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

Together with the two production lines approved last week, a total of eight production lines have been approved under the scheme.

Step Out Technology Limited, Wilson Tech (International) Limited, S.E.C. Hong Kong Factory Limited, and Platform Management Service Limited have each been approved for obtaining the subsidy for one production line, while Creative International Technology Limited has been approved for two production lines.

The scheme will provide subsidies to a maximum of 20 local production lines. A subsidy quota of 12 production lines remains.

Having reviewed the applications received so far, the Government has estimated that the number of potentially eligible production lines would very likely have exceeded the remaining quota.

Therefore, the Hong Kong Productivity Council which is administering the scheme has stopped receiving applications from today.

The remaining production line quota will be allocated according to their expected starting dates for supplying masks to the Government.

As of March 26, the scheme attracted a total of 103 applications.

Among them, seven applications involving eight production lines have been approved and four applications involving five production lines have been confirmed to have met all eligibility criteria.

The council is verifying the eligibility of 23 applications involving 33 production lines, while the remaining 69 applications have yet to meet all eligibility criteria.