The Commerce & Economic Development Bureau today announced that it has approved the remaining seven production lines under the Local Mask Production Subsidy Scheme.

Given the approval of 13 production lines earlier, the quota of 20 production lines under the scheme has been fully allocated.

Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development Edward Yau said: "The scheme opened for applications on March 2 and the production line quota has been allocated in less than two months.

"The scheme has reached a significant milestone, and we have, through the Hong Kong Productivity Council, provided all approved applicants with a copy of the funding agreement and will sign the agreement with individual companies successively. Meanwhile, most of the approved applicants are obtaining certification for the masks produced in order to commence supply to the Government as soon as possible."

Among the approved applicants, the council confirmed that two companies have just obtained laboratory reports from accredited laboratories certifying that the masks they respectively produce comply with the ASTM F2100 Level 1 standard.

Once the Government signs the funding agreements with these companies and has confirmed that they meet other relevant requirements, they are expected to gradually supply masks to the Government from May.

Other approved production lines will successively commence full production and supply the Government later.

The target production and supply dates of some applicants are delayed because, owing to the global shortage of masks, many enterprises have flocked to establish mask production facilities and recently sent their mask samples to accredited laboratories outside Hong Kong for certification, resulting in a longer-than-normal lead time for certification.

Taking these objective circumstances into consideration, the Government will allow those approved applicants who are still waiting for such certification and are unable to begin supplying masks to the Government by the target commencement date to apply for an extension of up to one month.

According to the scheme, after the masks produced by a subsidised production line have obtained the relevant certification, the production line must supply 2 million masks to the Government each month before it could sell the excess to the local market and the masks must not be exported.

During the entire term of the agreement, the fact that the Government has provided a subsidy should not be used to solicit business in any way.

On the supply of children's masks, Mr Yau said: "There exists a need for children's masks within the Government, such as in the Education Bureau and the Department of Health.

"As such, among the 20 approved production lines, the Government will invite the five applicants approved for two production lines to submit proposals on dedicating their second production line to manufacture masks for children."

The Government will designate one production line for children's masks while the other 19 subsidised production lines will produce masks for adults, he said.

The Government estimates that when all 20 subsidised lines are in full production, they will collectively supply 34.55 million masks to the Government every month and a further 8.15 million to the local market.