CULTURE AND HERITAGE COMMISSION
Policy Recommendation Report
Letter to the Chief Executive
31 March 2003
The Honourable TUNG Chee Hwa Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
Dear Mr. Tung,
I am greatly honoured to be appointed Chairman of the Culture and Heritage Commission in April 2000, and to work with the other members in advising the Government on the long-term policies and funding priorities in the development of culture in Hong Kong. Since the first plenary meeting in May 2000, the Commission has altogether held 23 plenary meetings, some 80 working group meetings, four retreats and four study visits. Two series of public consultations were also conducted in early 2001 and late 2002.
I hereby submit to you the Policy Recommendation Report of the Culture and Heritage Commission. We have put forward about one hundred recommendations which cover overall policies as well as specific implementation strategies. The premise of the recommendations is Hong Kong's unique cultural identity as being rooted in the Chinese cultural tradition and at the same time embracing a diversity of other cultures. The spirit of this Report is best captured by the principles of the "people-oriented" and "community-driven" approaches. The "people-oriented" approach reflects our emphasis on the holistic development of people. Hence we accord priority to the nurturing of talents, in particular, education in culture and the arts for the youth. Should Hong Kong neglect creative thinking and cultural education, it will lose its competitive edge, let alone become an international cultural metropolis. Also, the experience of other international cultural metropolises serves as a caveat against government's dominant role in cultural development. In this Report, we make suggestions on the roles and modes of governance of our cultural facilities and institutions, as well as resource deployment and institutional framework. If our recommendations are implemented, a "community-driven" scenario will be realised.
In the closing remarks of this Report, we depict an optimistic vision of Hong Kong's future cultural scene. Whether this vision will become a reality depends on the community's solidarity and endeavour in support of cultural development. We hope the Government will give due consideration to the recommendations in this Report.
Yours sincerely, Chang Hsin-kang Chairman, Culture and Heritage Commission
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CULTURE AND HERITAGE COMMISSION Policy Recommendation Report Contents Chapter 1 : Background