Minutes of the 19th Meeting of the Fourth Term of Wong Tai Sin District Council of the HKSAR
Date: 4 November 2014 (Tuesday) Time: 2:30 p.m. Venue: Conference Room, Wong Tai Sin District Council 6/F Lung Cheung Office Block 138 Lung Cheung Road Wong Tai Sin, Kowloon
Present:
Chairman:
Mr. LI Tak-hong, MH, JP
Vice-chairman:
Dr. WONG Kam-chiu, MH
Wong Tai Sin District Council (WTSDC) Members:
Ms. CHAN Man-ki, Maggie, MH Mr. CHAN On-tai Mr. CHAN Wai-kwan, Andie Mr. CHAN Yim-kwong, Joe Hon. CHAN Yuen-han, SBS, JP Mr. HO Hon-man, MH Mr. HO Yin-fai Mr. HUI Kam-shing Mr. KAN Chi-ho, BBS, MH, JP Ms. KWOK Sau-ying Mr. LAI Wing-ho, Joe, MH Mr. LEE Tat-yan, BBS, MH Mr. MOK Chung-fai, Rex, MH, JP Mr. MOK Kin-wing Mr. MOK Ying-fan Mr. SHUM Wan-wa, Dan Mr. SO Sik-kin Ms. TAM Heung-man, Mandy Ms. TAM Mei-po Mr. TING Chi-wai, Roy Mr. WONG Kam-chi, BBS, MH, JP Mr. WONG Kit-hin, Peter Mr. WONG Kwok-tung Dr. WONG Kwok-yan Mr. WONG Yat-yuk Hon. WU Chi-wai, MH Mr. YUEN Kwok-keung, Stephen
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 1 In Attendance:
Ms. WONG Sean-yee, Anissa, JP Permanent Secretary for the Environment / ENB & ) Re.: Director of Environment Protection EPD ) Item III(i) Mr. WONG Tak-wai, David Assistant Director (Environmental Compliance) EPD ) Mr. CHAN Shu-to, Kenneth Principal Environmental Protection Officer EPD ) (Regional East) ) Mr. CHAN Kai-wah, Tommy Senior Environmental Protection Officer EPD ) (Regional East)2 )
Ms. LI Mei-sheung, Michelle, JP Director of Leisure & Cultural Services LCSD ) Re.: Mr. MOK Man-kit, Keith Senior Staff Officer (Headquarters) LCSD ) Item III(ii) Miss TANG Man-wah, Sylvia Chief Leisure Manager (Kowloon) LCSD ) Mr. TSANG Chin-kwong, Harry Chief Executive Officer (Planning)1 LCSD ) Mrs. Annie WAN Chief Librarian (Operations and Technical Processing) LCSD ) Mr. LAM Hok-hay, George District Leisure Manager (Wong Tai Sin) LCSD )
Hon. IP Kwok-him, GBS, JP Functional Constituency–District Council (First) LegCo ) Re.: ) Item III(iii)
Mr. SUI Wai-keung, Stephen, JP Under Secretary for Labour and Welfare LWB ) Re.: ) Item III(iv)
Mrs. CHOI MA On-ki, Angel, JP District Officer (Wong Tai Sin) WTSDO Mr. CHAU Cho-kei District Commander (Wong Tai Sin) HKPF Ms. Lily NG District Social Welfare Officer SWD (Wong Tai Sin / Sai Kung) Mr. WONG Hon-kit Chief Manager / Management HD (Wong Tai Sin, Tsing Yi, Tsuen Wan and Islands) Mr. CHUI Si-kay, Peter (Acting) Chief Engineer / Kowloon 1 (Kowloon) CEDD Mr. CHOY Chik-sang, Mario Chief Transport Officer (Kowloon) TD Ms. TANG Man-wah, Sylvia Chief Leisure Manager (Kowloon) LCSD Ms. WONG Sui-ying, Iris (Acting) District Environmental Hygiene FEHD Superintendent (Wong Tai Sin) Mr. LING Pak-ki, Ronald Assistant District Officer (Wong Tai Sin) WTSDO Mr. KWONG Wai-kin, Jimmy Senior Executive Officer (District Management) WTSDO Mr. TING Tin-sang Senior Liaison Officer 1 WTSDO Ms. PANG Suk-wah, Phyllis Senior Liaison Officer 2 WTSDO Ms. TANG Wai-lan, Cecilia Executive Officer I (District Council) WTSDO
Secretary:
Miss LAM Wing-sze, Victoria Senior Executive Officer (District Council) WTSDO
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 2 Opening Remarks
The Chairman welcomed all to the 19th meeting of the Wong Tai Sin District Council (WTSDC), with a special welcome to Ms. WONG Sean-yee, Anissa, JP, Permanent Secretary for the Environment / Director of Environmental Protection, Mr. WONG Tak-wai, David, Assistant Director of Environmental Protection, Mr. CHAN Shu-to, Kenneth, Principal Environmental Protection Officer, and Mr. CHAN Kai-wah, Tommy, Senior Environmental Protection Officer of the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) for visiting the WTSDC.
2. The Chairman also welcomed the attendance of Ms. WONG Sui-ying, Iris, Acting District Environmental Hygiene Superintendent (Wong Tai Sin) to this meeting on the behalf of Ms. CHEUNG Sui-chun, Syndi, District Environmental Hygiene Superintendent, and the attendance of Mr. CHUI Si-kay, Peter, Chief Engineer of Civil Engineering and Development Department on the behalf of Mr. LO Kam-yan, Anthony.
(I) Confirmation of Minutes of the 18th Meeting of Wong Tai Sin District Council held on 16 September 2014
3. As there was no proposed amendment received ahead of the meeting or raised by Members present, the minutes of meeting were hereby confirmed without amendment.
(II) Progress Report of the 18th Meeting of Wong Tai Sin District Council held on 16 September 2014 (WTSDC Paper No. 72/2014)
4. Members noted the progress report. Mr. HUI Kam-shing enquired about the progress of review on adjustment to the service hours of Chuk Yuen Post Office. The Secretary reported that an enquiry had just been made on the morning of the meeting day to the Hong Kong Post (HKPO) officer concerned who stated that the review was still underway and that the Secretariat would be informed of the conclusion once available.
5. Members also noted that after the previous meeting, the Secretariat had issued two papers to Members by way of circulation. Both documents were information papers submitted by the Department of Health. The first one was tilted “Smoking (Public Health) (Designation of No Smoking Areas) (Amendment) Notice 2014 under the Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance (Cap.371)” (WTSDC Paper 70/2014), and the second one was titled “The 2014-15 Government Vaccination Programme and Vaccination Subsidy Schemes” (WTSDC Paper No. 71/2014)
(Mr. WONG Kit-hin, Peter arrived at the meeting at 2:35 p.m.)
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 3 III(i) Visit of Permanent Secretary for the Environment / Director of Environmental Protection to Wong Tai Sin District Council
6. The Chairman welcomed Ms. WONG Sean-yee, Anissa, JP, the Permanent Secretary for the Environment / Director of Environmental Protection, Mr. WONG Tak-wai, David, the Assistant Director of Environmental Protection, Mr. CHAN Shu-to, Kenneth, the Principal Environmental Protection Officer, and Mr. CHAN Kai Wah, Tommy, the Senior Environmental Protection Officer, of the EPD to the meeting for this agenda item.
7. Ms. WONG thanked the WTSDC for allowing the Environmental Bureau (ENB) and EPD to attend the meeting. She said that the progress of the Government’s environmental protection initiatives would be presented afterwards and Members were invited to give views on those initiatives. She briefed the meeting on the work progress in respect of the currently most challenging environmental protection issues - solid waste treatment and air quality management, which were consolidated as below:
(i) The Trend of Solid Waste Loads in Hong Kong
In the past five years, our local population had increased by about 3% and our gross domestic product rose by 28%. It showed that our economy was buoyant and growing rapidly. During the same period, the total volume of waste received by landfills had climbed up by 7.3% and the growth was mild when compared with that of the gross domestic product.
The waste received by the landfills included domestic wastes, construction wastes and special wastes. The former, which was closely related to the daily life of our people, had increased by about 6% in the past five years, i.e., an annual increase of about 1 - 2 % on average. As Hong Kong had a huge population but with limited space, such increase in the waste volume had posed a huge pressure on waste treatment. Therefore, the Bureau had all along been making keen efforts in promoting waste reduction among the community and conducting timely review on the waste treatment facilities to ensure that the hygiene requirements were met.
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 4 (ii) “Hong Kong Blueprint for Sustainable Use of Resources 2013- 2022”
For years, the Government had been taking a multi-pronged approach in waste management, including, reduction of wastes, promotion on waste separation for recycling, and timely introduction of modern waste treatment facilities. In the “Hong Kong Blueprint for Sustainable Use of Resources 2013-2022” (the Blueprint) issued by the current-term Government, it was pointed out that the waste materials were also kinds of resources and could be reused after appropriate treatment. It entailed the idea of sustainable development and effective use of precious and finite resources. The Blueprint set out the target of reducing waste disposal rate by 40% within the coming decade. There was a close relationship between waste loads and our daily living activities (including commercial activities), and waste reduction meant costs and expenses reduction. To effectively achieve the waste reduction target, mobilisation of the community as well as public education and publicity efforts were very important. The Bureau was very grateful to the WTSDC, an important partner of the Bureau, for giving out its assistance in promoting waste reduction and encouraging waste recycling. The Government had also formulated policies under which economic incentives were provided and provisions governing behaviour were set out, with a view to arousing public awareness of waste production.
