Paper Talk: Woman denied boarding pass due to koala stamp on passport

A woman leaving the city on a visit to Taiwan on Wednesday last week was not given a boarding pass for her Taipei-bound Hong Kong Airlines flight after check-in staff found a stamp depicting the cartoon koala of Taipei's Maokong Gondola cable car on an unused page of her passport. It had been stamped there during a prior trip to Taiwan. The staff member who refused to grant the boarding pass said she made the decision after consulting Taiwanese immigration authorities, which had said the non-immigration stamp rendered the passport void.

David Lui Yin-tat, vice-chairman of Bank of Communications Schroders Fund Management, has proposed the government set up a sovereign wealth fund-like investment portfolio using HK$50 billion of reserves earmarked for retirement protection. He said the fund could invest in public utilities such as the MTR Corporation and the airport's planned third runway, and could generate a profit at least enough to outpace inflation, with management fees as low as 0.25 per cent. Lui, also a member of a think tank headed by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, said the proposed fund could be offered to Hong Kong workers as a retirement option, since Mandatory Provident Fund providers had failed to improve returns and cut fees after 15 years in operation.