Beijing — Situated in an inconspicuous alleyway, the traditional Chinese courtyard house passes for any ordinary residential dwelling in the Chinese capital. Behind its red wooden door, however, lies the headquarters of Wokai (“I Start” in Chinese), a non-profit micro-finance service, registered...

Hong Kong — China’s online game industry is booming, with “Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Games” (MMORPG) becoming increasingly popular among a large portion of China’s estimated 400 million internet users.

Hong Kong  – Freddy Law Wai-hung is a man with a mission. He wants to inject a degree of creativity and curiosity about the world into Hong Kong’s academically straight-jacketed education system. “I had worked in India and Europe, and after I came back, I realized that Hong Kong students lack...

HONG KONG – The Fair Trade movement may be small in Hong Kong but it is beginning to take off, said Anne McCaig, a leading activist in the movement to help small farmers in the third world. McCaig (pictured right) is CEO of Cafédirect, a company co-founded by the British charity, Oxfam, and other...

Beijing – Clare Pearson is no ordinary lawyer. Half an hour before a scheduled meeting at a downtown café last Thursday, she was already sitting comfortably in a corner table, typing furiously on a compact laptop. With her brows locked in a concentrated frown, fingers skipping across the tiny...

Hong Kong – The numbers looked good. When Financial Secretary John Tsang stood up to give the annual budget speech,  he told the territory it could expect a GDP growth rate of between four and five per cent on the year in 2010-11 and outlined a series of give-aways totalling about HK$20 billion. But...

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MONAMI YUI Hong Kong — Wealthy Hong Kong posted an HK$13.8 billion surplus for fiscal 2009-2010 and predicted a solid GDP growth of around 4-5% for 2010-11, but Financial Secretary John Tsang resisted temptation for structural reform.

Hong Kong – The government will inject an additional HK$500 million into a fund to help owners of run-down buildings to carry out maintenance on older and more dilapidated blocks, Financial Secretary John Tsang said. The government-controlled Urban Renewal Authority will immediately start a redevelopment...

Hong Kong – The government will allocate an additional HK$52 million to support anti-drug efforts, Financial Secretary John Tsang said. Another HK$3 billion will be injected into the Beat Drugs Fund to raise further awareness on drug abuse and to promote community’s efforts to combat drugs. “The...

Hong Kong – Hong Kong’s poorest schoolchildren will receive subsidies to help them go on-line, Financial Secretary John Tsang said. Eligible families — those on welfare with children of primary and secondary school age — will be entitled to claim $1,300 for per family for broadband...