On treatment facilities, Hong Kong’s municipal solid waste was currently handled by landfilling. There were also special facilities in place to handle special wastes, for example, the Chemical Waste Treatment Centre in Tsing Yi specialized in chemical and clinical wastes treatment. In the planning process, the Government aimed at enhancing the capacity of the landfills through expanding their sizes. It also intended to introduce modern waste management facilities with waste-to-energy technology for actualising the concept of resources recycling. Among those facilities, for example, the integrated waste management facility would generate electricity by using the heat energy produced (i.e. through incineration) in the course of waste treatment. Besides, the funding application for developing an organic waste treatment facility in Siu Ho Wan had already been approved by the Finance Committee (FC) of the Legislative Council (LegCo). It was expected that the facility could come into operation in early 2017
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 5 the earliest. The Department would also develop a sludge treatment facility in which the scum left after the treatment would be incinerated for electricity generation.
(iii) Quantity-based Municipal Solid Waste Charging
The bill of municipal solid waste (MSW) charging prepared by the Bureau would adopt the principle of “pay-as-you-throw”. It was hoped that the quantity-based charging could encourage waste reduction through serving as an economic disincentive to remind people that there would be a cost for disposing MSW. Apart from effecting changes to the people’s mindset, the Bureau also hoped to provide a better recycling system that enabled the recyclable materials to be back to the production lines. While the issue of quantity-based MSW charging had been discussed for quite some time in our community, many other cities in the world had already adopted similar system. From the views collected at this stage, one could see that our people supported the scheme in principle. As for the implementation details, the Council for Sustainable Development (SDC) was conducting a public engagement exercise to gauge the community’s view. The relevant discussions had almost been completed and it was believed that the SDC could shortly submit its recommendations to the Government for consideration and as reference for future work arrangement.
(iv) Support for Recycling
Our community had forged a reasonable degree of consensus over the recycling work. Despite of waste reduction, production of waste was unavoidable. As Hong Kong was not an industrial centre, most of the recyclables collected would be exported to somewhere else for recycling. However, if we gave support to our local recycling industry for development, not only could more jobs be created but also our local recycling business could flourish. In the discussions of Steering Committee to Promote the Sustainable Development of the Recycling Industry chaired by the Chief Secretary for Administration, it was noted that the Government had earmarked $1 billion for setting up the “Recycling Fund” (the Fund) to facilitate the upgrading of the operational capabilities, efficiency and technologies of the recycling industry practitioners. Besides, since mixing of recyclables with other wastes would hinder recycling work, the Department always encouraged clean
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 6 recycling and source separation in the hope to facilitate effective recycling work and enhance both the quality and quantity of the recyclables. The Department also hoped to enhance the information flow of recycling market with a view to exploring more outlets of recycled products, tallying with the waste reduction strategies set out in the Blueprint for promotion of sustainable development of recycling industry. The ENB had already presented the operation mode of the “Recycling Fund” to the Panel on Environmental Affairs under the LegCo and the funding application concerned would be submitted to the FC for approval. If endorsed, the Fund would be granted on a matching basis and opened for application by recycling operators, non-profit making organisations, professional bodies and organisations that supported the development of recycling business, in a bid to upgrade the operational capabilities of the recycling industry.
(v) Reduction of Food Waste
The ENB and EPD were committed to promoting food waste reduction and were pleased to see the extensive participation of local organisations in Wong Tai Sin District. Of the over 9 000 tonnes of MSW produced each day, about 40% was organic waste with the majority of which was food waste. Yard waste was also found, which deserved our attention. The Government intended to, through education and publicity programmes, such as the “Big Waster” of the Food Wise Hong Kong Campaign, hit home to members of the public the message of avoiding wastage when preparing meals. The education and publicity efforts were targeted not only at individual households, but also at the business sector. The Government had prepared a series of guidelines to draw the food business practitioners’ attention to food waste avoidance in the course of meal preparation. Also, the Government hoped to, through education and publicity, encourage food waste recycling and start planning and preparation work for developing modern organic waste treatment facilities. The first food waste treatment centre, after coming into operation in future, would turn the food waste collected into other energies, including, electricity and biogas, or some other useful resources such as fertiliser.
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 7 (vi) “Community Green Station” Programme
The Government was progressively implementing the “Community Green Station” Programme by developing a Community Green Station (CGS) in each of its 18 administrative districts. Apart from environmental education, the CGSs also coordinated and provided assistance in district recycling work. While the first CGS would be set up at Sha Tin District with target construction completion date by end of this year, the preparatory work for CGSs in other districts was also in the pipeline. The Department had previously visited WTSDC to give a briefing on the Programme and was grateful to the Council for its support to the Programme in principle. Site identification was underway and the Council would be further consulted when the site had been identified.
(vii) Funding Scheme under the Environment and Conservation Fund
On education and publicity front, the Bureau had also provided a funding scheme of Environment and Conservation Fund (ECF). After years of operation, the ECF had been moving on the right track. It had also supported a number of projects implemented in Wong Tai Sin District. The Fund aimed at achieving waste reduction and recycling in the community. Currently, there were a total of 39 housing estates participating in the ECF food waste recycling projects and 110 schools portioning meals on sites. Also, there were 171 community waste reduction projects organised and 16 community recycling centres operated by non-government organisations. In Wong Tai Sin District, there was also a collection point which operated smoothly. On top of the duty of providing assistance to the residents in collecting waste plastics in Wong Tai Sin District, the collection point was also responsible for implementing education and publicity activities related to waste reduction and recycling.
Sik Sik Yuen was also one of the green partners of the ECF. In addition to organisation of green activities, Sik Sik Yuen also installed environmental protection facilities in the Wong Tai Sin Temple in a bid to promote usage of renewable energy (such as solar water heating unit). Food waste recycling unit was also put in place.
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 8 (viii) The Community Participation Programme in Environmental Protection
Apart from individual local organisations, DCs were also important partners of the ENB. In the past three years, the 18 DCs had joined hands with the Environmental Campaign Committee (ECC), Home Affairs Department (HAD) and EPD to organise Community Participation Programmes in Environmental Protection, to promote waste reduction and encourage recycling. The theme of the Programme of this year was “Waste Not, Re-Use More, Recycle Properly”, echoing the waste management initiatives of the Government. To help members of the public get prepared for the implementation of the extended plastic shopping bag charging effective from 1 April 2015, we had already provided each DC an additional one-off funding of $100,000 to facilitate the districts to organise the related promotional activities. The Department thanked the DCs for their efforts made in promoting environmental protection. On top of these recycling activities, other various programmes, including visits and waste-gift exchange, were also organised for promoting awareness environmental protection, having regard to the different needs of members of the public.
(ix) Extended Plastic Shopping Bag Charging
With effect from 1 April 2015, the scale of the Plastic Shopping Bag Charging Scheme (PSB Charging Scheme) would be further extended from its original several thousands of supermarkets and personal care products outlets to cover all retailers in the territory. Exemptions would be allowed (under special circumstances, such as, for the purpose of food hygiene). By that time, customers would be charged with an amount of not less than $0.5 for each plastic bag provided by retailers who would retain the charge collected without the need of remitting it to the Government. The Government hoped to, through the new arrangement, draw the public’s attention to use less plastic bags, and to promote environmental protection and the bring-your-own-bag lifestyle. From the current experience, one could see that immediately after the implementation of the PSB Charging Scheme, there was a substantial drop in the number of bags requested by supermarket customers. Therefore, it was believed that provision of economic disincentive was an effective measure. Upon extension of the Scheme to cover all retailers, a further drop in the usage of plastic bags could be expected.
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 9 (x) Air Quality
Quality of Air had always been an issue of public concern. More than a decade, the Government had been doing plenty of work for air quality management. The trend-lines between 2006 and 2013 could accurately reflect the change in our environmental quality. The levels of sulphur dioxide and respirable suspended particulates had significantly lowered, mainly due to the Government’s introduction of its control and regulation on Motor Vehicle Fuel and emissions from power plants. Besides, the Government had strengthened control over the emission of nitrogen dioxide, resulting in the emission generally maintaining at a stable level with a slight increase by 4% in the past several years. Meanwhile, there was an increase in ozone concentration by 19%. As the ozone concentration was primarily subject to the photochemical smog in the region, efforts in reducing ozone concentrations at regional level would be very essential. The SAR Government had along been working in collaboration with the Guangdong Provincial Government which shared the same concerns over the air quality. In the collaboration projects in the past few years, both governments rolled out initiatives against emissions in their respective regions, including initiatives against emissions from power plants. Since commencement of these collaboration projects, the pollution problem had been continuously improving. That said, there was room for closer collaboration and more efforts could be made.
(xi) Green Transport
The scheme of phasing out of the pre-Euro IV diesel commercial vehicles was proposed in the Policy Address, involving about 82 000 vehicles. The scheme had been endorsed by the LegCo. The “Carrot and stick” approach was adopted in the implementation. While attractive incentives would be offered on one hand, service life limit and mandatory phasing out of vehicle by stopping the renewal of licences for vehicles that were too old were also imposed on the other. It was expected that all the said kinds of vehicles would be phased out by end of 2019. At the same time, to ensure timely replacement of diesel commercial vehicles in the long run, the Government capped the service life of diesel commercial vehicles newly registered on or after 1 February 2014 to 15 years. The Government also requested the franchised bus
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 10 companies to retrofit their Euro II and Euro III buses with selective catalytic reduction devices to ensure that the levels of emission were in compliance with the required standards. Other than this, the Government also put in place a 300-million dollar Pilot Green Transport Fund to subsidise public transport operators to try out new technologies for enhancement of energy efficiency and reduction of carbon emission. Currently, a total of 74 pilot projects were underway, with the majority of which using the fund to purchase electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles and solar air-conditioning system, etc. Besides, the recent funding application made by the ferry company for a project altering devices to lower the nitrogen oxide emission by ferries had also been approved.
