payment in public markets under the Anti-epidemic Fund, including providing a one-off subsidy to eligible tenants of FEHD market stalls (including cooked food stalls) and licensed hawkers at a flat rate of $5,000 for use to meet the initial set-up costs as well as service and other fees in relation to the provision of at least one contactless payment means. Over 7 000 applications from market stall tenants and licensed hawkers were received in the two rounds of subsidy scheme.

     The spokesman said that it is convenient and hygienic to use contactless payments, and members of the public are encouraged to use contactless payments to reduce the risk of virus transmissions.