(Mr. MOK Chung-fai, Rex, MH, JP, Mr. MOK Kin-wing and Mr. WONG Yat-yuk arrived at the meeting at 2:45 p.m. The Hon CHAN Yuen-han, SBS, JP arrived at 2:50 p.m.)
8. The Chairman thanked Ms. WONG for the presentation and invited Members to ask questions.
9. Mr. CHAN Yim-Kwong, Joe, thanked Ms. WONG for visiting WTSDC to gauge Members’ views. He said that reference should be made to the experience gained in the PSB Charging Scheme when considering the issue of waste disposal charge. A comparison of the consumers’ behavioural changes before and after the implementation showed that the Scheme heaped substantial results. Therefore, it was expected that the charging of waste disposal fee could deliver similar results. However, he learned from the press that the fee would be charged on an individual-block basis and opined that such charging mode would be like the one adopted in the PSB Charging Scheme with the fee being charged on individual retailers instead of individual persons, which might not be able to bring out behavioural changes. First, since the Government had adequate fiscal reserves, the original intent of introducing the waste disposal fee should not be for cost recovery but for bringing out behavioural changes among members of the public for waste reduction through provision of financial disincentives. Therefore, the charging mode had to be linked with the behaviour of individual persons. Charging the fee on an individual-block basis would allow individual households to free ride on the waste reduction efforts of the others and not to proactively reduce waste. The effectiveness of the scheme would then be hampered. Although charging on an individual-household basis might encounter administrative difficulty and required further discussion, he did not want to see that the waste disposal fee would be charged on an individual-block or housing estate basis because the latter would only lead to a behavioural change of owners’ incorporations but fail to have effect at individual person
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 11 and household levels. The effectiveness of the scheme would be undermined. Besides, he said that large-scale housing estates in general had abundant space for lobby facilities but did not provide adequate space for refuse storage chambers. While provision of material recovery facilities at stairways might block the fire escapes, he therefore suggested that the Government should exempt the property developers from paying the land premium for the floor area providing environmental protection facilities in order to enhance their incentive to include environmental protection facilities in their design plans.
10. Mr. HO Yin-fai welcomed Ms. WONG to the WTSDC. He was pleased to note that Hong Kong had made advancement in terms of resources management and living quality, and with wider scopes being covered. It was commendable. However, he was concerned that the number of environmental friendly bags would greatly increase upon implementation of the PSB Charging Scheme. Some media reported that environmental unfriendly materials were used in production of environmental friendly bags. He enquired if the Government had done anything to regulate the production and treatment of environmental friendly bags. Besides, he was of the view that stringent enforcement actions had been taken against idling vehicles with running engines during the tenure of the former Secretary for the Environment but it seemed that the grip was currently loosened. He asked if the continuum of the actions had been affected. He also asked the Bureau about its stance on “three landfills and one incinerator” and opined that if no substantial progress could be made in respect of the proposal, members of the public might have to treat waste on their own when the landfills saturated after three years.
11. Mr. LAI Wing-ho, Joe, MH thanked Ms. WONG and the representatives of EPD for visiting WTSDC to gauge Members’ views. He considered that the Government environmental protection promotion efforts had brought forth a certain extent of change to people’s lives. But efforts were not strong enough. Although the Government’s efforts in promoting waste reduction had gained general support of the community, such efforts could not catch up with the ever-changing market and short life cycle of products, especially small electrical appliances (such as smart phones). Meanwhile, members of the public tended to pay more money to get movers to dispose large electrical appliances for them. Various government departments should work together and handle the issue from a market perspective so that effective solution could be worked out. Besides, the Government’s waste-to-energy efforts did not meet the development need of the industry. For example, currently a majority of food waste was reproduced to fish feed and pig feed but our fish farming and pig farming accounted for only a small proportion of the local GDP. Unlike us, Taiwan had a flourishing livestock and poultry farming industry to support the development of its recycling industry. In his recent visit to Taiwan, he saw a “Taiwan Excellence” winning product offered by the Ministry of Economic Affairs of Taiwan, and noted that
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 12 the enterprise had ridden on the local prevalent coffee culture and collaborated with a university to develop the popular “S. Cafe Fiber” by using coffee ground. As for the noise pollution problem in Wong Tai Sin District, he said that the problem remained as old technology resurfacing materials were still used for several main trunk roads in the district, including Lung Cheung Road, Prince Edward Road East and Clear Water Bay Road. He hoped that the Administration could tackle the problem as soon as possible. Lastly, he said that some members of the public relayed to him that the service life of most of the buses of Kowloon Motor Bus (KMB) Company serving the Kowloon East District (especially Wong Tai Sin and Tsz Wan Shan) exceeded 15 years. As KMB buses were the major source of pollutant emission in the territory, he asked if the Bureau had any solution to the problem.
(Mr. LEE Tat-yan, BBS, MH arrived at the meeting at 3:15 p.m.)
12. Mr. MOK Kin-wing thanked Ms. WONG for visiting WTSDC to gauge Members’ views. He said that the Water Supplies Department was piloting its "Let's Save 10L Water" Scheme under which Choi Hung Estate was one of the participants. With the assistance of Members’ Offices, these residents made application for installation of flow controllers. The cost of these flow controllers was about $30 for three. The ENB had earlier also rolled out a fluorescent lamps replacement programme which however fizzled out after implementation for a while. He enquired about the reasons for ending the programme and asked whether the Bureau would consider inviting offices of Members and other related organisations to help the public make the application and provide assistance in the publicity. Besides, one could see that the food waste issue of housing estates was more complicated. While some private housing estates and owners’ corporations had the resources to apply for funding to set up composters for collecting food waste, there was no programme of similar nature for our large-scale public rental housing (PRH) estates and the cost of setting up a food waste composter was rather high. He asked whether there would be any programme for provision of food waste composters to large-scale PRH estates and he believed that provision of such facilities would facilitate food waste collection from the residents. Lastly, he said that a pilot programme on source separation of glass bottles had once been launched in Kowloon East region and asked whether the programme would be launched again or become an on-going initiative of PRH estates.
13. Mr. HUI Kam-shing said that as mentioned in the presentation of Ms. WONG, about 40% of the waste in landfills was food waste. He opined that the Government efforts were inadequate and enquired about the measures of the government. While the development of organic waste treatment facilities in Siu Ho Wan could not be completed until after several years, its treatment capacity was not unlimited and no match to the current daily production of our food waste. Besides, food waste was in itself a kind of solid waste. It would be hard for members of the
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 13 public to buy in if the Government implemented the solid waste charging proposal without putting in place viable supporting options. Tackling of food waste issue also required dovetailing between provision of “hard ware” (provision of ancillary facilities) and “software” (encouragement of public participation), which the Government had to take into serious consideration. He also shared Mr. MOK Kin-wing’s view in that as currently one-third of our population lived in PRH estates, the Hong Kong Housing Authority and Housing Department should seriously consider how they could tie in with the Government’s efforts in implementing the solid waste charging scheme and tackling the food waste issue. Better coordination among and support from relevant government departments were also be required. The ENB and EPD played a very important role in this regard. Since no instant results of their work would be generated, the urgency might be overlooked and the work progress might then be affected. However, the problem was getting worse and such efforts should be made without any delay. The Government should earnestly tackle the issue.
14. The Chairman said that he would like to, as the Chairman of East Kowloon District Residents’ Committee, take the opportunity to brief the meeting on the operation of the Community Recycling Centre in Wong Tai Sin District. About 18 months ago, the Government allocated a sum of $1.5 million from the ECF to Wong Tai Sin District to support the setting up of a community recycling centre there. It was stated in the contract that the minimum monthly collection volume should be at least 2.3 tonnes. However, in the current operation, the volume of monthly collection had already reached as much as 7.3 tonnes. Despite the limit in size, the centre managed to achieve such encouraging results. However, he also considered that the figure was a reflection of a huge demand for plastic items collection and the situation was worrying. Noting that there were less single-block residential buildings in Wong Tai Sin District, he was of the view that the Government should invite more non-government organisations to join this programme. Besides, in view of the fact that the plastics collection work was implemented by tapping on the power of community networks, he suggested the Government to buy food waste composters at a low price and then provide them to non-government organisations and residents’ groups for collection of food waste by residents. It would not only help reduce waste at source but also help cultivate a habit of recycling among our next generations through personal participation in recycling activities. Lastly, he concurred with the view of Mr. LAI Wing-ho, Joe, MH on the noise problem of road traffic, pointing out that the noise problem of trunk roads in Wong Tai Sin District had been a subject of concern for more than a decade, but no effective measures had been adopted so far by the relevant government departments. This Council had requested provision of anti-skid dressing on the carriageway concerned. The representatives of EPD had also admitted that the dressing would be of some help, but the work of dressing-laying was not under the Department’s purview. Meanwhile, the Department of Highways (HyD) did not support laying dressing, and therefore, the proposal was not implemented. There were
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 14 many road sections in Hong Kong with similar traffic noise problem persisting for years and progress had all along been slow. He asked, apart from through the use of materials, if there was any facilities that could possibly help alleviate the noise problem.
15. Ms. WONG thanked Members for their views and her responses were highlighted as follows:
(i) Idling vehicles with running engines
The legislation banning idling vehicles with running engines had already come into operation and the ban was enforced by both traffic wardens and officers of the EPD. Members of the public were encouraged to report on suspected cases of contravention through the Department’s Hotline, with provision of the location and details of the contravention. The Department would take follow-up actions with the information received and step up patrols and enforcement at the location concerned.
(ii) “Three Landfills and One Incinerator” Proposal
The “Three Landfills and One Incinerator” Proposal was an integral part of the ENB and EPD’s waste management strategy, aiming at providing timely and sufficient waste management facilities. Waste management was an issue that we had to face. It was hoped that Members could understand that it was an issue of people's livelihood, but not a political issue. The Government was working hard to seek funding from the LegCo. The funding application of the proposal was being discussed by the FC and it was hoped that approval could be granted as soon as possible.
(iii) Resources Management
Plastic Shopping Bags Charging Scheme was our first producer responsibility scheme. It aimed at drawing the public’s attention to use less plastic shopping bags through imposing a direct economic disincentive. The Government was currently contemplating other producer responsibility schemes, including those for used glass beverage bottles as well as waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEP). They were in the pipeline for submission to the LegCo for discussion. All these schemes, in
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 15 principle, requested importers or consumers to prepay the recycling fees as waste producers. The specific charge rates should be determined by making reference to that of the supporting facilities used in future. Through producer responsibility schemes, both the product manufacturers and users had to share the responsibility for the disposal of products. These schemes would put in place collection and treatment systems which enabled recyclable materials to be put back to production line and substantially reduced the volume of materials disposed. As the systems had to be set up from scratch and many operation details had to be carefully worked out, the progress was slower than expected. Drafting of legislation took some time and submission to the LegCo for scrutiny was also required. During the process, the Department would also make use of its internal resources to pilot the schemes, for example, by provision of more collection outlets for used glass beverage bottles. The ultimate aim was to establish a statutory regime for the producer responsibility schemes. With the powers conferred by the legislation concerned, recycling fees could be charged on consumers and future recycling work could be arranged.
(iv) Recycling Facilities
Currently, over 80% of housing estates had recycling facilities on each floor or at lobby. It was required in legislation that the new buildings had to provide a room on each floor for storage of recyclable items. For existing old buildings which could not have similar arrangement due to the space constraint, provision of recycling facilities at lobby would be their improvised alternatives. When each administrative district had established an environmental protection education centre under the “Community Green Station” programme, recycling work would become easier.
(v) Market Factor
Our market developed rapidly. What incentives should be introduced for the market through government policies was a question worth consideration. The Bureau would like to augment the system by tapping on the experiences of other places.
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 16 (vi) Food Waste Problem
Currently, about 4 000 tonnes of food waste was generated daily, with two-thirds of which coming from residential sector while one-third of which from commercial and industrial (C&I) sources, such as food manufacturers, chain food premises and restaurants. The first step of our current strategy was targeted at C&I food waste. The Government had drawn up the Food Waste Reduction Good Practice Guide (the Guide) to remind the food trade practitioners that food materials also constituted part of the costs. The Guide helped the practitioners achieve waste reduction by providing them with multiple approaches, for example, control of food materials, provision of “less rice” option for customers, and so on. Besides, the Government was currently joining hands with the food catering sector to roll out a food waste recycling trial scheme. A pilot food waste composting plant in Kowloon Bay had also been set up. Following the guide, the food and beverage sector would separate food waste for recycling and weed out those unsuitable ones. After the separation process, the food waste would be delivered to the composting plant in Kowloon Bay for further process. Similar operation mode would also be adopted in the future food waste treatment facilities in Siu Ho Wan. It was hoped that the quantity-based MSW charging system could create an economic disincentive and the charging system of food waste treatment facilities could encourage separation and recycling of food waste. The Government had taken waste-to-energy as the target of food waste treatment, for example, turning food waste into energy with market demand, such as electricity and biogas. Many other treatment methods were also developed to cope with the market changes, for example, for provision of fish feed. The Government would dovetail with the market development, examine the strength of the economic disincentives under the MSW charging scheme, and then study whether food waste collection and treatment services should be provided by private sector. It would continue to keep an eye on the market development and hoped that more flexible and effective methods could be worked out for dealing with the issue.
If food waste was to be treated on an individual residential estate basis, their costs for the machines and manpower involved tended to be higher – could be as much as ten times of that of the
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 17 centralised treatment facilities due to low collection volume. However, food waste collection efforts at individual residential estate would be of educational value and costs was not the sole factor for consideration. Therefore, the Department would, through the ECF, assist interested residential estates to implement short term food waste collection programme. As for the suggestion of conducting food waste collection and treatment at PRH estates as raised by a Member, the Department noted the suggestion and would in the future discuss with the relevant government departments to include some appropriate supporting measures under the framework of the quantity-based MSW charging scheme.
(vii) Traffic Noise Problem
When planning new roads, the Government would definitely consider the noise impact on the nearby residents and would include facilities like noise barriers in the design. However, it was relatively difficult to do the same to the existing roads and the Bureau had already explained it to Members for a number of times. For Member’s suggestion of laying anti-skid dressing on the carriageway of Lung Cheung Road and Prince Edward Road East, the Department noted it and would consider taking follow-up action. Progress made would be reported in writing to the DC in due course.
16. Ms. WONG added that environmental protection was an on-going and forward moving commitment. The Bureau was thankful to Members for their views which would be taken into consideration in future policy development. If there was any further progress, the Bureau would come again to exchange views with Members.
17. Mr. SO Sik-kin said that through the visits paid in the past couple of years, for example, a visit to the refuse collection point in Sai Wan, he met many environmental protection groups and organisations and understood the extensive work done by and the difficult missions of the ENB and EPD. He was of the view that education on environmental protection should start at an early age so that children could understand the concept and acquire practical skills of environmental protection when they were small. In Taiwan and Japan, all households gave efforts in environmental protection. He hoped that those in Hong Kong could also follow suit to protect their community. The landfills were running out of space. If sufficient education could be provided to our next generation, environmental protection work
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 18 could be more effective. Besides, he said that he had been living in the large-scale housing estate in the district for many years and had made application to the EPD for installation of a food waste composter. However, such proposal was not able to be implemented. Many housing estates in the district also wished to set up food waste composters but met with difficulties due to insufficient space and low collection volume. To ease the pressure of our landfills, he suggested that while the Government was going to build a food waste treatment centre in Siu Ho Wan, it should also make reference to the relevant practices in the Southeast Asia region and send out vehicles to collect food waste for centralised treatment. Lastly, he said that some residents of Wing Sin House, Upper Wong Tai Sin Estate had recently lodged complaints to the Wong Tai Sin District Office, Mr. HUI Kam-shing and he himself as well, against widespread parking at Wong Tai Sin Road by tourist coaches with destination at the Wong Tai Sin Temple. Their long parking time with engines kept on running had caused nuisances. He said that the issue would be brought to the meeting of the Traffic and Transport Committee for discussion and called upon the Department to pay attention. He also enquired about the complaint hotline number of the EPD.
18. Mr. CHAN Shu-to, Kenneth answered that the EPD’s complaint hotline number was 2838 3111.
19. Ms. WONG said that the work of food waste collection was different from that of the refuse collection. Food waste recycling work would involve some difficulties and the details had to be worked out. If food waste recycling work could be implemented, the frequency of refuse collection could be possibly reduced. The Bureau had confidence in overcoming the difficulties and would keep working on the issue. Besides, she responded that she shared the view of Mr. CHAN Yim-kwong, Joe in that the effectiveness of the MSW charging scheme would be hampered if the charge was to be collected on an individual-block basis. Currently, the Department was conducting a trial scheme in seven housing estates hiring property management companies. Under the trial scheme, the mode of MSW charging would be respectively on the basis of “by household by bag”, “by total weight of waste disposed by the building” and “by total volume of waste disposed by the building”. From the observation in the past few months, one could see that the volume of waste produced had reduced under all the three charging modes, with the first mode achieving the best results. However, “by household by bag” mode yielded the lowest participation rate among the three. Each mode had its merits and demerits. In Hong Kong, multi-storey buildings were in great numbers. It would be quite a challenge if charging mode on an individual-household basis was adopted. The Department was keeping an eye on the relevant discussions and the trial, and it was believed that the SDC could shortly give its recommendations to the Government for consideration. To implement the MSW charging scheme, we had to let members of the public see the effectiveness of the scheme and ensure that its operation could be effectively
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 19 implemented. Even if the Government would tap on the experiences of other places, some adjustments might have to be made to suit the local situation. The DC would be further consulted when detailed proposal had come up.
20. The Hon. WU Chi-wai, MH, hoped that the Government could give higher priority to the household-based MSW charging mode so that individual household could directly enjoy the financial incentive from waste reduction and mindset of the community could be transformed. Other than this, he said that in promoting recycling as a green initiative, great efforts had been made to identify local communities for collaboration and establish environmental protection resources centres in all districts. During the process, many difficulties had been encountered and the relevant experiences had also been shared with the Director in various occasions. Finally, he pointed out that the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) and Housing Department (HD) had many cleansing contractors. He hoped that the EPD could seek the FEHD and HD’s support in urging their cleansing contractors to take up the recycling duties as appropriate, in a bid to enhance the efficiency of recycling networks. He also enquired the Department about the progress of this aspect of work.
21. Ms. WONG responded that the FEHD and HD were important partners in district recycling work. On top of its primary duty of refuse collection for environmental hygiene maintenance, the FEHD also took charge of the management of the three-colour waste separation bins (3-colour bins) in various districts. In the newly granted contracts on the 3-colour bins and rubbish bins, provisions requiring contractors to deliver the materials collected to the designated recyclers were added. In response to the saying made by some organisations earlier that the materials inside the recycle bins had been sent to the landfills, the EPD would monitor the work of recyclers. Education and publicity efforts would also be made in a bid to encourage members of the public to clean up the materials before putting them into recycle bins to avoid contamination. Besides, the EPD would also join hands with the HD to organise waste reduction activities in housing estates. HD had also added the relevant provisions in its public housing estates management contracts, requiring the management companies to regularly organise second-hand exchange activities as education and public initiatives, on top of their putting in place recycle bins in the housing estates. She said that she had observed the activities concerned held in some public housing estates and talked to the participants, and she found that such activities were well-received. There were many PRH estates in Wong Tai Sin District. Members were welcomed to inform the Department if they found that the participation rate or proactiveness, and so on, of these activities in any particular PRH estates required further enhancement.
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 20 22. The Chairman concluded that future consultation of MSW charging and waste reduction issue would be passed to the Food and Environmental Hygiene Committee for further discussions. He thanked Ms. WONG and the representatives of EPD for attending the meeting of WTSDC, and hoped that the ENB and EPD would take note of Members’ views. He also wished the Bureau and Department smooth work.
(Mr. CHAN Yim-kwong, Joe, and Mr. WONG Kit-hin, Peter left the meeting at 3:50 p.m.)
III(ii) Visit of Director of Leisure and Cultural Services to Wong Tai Sin District Council
23. The Chairman welcomed Ms. LI Mei-sheung, Michelle, JP, Director of Leisure & Cultural Services (LCSD) to the WTSDC. He also welcomed the attendance of the representatives of LCSD to the meeting, namely, Mr. MOK Man-kit, Keith, Senior Staff Officer, Miss TANG Man-wah, Sylvia, Chief Leisure Manager, Mr. TSANG Chin-kwong, Harry, Chief Executive Officer, Mrs. Annie WAN, Chief Librarian, and Mr. LAM Hok-hay, George, District Leisure Manager (Wong Tai Sin). He added that Members of the Wong Tai Sin District Council often liaised with the Department on the issues concerning leisure and cultural services, library, and arts and recreational facilities for jointly working out plans for provision of cultural and recreational services and facilities. He invited Ms. LI to brief the meeting on the future policy directions of the Department, especially its work in Wong Tai Sin District.
24. Ms. LI said that she was pleased to meet all Members and thanked Members for their continuous support to the LCSD. She briefed the meeting on the following five areas with the aid of powerpoint presentation:
(i) Facilities and Works
The Department had two major works projects in the pipeline. The first one was the “Conversion of the Secondary Pool of the Morse Park Swimming Pool into a Heated Pool” Project, which was a project of common concern of both Members and the Department. The major works was to convert the existing outdoor secondary pool into an indoor heated secondary pool, with a view to providing an all-weather swimming facility for public enjoyment. She particularly expressed gratitude to the WTSDC for its strenuous support to the Department on this project by endorsing the master plan of the project in May 2014.
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 21 The Architectural Services Department (ArchSD) was currently working on the detailed plan and LCSD would keep on carrying out its relevant steering work under the current mechanism. The second one was the “Enhancement of overall facilities of the Morse Park” Project. The project scope was rather wide and being carefully studied by the Department in the current stage. The Department would continue to follow up on the two projects and timely report the progress to Members.
(ii) Recreational and Sports
Regarding district facilities, the Department had provided six sports centres, two swimming pool venues, one sports grounds, 53 various leisure venues and 16.2 hectares of roadside flower beds and gardens in Wong Tai Sin District. Nan Lian Garden, the territory-wide facility with uniqueness, was also in the district. She believed that Members were very familiar with the sports centres in the district, such as the ones at Choi Hung Road, Chuk Yuen, Kai Tak East, Morse Park, Ngau Chi Wan, and Po Kong Village Road, and so on. The Department hoped to serve the public through provision of the said facilities.
There were a wide range of facilities under the purview of the Department, for example, the Hammer Hill Road Sports Ground, which had become the home field of Wong Tai Sin Football Team of the Hong Kong Premier League (HKPL). She took the opportunity to congratulate the Football Team for its fruitful achievements in the HKPL matches and wished the team further terrific performances in the coming matches. She also extended congratulations to Dr. WONG Kam-chiu, MH, as the representative of the Football Team. The Department would continue to keep an eye on the provision of facilities of the Hammer Hill Road Sports Ground. Meanwhile, the Department was aware of Members’ concerns over the display screen problem and understood that the current display screen equipment should be enhanced. As a longer-term solution, it would be taken care of altogether with other facilities in future enhancement projects. In the short term, the Department had made much effort, before this meeting, by borrowing display screen equipment from other neighbouring district for use as backup by the Hammer Hill Road Sports Ground. It was hoped that all aspects of requirements could be met.
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 22 The second facility was the Po Kong Village Road Park, which was a unique park in the territory. It provided, among others, an elevated cycling track, a cycling area for beginners, and a skatepark for residents in the district who loved stretching their limits. Besides, there were also an artificial turf pitch, fitness and children facilities. Not all districts were provided with a skatepark, which made the skatepark a very unique feature of Wong Tai Sin District
The third facility was the Ngau Chi Wan Park. She was pleased to see that the Park had a dedicated archery venue which was the first one in Hong Kong installed with a floodlighting system. It enabled both day and night-time use of the venue. The covered corridor along the shooting line of the outdoor archery range allowed archery activities to be held on rainy days. The turf facility also provided a venue for members of the public playing Tai Chi in early mornings. It was hoped that residents in the district could be engaged in more recreational activities.
Another park facility was the Nan Lian Garden. The Wong Tai Sin District was a very special district in which Wong Tai Sin Temple and Chi Lin Nunnery were located. The Department adopted a design of Tang Dynasty style for Nan Lian Garden in a bid to match with its adjacent Chi Lin Nunnery. Both the Chi Lin Nunnery and Nan Lian Garden were included into China’s World Heritage Tentative List by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage. It was the first time that Hong Kong architectural structures were included in the list and Wong Tai Sin District should be proud of this.
Apart from provision of facilities, the Department also organised a series of recreational and sports activities. For the year of 2014-15, the key recreational and sports programmes included the Hong Kong Games which was currently in the stage of strenuous preparation. The 5th Hong Kong Games would be held between 25 April and 31 May 2015. She was glad to know that the Wong Tai Sin District had achieved impressive results last year, for example, a championship of women's singles in tennis and championship of mixed doubles in table tennis, and the Highest Popularity Awards in the "Cheering Team Competition for 18 Districts". It could see that Wong Tai Sin District was quite an energetic district and rather supportive of all kinds of events
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 23 organised by the Department. She believed that the District was for the time being busy in selecting athletes and wished the delegation of Wong Tai Sin District further success in the event. In the year of 2014-15, Wong Tai Sin District had chosen football game as its signature sport. The football team of Wong Tai Sin District, as a district-level team, was promoted to the HKPL as one of its strong teams. She hoped that the Wong Tai Sin District could make sustained efforts for further development. It was expected that the Department would organise six football-related activities in the year with participants of over 1 200 persons. Besides, the Department would organise various activities like Football Fun Days, Sports for All Carnival, Fei Ngor Shan Fun Walk and Community Garden Programme, in a bid to serve the community.
(iii) Library
On public library services, the Wong Tai Sin District had two district libraries respectively located in Ngau Chi Wan and San Po Kong. There were also four small libraries respectively located in Lok Fu, Lung Hing, Fu Shan and Tsz Wan Shan. Noting that the local community and Members had high expectation on library services, the Department therefore hoped to serve the public by providing various library services including mobile library services. Apart from the libraries of the LCSD, i.e., the government-operated libraries, she was also grateful to see that some district groups in Wong Tai Sin District, including various organisations and Members’ Offices, were partnering with the Department in providing 13 community libraries in the district. Members or the organisations that Members knew were welcomed to join the Community Libraries Partnership Scheme. Members were welcomed to introduce the Scheme to others. The Department was also aware that the local community had pressing library service demands, such as expanding the scale of libraries. However, the Lung Hing Public Library, for example, was currently situated at a rather convenient location, but there was not much room for further expansion. While the Department would certainly try its best to meet the demand, a balance between convenient accessibility and rooms for expansion had to be struck. She hoped that Members could give more comments on this.
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 24 Apart from providing library services in physical form, the Department hoped that with the gradual migration into internet-based service, there would be more users of the library website and mobile phone application rolled out in 2014. She hoped that library services would become boundless and at fingertips, which meant that members of the public could browse through all publications and borrow books without having the need to go to libraries in person. She also hoped that with the coming of digital era, more and more people could enjoy library services without time and location constraints. The Department had already rolled out a new mobile application “My Library” in 2014 and she encouraged Members to download the application if they had not done so to enjoy the various convenient service functions of the application, such as reminders to readers on the return date of the borrowed items and reservation of library materials.
The Department also possessed electronic databases and electronic books. Currently, there were 62 e-databases for public use. Many e-books were also available to allow members of the public to read the materials on their own schedules at anywhere to suit their needs.
(iv) Arts and Cultural Facilities
The Department primarily took the Ngau Chi Wan Civic Centre as the flagship cultural facility in Wong Tai Sin District. The Civic Centre had two venues for arts performance, namely, the Theatre with seating capacity of 354 persons and the Cultural Activities Hall. Both the Theatre and the Hall recorded high usage rate of 97% and 73% respectively. She was also very happy to see that the two venue partners of the Department were making active efforts in promoting audience-building activities in the district. Apart from the two venues, Music Practice Room and Art Studios were also available at the Civic Centre for organising various kinds of training courses, performances and activities.
The Department hoped to, by making continued efforts in organising cultural activities and through the activities organised by various groups and organisations, provide an array of fabulous programmes for Wong Tai Sin District. The cultural activities organised by the Department could be quoted as examples. Its
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 25 Cultural Presentations Section and Festivals Office would organise about 77 arts and cultural events in the year of 2014-15, with expected audience of over 8 000 persons. Other than Ngau Chi Wan Civic Centre, the Department would also conduct many free entertainment programmes at different venues in Wong Tai Sin District, including parks, sport grounds, community halls and open spaces, to promote culture and performance arts among the public. Every month, the Department would organise two events. There would be a total of 24 events a year, with anticipated number of spectators being 4 200. For example, some programmes were organised at the Podium of Fu Shan Estate and Fung Tak Estate Community Centre to share fun with the public.
(v) Monuments and Intangible Cultural Heritages
Protection of Monuments and Intangible Cultural Heritages was one of the Department’s service areas. In Wong Tai Sin District, there were 11 items of graded historic buildings. Two items were Grade I historic buildings, including the Wong Tai Sin Temple while four items were of Grade II, including the Gate House of St. Joseph's Home for the Aged. The five items of Grade III historic buildings included the gate of Nga Tsin Wai Village. Through protection of these tangible and intangible heritages, it was hoped that preservation of cultural legacy could be further promoted in Wong Tai Sin District.
The Department also attached importance to preservation of intangible cultural heritage. A survey commissioned to the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) was completed in 2013, and the representatives of HKUST reported the survey findings to the Community Building and Social Services Committee (CBSSC) under WTSDC in September 2013. After considering the views of the public, the Department announced in June 2014 its first inventory containing 480 items of intangible cultural heritage of Hong Kong. Among these items, the Yu Lan Ghost Festival in Wong Tai Sin District was included. Although other different districts also organised Yu Lan Ghost Festival, Wong Tai Sin District attached special importance to this event. Other items such as Wong Tai Sin Festival and Oral Legend of Lam Lineage in Chuk Yuen were also included. In November 2013, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 26 Government further submitted an application to the Ministry of Culture for inscribing “Wong Tai Sin Belief and Customs” onto the Fourth National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage, the list which was of higher-level. The item was on the inscription recommendation list for nation-wide publication. She hoped that there would be good news to share with Members when the results announced by end of 2014.
(Ms. TAM Heung-man, Mandy, arrived at 4:05 p.m.)
25. Ms. LI said that she wished to hear more feedbacks from and exchange views with Members on the above-mentioned five areas of work and facilities.
26. The Chairman thanked Ms. LI for the briefing and invited Members to express views on the work of LCSD.
27. The Vice-chairman thanked Ms. LI for her visit to the WTSDC and gave his views on promotion of football game. He pointed out that football game was one of the most popular sports in Hong Kong and that he as the representative of Wong Tai Sin Football Team to HKPL, had personally witnessed the perseverance and sportsmanship that the young players demonstrated at football pitch and considered that football game should be staunchly promoted in Hong Kong. However, the current support given by the Government to the district teams was inadequate. For example, the district team of Wong Tai Sin District could only secure a subsidy from the Government up to only $1,500,000 for each football season. Yet, a professional district football team of HKPL had many operational expenses and administration costs which could hardly be covered by $1,500,000. Therefore, he hoped that the Government could consider injecting more resources to the district team and setting up a matching fund to encourage local football teams to be more proactive in finding sponsors. Besides, there was not enough venue of football training pitch in Wong Tai Sin District. He would like to take the opportunity to, on behalf of the Wong Tai Sin District Recreation and Sports Council and Wong Tai Sin District Football Team of HKPL, solemnly thanked Mr. LAM, District Leisure Manager of LCSD and his colleagues for their support rendered in the past several years, with which the football team could emerge from only a third division team to one of the HKPL teams within a short period of two years. He also thanked Mr. LAM for prompt completion of the re-turfing works of Hammer Hill Road Sports Ground with satisfactory quality and results. The pitch was subsequently accepted by the Hong Kong Football Association as the home field of the Wong Tai Sin District team of HKPL. Regarding the pitch, he had two requests. First, it was hoped that the Department could, as far as possible, minimise the number of rent-out session of the Hammer Hill Road Sports Ground so as to protect and strengthen the maintenance of the turf. Second, it was hoped that the Department
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 27 could as quickly as possible provide a fixed scoreboard tower with timing equipment. Nowadays, all district football matches would be live-broadcasted on television. It would be embarrassing if the home field of the Wong Tai Sin District team could not keep abreast of time and did not have such a basic facility.
(Mr. CHAN Wai-kwan, Andie and Ms. KWOK Sau-ying left the meeting at 4:10 p.m.)
28. Mr. KAN Chi-ho, BBS, MH, JP thanked Ms. LI for paying visit to the WTSDC to collecting views. After the Government had changed its administration mode with devolvement of powers to District Councils, there was a substantial advancement and enhancement in the recreation and sports facilities of Wong Tai Sin District in the past couple of years, especially in the management aspect. As what had been said by Ms. LI, there was a rapid growth in the number of recreational and sports facilities in Wong Tai Sin District in these couple of years. For example, the Cycling Area and Archery Range mentioned by Ms. LI. They were not only one of the best facilities in Hong Kong, but also boosted the development of recreation and sport activities of Wong Tai Sin District. However, the usage of such venues could be further enhanced by, for example, strengthening publicity on the cycling venue and encouraging public participation in the events and competition, so as to achieve full utilisation and avoid wastage. Secondly, for the management of the facilities, as said by the Vice-chairman, Ms. LI should give credit to her Wong Tai Sin District leisure management team. Since the change in administration mode of District Council, the leisure management team had been working well with the District Council. As the Chairman of the District Facilities Management Committee (DFMC), he was strongly impressed by the team, especially by their cooperativeness with DC in organising programmes, including all kinds of major programmes conducted at the LCSD’s venues, and the football related activities that the Vice-chairman had just mentioned. The Department’s cooperative efforts made in the major programmes organised at Tsz Wan Shan Central Playground in all these years were particularly commendable. As for the library services, he said that he had already given his views in several occasions and would like to take the opportunity of Ms. LI’s visit, expressed his views again. As mentioned in Ms. LI’s briefing just then, there were two major libraries and four small libraries in Wong Tai Sin District. However, as a district with a large number of public housing estates, Wong Tai Sin District had a very high service demand for both the library and study room facilities. From a statistical point of view, the utilisation rate of Tsz Wan Shan Public Library (a small library) alone was higher than that of a district major library. This Council had already been suggesting more small libraries be set up in the sub-districts such as Chuk Yuen for many years. It was believed that Ms. LI could vigorous fight for the Wong Tai Sin District in this regard.
(Mr. MOK Kin-wing, Mr. WONG Kwok-tung left the meeting at 4:15 p.m.)
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 28 29. The Hon WU Chi-wai, MH expressed his concern over library services. The library services provided in the district was relatively agreeable. However, Wong Tai Sin District was a district dispersedly developed on the hillside with distinctive delineation among the communities. Therefore, this Council suggested that more small libraries be set up, particularly for the communities in the vicinity of Chuk Yuen, Tin Ma Court and Tsui Chuk Garden, i.e. the communities being served by 4 to 5 DC Members and with population of over 100 000 persons. In the past, the Department refused to set up more libraries on the ground that there was no sufficient space and Chuk Yuen Estate’s space had already been fully occupied. However, he was very disappointed to find that the Department did not include a library in the future new complex be developed for reprovisioning the recreational and sports facilities of Ma Chai Hang Recreation Ground. One could not help doubting the Department’s sincerity in promoting library services because it did not take the provision into consideration and make proposal when it had the way and chance to do so. The above said areas were still using the services of mobile library vans and the service demand was high. If small libraries could be established for those areas, then mobile library vans could have more time to serve the more remote areas. In fact, among the various recreational facilities, library was the most cost-effective one. The daily patronage of each small library was more than a thousand but its annual recurrent expenditure incurred might just be about 5 million. From this perspective, it was very worth for the money and cost-effective. Therefore, he hoped to, during Ms. LI’s visit to this Council, request a review on the situation and urge the Department to include an area-based small library when developing a new complex at Ma Chai Hang Recreation Ground for serving the community.
30. The Hon. CHAN Yuen-han, SBS, JP, delivered her views in respect of two issues. The first one was about the heated swimming pool of Morse Park. When she was running for election, she received many views from the residents on the project which had been discussed for many times during the term of office of Mr LAM Man-fai, JP, a previous term DC Member. Residents of this district had already been waiting for a very long time. She asked Ms. LI about the current progress of the heated swimming pool project and whether the works could be commenced by end of 2014. She hoped that the Department could furnish a timetable. The second one was on the heritage. Saying that she had been working in Wong Tai Sin District and following up on the issue for many years, she noted that the Department was also concerned about the issue but she was disappointed that the problem still remained. Dr. Patrick HO Chi-ping, JP, the then Secretary for Home Affairs, had paid a visit with her to Nga Tsin Wai Village. However, after the visit, Mr. TSANG Yam-kuen, Donald, the then Chief Executive decided not to preserve it. She said that the site of the grade 3 historic building, i.e. the gate house of Nga Tsin Wai Village as mentioned by Ms. LI, would be developed in the future by a sizeable property developer into buildings with height higher than those of Tung Tau Estate, with its stone plaque remained intact and put back
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 29 to the site. She said that Nga Tsin Wai Village should definitely not be turned into a back garden of property developer. Wong Tai Sin District had the stone plaque, and “Tin Hau” Temple (Oral Legend of Lam Lineage in Chuk Yuen), which were of high importance and historical value. Yet, the Government had never cherished them. Wong Tai Sin District and Kowloon City District were blessed, with the front of Nga Tsin Wai Village being the Kowloon Walled City Park and back being the Hau Wong Temple. All of them formed a line. Together with the old well excavated 500 metres off the “Pavilion for Greeting Officials” at the former Kai Tak Airport site, it formed an intact site of antiquities and monuments spanning from the Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. She asked if the officials of HAB had listened to the views raised and if they would be interested in having dialogues. She, together with Professor SIU Kwok-kin and some other people, had been making unswerving efforts and spending long time in following up the issue. Besides, she also commended Mrs Carrie LAM CHENG Yuet-ngor, GBS, JP, Chief Secretary for Administration, and the DC colleagues as well, for their efforts made in turning the Kai Tai River into a beautiful river. As to how the Nga Tsin Wai Village and Kai Tak River should be linked up, it would be the job of everybody present. She had heard that the management of the entire Kai Tak River would be put under the purview of the Drainage Services Department and that LCSD was not quite willing to take up. Therefore, she would like to clarify with Ms. LI. If Ms. LI did care about the antiquities and monuments of Wong Tai Sin District, she could inspect the district together with Ms. LI, showing Ms. LI the huge potentials of the antiquities and monuments in Wong Tai Sin District in promoting tourism and economic development. The crux lied in whether the Government would adopt the approach of “point, line, surface” in the linking up, as referred by Dr. Patrick HO Chi-ping, JP.
(Mr. MOK Chung-fai, Rex, MH, JP and the Hon. WU Chi-wai, MH left the meeting at 4:20 p.m.)
31. Mr. HO Yin-fai thanked Ms. LI for paying visit to the WTSDC for consultation and giving Members an account on the facilities of Wong Tai Sin District. Hong Kong was a small territorial unit. He was pleased to see that there were many recreational and sports facilities, and historic sites in Wong Tai Sin District. Quantifiably speaking, the number was not small. As what Mr. KAN Chi-ho, BBS, MH, JP, had said, the whole Wong Tai Sin District witnessed a big improvement in the past few years in provision of arts and recreational facilities, and Members had been working happily with Mr. LAM of LCSD. Nonetheless, he wanted to remind everybody that there was a tree management issue of the parks in Wong Tai Sin District. He worried that tree collapse incidents would take place in the venues under the purview of the Department. In fact, there were quite a number of parks under the purview of the Department with many trees therein. He worried that the Department’s efforts in tree preservation, inspection and care were inadequate. As many people
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 30 would take strolls, do exercises in the mornings or go jogging in the evenings in parks, he hoped that Ms. LI could be watchful enough to see if the trees and plants in the LCSD venues would suddenly become fragile or collapse. He had joined Mr. LAM for tree inspection in other district, during which Mr. LAM told him that some trees had become fragile and askew and that they had to be sawn off. He said that this issue was worth attention and hoped that Ms. LI could pay attention to those in the Wong Tai Sin District so as to avoid occurrence of tragedies. On the other hand, there were many facilities in the district, such as the archery range and cycling tracks. Apart from libraries, indoor sports centres also had a high patronage rate. Residents in the district frequently relayed to him that it was difficult to secure a booking of badminton court. He hoped that if the circumstances of the district still allowed, more indoor sports facilities of similar nature could be developed.
32. Mr. SO Sik-kin said that he, just like other Members, was very concerned about the works project of the heated swimming pool of Morse Park. He remembered that the project had already been endorsed by the previous term of DC but it was curently still under the ArchSD’s study. Residents and swimming associations in the district had all along been requesting for the commencement of the works and they had been told by Members of the third-term DC that Wong Tai Sin District would have a heated swimming pool in the Morse Park. However, the works still had not yet started. As these parties did not understand that the works project involved many procedures, they frequently made enquiries to Members. Both Members and Mr. LAM were under huge pressure, and he frequently enquired Mr. LAM about the works progress. It was hoped that keener efforts would be made for the prompt commencement and early completion of the works project after Ms. LI had noted that the works project of the heated swimming pool was of Members’ concern. Besides, the site of Ma Chai Hang Recreation Ground was currently used as a works site of the Shatin to Central Link (SCL) by the MTRCL, and an indoor sports centre with a small-scale building would be developed on the site in the future reprovisioning exercise. In fact, the Chuk Yuen area, including its South Estate, North Estate, Pang Ching Court, Ying Fuk Court and Tsui Chuk Garden, together with the nearby Tin Ma Court and Tin Wang Court, had a population of almost 100 000. However, there was not even a small library for them. Only the Tsui Chuk Garden and Chuk Yuen South Estate were served by a mobile library van. In his impression, mobile library van should serve the rural areas instead. He felt sad that such a highly populated area was not provided with even a small library. Many elderly residents would read magazines in library and many young people would use study room for reading. Therefore, there would be a patronage rate. When the Ma Chai Hang Recreation Ground was to be reprovisioned, Members had reached a consensus that a library was to be established there. However, this Council was then requested to invite local organisations to undertake the operation of small library before it could be set up. It was saddening. Taking the chance of Ms. LI’s visit to this Council for consultation, he hoped that the Department could consider establishing a
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 31 small library for this densely-populated “hilly area”. In fact, the SCL had caused various nuisances, including the traffic one, to the nearby residents and the works site would not be restored until 2018. Therefore, they would cherish this place very much and he hoped that Ms. LI could give them a hand when conducting the future reprovisioning exercise. Other than this, having joined the Hong Kong Games every year since its debut, he strongly agreed with Mr. KAN Chi-ho, BBS, MH, JP, that this Council had been working closely and smoothly with the LCSD and that the team of Mr. LAM Hok-hay, George, District Leisure Manager and Mr. YU Man-kuen, Deputy District Leisure Manager had all along been very cooperative. They answered telephone calls even during holidays or midnights and were ready to offer assistance in solving many problems. He would like to take this opportunity to thank and commend Mr. LAM’s team for their commitment in service provision.
33. Mr. YUEN Kwok-keung, Stephen, continued the issue of library service in Tsz Wan Shan raised by Mr. KAN Chi-ho, BBS, MH, JP, and he pointed out that in fact this Council had been striving for establishment of a library in Tsz Wan Shan in the past several years. The car park on two lower-ground floors of the Ancillary Facilities Block of Tsz Lok Estate managed by the Link Real Estate Investment Trust (Link REIT) had been vacated for some time. In his opinion, as the residents in Tsz Wan Shan had strong demand for library service, altering the two floors into a library could be considered and the problem of insufficient space could also be answered. Dr. James LAU Chi-wang, BBS, JP, had already finished the feasibility study concerned and submitted the report to the Department. Yet the proposal was rejected by the Department for unknown reasons. At the beginning, the Link REIT gave the green light on the proposal, leaving the proposal to the LCSD for action or HAB for approval. However, the Link REIT later pointed out that it did not want to have the library relocated there. In addition, he said that Tsz Wan Shan had a population of 100 000 persons, whereas the population of Fung Tak and Fung Wang areas, together with those of the Diamond Hill area and several other housing estates added up to almost 200 000 residents. If there was a policy requiring that a district library could be provided only to the area with a population of 200 000 persons, he considered that exception could be made. Just as what another Member had mentioned, the cost of providing a library was very low and the culture of reading was worth promoting. Nowadays members of the public were obtaining information mainly through the internet, and therefore it was worth promoting a culture of reading in Wong Tai Sin and Tsz Wan Shan. Another point was that Wong Tai Sin and Tsz Wan Shan were the districts whose housing developments were mainly PRH estates. The flats were small and overcrowded. Many students said that it was difficult for them concentrate on study or revision for examination at home where no satisfactory environment was provided. Hence, there was a strong demand for library and study rooms among residents of Wong Tai Sin and Tsz Wan Shan districts. As these facilities reached full capacity at all time during examination seasons, he suggested that provision of “through train” or integrated library
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 32 services with facilities of library and study room and reading corner for children at the carpark site could be considered so as to cater for the needs of the community.
(Ms. TAM Heung-man, Mandy, left the meeting at 4:30 p.m.)
34. Mr. HUI Kam-shing pointed out that Members were very concerned about the provision of library services because the existing two district libraries in Wong Tai Sin District were rather close to the district boundary. Wong Tai Sin District was relatively a dispersedly developed hilly district. Therefore, if there was no library in Tsz Wan Shan, it would be impossible for residents there to get library services unless they made a long trip to Ngau Chi Wan or San Po Kong, and that would be unreasonable. Similarly, Chuk Yuen was another community developed on hill. As what Mr. SO Sik-kin had also just mentioned, Chuk Yuen was currently relying on the service of mobile library van, and the library services provided might be even worse than that for Tsz Wan Shan. Tsz Wan Shan had already got a small library which was still found to be inadequate and extension was needed. But Chuk Yuen even did not have a small library which was a basic facility. It had to rely on the service of mobile library van. Therefore, Ms. LI should seriously consider the suggestions just put forth by Mr. KAN Chi-ho, BBS, MH, JP and the Hon. WU Chi-wai, MH on setting up a small library at the leisure and cultural building or indoor sports centre when relocating the Ma Chai Hang Recreation Ground for the benefits of the residents.
35. Dr. WONG Kam-chiu added that in the coming season, there would be a basketball team in Wong Tai Sin District joining the Hong Kong Basketball League Men’s A1 Grade. Besides, he extended his gratitude to the District Officer and all the District Office staff for their constant support to the Wong Tai Sin District Recreation and Sports Council, which had facilitated them to achieve good results.
36. The Chairman considered that Wong Tai Sin District could not have attained such good results on cultural and sports aspects without the assistance of Wong Tai Sin team of LCSD led by Mr. LAM Hok-hay, George under the leadership of Ms. TANG Man-wah, Sylvia, Chief District Leisure Manager. Their performances were undoubtedly excellent. For culture events, although Ms. CHEUNG Ho-fong, Clare, was not the district-based Manager, she helped realise localisation of cultural activities. He was also grateful to the District Officer for rearranging the bookings of the community hall/centres to allow many cultural activities be held at community hall/centres. He took the opportunity to extend his gratitude again. Saying that many Members had expressed their views on library services, he opined that those who were responsible for the provision of library services had already tried their best and the inadequacy was due to the standard requirement for provision of library. He encouraged Members to, taking the opportunity of Ms. LI’s visit, reflect the huge demand of the public on library services and urge the Department to review and adjust
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 33 the established standard requirement in a bid to enrich the cultural life across the territory.
(Mr. CHAN On-tai arrived at the meeting as 4:35 p.m.)
37. Ms. LI thanked the Chairman, Vice-chairman and all Members for their recognition, appreciation and suggestions to the Department. Her reply in response of the questions and views of Members was as follows:
(i) Regarding the Vice-chairman’s suggestion on reduction of the number of rent-out sessions of the Hammer Hill Road Sports Ground, the Department understood and agreed that there was a need to spare more sessions for use by the locals, especially the local sports teams. Therefore, the number of rent-out sessions had been reduced from 60 sessions to 40 sessions per month in the hope that local sports teams could have more sessions for training and enjoyment. Meanwhile, the Department also hoped to raise the overall standard of turf care in Hong Kong and therefore had already hired a turf expert to inspect all turfs, in particular turf pitches, in Hong Kong and provide professional advice on turf maintenance and development of future turfs. It was hoped that more rent-out sessions could be available after taking these improvement measures.
(ii) Regarding the support for sports education, both the LCSD and HAB would keep giving out their support for the development of district football team. She would relay the aspiration of the district teams on funding to HAB.
(iii) Regarding the scoreboard with timing equipment, the Department understood the need of the district and hoped that the need could be met by short, medium and long term solutions. The short term solution was by deployment of the Department’s various resources. When the sports ground of Wong Tai Sin District was going to hold matches as home field, the scoreboard could be borrowed from its neighbouring district for use. In the long run, the issue could be hopefully dealt with in the overall enhancement works of the sports ground in the future. For the construction of an up-to-standard scoreboard, the Department had already examined different quotations and found that the estimated cost of the works was about $10 million. If the funding of district minor works could not support such works, she believed that the works
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 34 had to be included in a larger-scale works project as a priority item for consideration. She said that the Department had already taken the works into consideration.
(iv) Regarding the provision of other arts and recreational facilities, as what Mr. KAN Chi-ho, BBS, MH, JP had mentioned, the WTSDC had forged a partnership with the Department in this aspect through its participation, and its collaboration with the Department was through the DFMC under its purview. Under the lead of WTSDC, the two parties worked closely together and more local voices on the use and operation of recreational and arts facilities could be absorbed. She thanked Members for their precious views, and hoped that the partnership between the Department and DC could continue so that the local needs for recreational and arts facilities could be better served.
(v) Regarding the use of cycling area, the Department would make publicity and promotion efforts through various channels.
(vi) For the library services that many Members had just talked about, the Chairman had hit the nail on the head by saying that the crux of the problem lied on the planning standard requirement. Currently, Wong Tai Sin District had a population of about 430 000 persons. According to the prevailing planning standard, the current provision of 2 district libraries, 4 small libraries and 3 mobile library vans should have satisfied the demand. That said, the Department was also aware of the points that Members had raised, including among others, the large number of PRH estates in the district as cited by Mr. KAN Chi-ho, BBS, MH, JP; hilly community development as mentioned by the Hon. WU Chi-wai, MH; and high effectiveness on setting up of a district library cited by many Members. She understood Members wished that the library services could be enhanced, more libraries could be provided and existing libraries could be expanded. Therefore, the Department would resolve the problem by using a multi-pronged approach. If the Government reviewed the overall planning on the service provision in the future, the Department would take part in the review. Before completion of such review, the Department would keep adopting the prevailing standard requirement as a basis of planning.
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 35 Regarding the Tsz Wan Shan Public Library, the Department had in 2012 rented the Library’s neighbouring vacant shops for expansion, in particular for provision of more seats and self-charging terminals in the Newspapers and Periodicals Reading Area, with a view to raising its service standard.
Regarding the Lung Hing Public Library, she found in her visit in person that the Library had many readers because it enjoyed an excellent geographical location and many members of the public could go there by minibus for borrowing or returning library items. It was a pity that there was no neighbouring room or rentable premises available for its further expansion. To expand, the Library might have to be relocated. She opined that choice had to be made between the two options. Such a good location was not easy to find. If Members could suggest another better, larger location with higher degree of convenience in the vicinity of the Library for expansion and relocation, she would definitely take into consideration. Relocation to a more remote location might provide more space but it might not able to meet the needs of the existing users.
Regarding the relocation of Ma Chai Hang Recreation Ground, the Department noted that the MTRCL had consulted the Council for many times. A mature development direction should have been worked out at the current stage and it was hoped that the project could be commenced as soon as possible. If the meeting had reached a consensus on the recreational and sports facilities concerned, the Department would take it into consideration. For provision of a library, the Department had limitation under the planning standard. However, the Department could, while complying with the planning standard, study if the mobile library van service could be expanded to cover more locations. She thanked the Council for its support rendered, which enabled the Department to strengthen its mobile library van services by increasing the frequencies starting from the middle of this year. In the short run, the Department could only increase the frequencies of mobile library van services and would invite community organisations to join the “Community Libraries Partnership Scheme” so that more community libraries and even study rooms could be provided. Or, the existing library could be relocated, given that there was sufficient space nearby. Although there was a certain degree of difficulty in provision of library in
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 36 Ma Chai Hang, the Department would continue to listen to Members’ views. The Department noted that all Members were very concerned about the provision of library services and that the demand for such services was quite pressing.
(vii) Regarding the Conversion of Morse Park Swimming Pool Project, many Members, including the Hon. CHAN Yuen-han, SBS, JP and Mr. SO Sik-kin in particular, had raised their points. She was also anxious to see the commencement of the works project. As just reported, the Department had already briefed the meeting on the initial design in 2014. For the time being, the ArchSD was finalising the design while the LCSD was striving for early commencement of the works project through works project funding mechanism. However, as the LCSD had currently a number of works projects in hand pending for funding approval and the works schedule of the Conversion of Morse Park Swimming Pool Project could not be confirmed yet. Noting that Members had keen expectations and her reply could not fully satisfy them, she undertook that the Department would try as best as it could to expedite the process within its purview.
(viii) Regarding the issue of cultural heritage, many Members were concerned about the cultural heritage of and overall preservation measures for the district. The Hon. CHAN Yuen-han, SBS, JP, particularly mentioned Nga Tsin Wai Village whereas other Members had also touched upon preservation of legacy of Wong Tai Sin District. Simply put, the Department and its Antiquities and Monuments Office were taking a multi-pronged strategy. The first one was issuance of consultation paper in collaboration with the Development Bureau. A “point, line, surface” approach, which the Hon. CHAN Yuen-han, SBS, JP, had mentioned, would be adopted for legacy preservation with review taken at policy level, such as, the policy on handling of legacies in private area. The Hau Wong Temple of Wong Tai Sin District was quoted as an example. It was located at a “Government, Institution or Community (GIC) site where the usage and building height were subject to certain restrictions. Therefore, the Department hoped that the impact on the old temple and its peripheral development could then be minimised. Besides, she learnt that the “Three Historic Structures of Tai Hom” (namely, the Stone House No. 4 of “Tai Koon Yuen”, the Former Royal Airforce Hangar and the old pillbox) had prompted certain local concerns and that these
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 37 structures would inevitably be affected in some ways by the development of Diamond Hill Station of SCL. The government was planning to repair, restore and relocate the “Three Historic Structures of Tai Hom” at the Water Feature Park of the Diamond Hill Comprehensive Development Area. The Department would keep liaising with the MTRCL and other government departments concerned in this regard.
(ix) Regarding the issue of tree management mentioned by Mr. HO Yin-fai, Members could be assured that the trees in the Department’s parks with on-site staff would be inspected by the staff there every day. For venues without daily inspection, at least regular inspection would be conducted. The Department exercised tree management in two ways. For old trees requiring preservation, the Department would inspect them at least twice a year with provision of detailed reports. For the remaining types of trees, they would be inspected at least once a year. Reports would also be provided as well. Before the typhoon season, the Department would step up inspection efforts to get prepared for the arrival of typhoons. For trees that were found to be sick, or required care or removal, the Department would take immediate actions accordingly, for example, sawing off part of the tree concerned.
(Mr. SHUN WAN-wa, Dan arrived at the meeting at 4:45 p.m.)
38. The Chairman thanked Ms. LI for her reply and invited Members to continue to express their views.
39. Mr. CHAN On-tai suggested provision of composters for the gardens of 18 administrative districts so that fallen leaves could be recycled and transformed into fertiliser for garden use. Secondly, he hoped that anti-mosquito efforts could be stepped up because Aedes albopictus had been seen in Hong Kong for quite some time. As pitcher plant was found to be quite effective in catching Aedes albopictus, he suggested the Department to grow more pitcher plants at the flower beds and gardens under its purview, which was a natural way of killing mosquitoes. Thirdly, he hoped that facilities like cricket pitch or handball court could be added to the future Ma Chai Hang Recreation Ground.
40. The Hon. CHAN Yuen-han, SBS, JP was concerned about the conversion of the secondary pool of the Morse Park Swimming Pool into a heated pool, which had been said to be commenced shortly during the previous term of DC. She got this
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 38 message before she became elected DC Member of this term. But then, her term of office would end soon in the next year but the Department reported that the project was still at the stage of fund seeking and pending with other works projects for approval. Therefore, she deeply shared Mr. SO Sik-kin’s feelings. She also had previously witnessed the opening of the heated swimming pool of Kwun Tong District, saying that the users were very happy. She, as a Legislative Councillor, knew that the Department was undergoing puzzling and long procedures. To prevent instigate anger of the local community, she suggested the harmonious WTSDC to write to the HAB via the District Officer to express the voices and requests of the local community, with a view to helping the Bureau shorten the waiting time for works approval in its internal procedures and expressing the aspirations concerned to the Government. The redevelopment works project had been discussed for quite some time. They had been hearing about this project for a very long time but nothing had happened so far. Voices from the whole DC would be stronger than that from just two Members. It was therefore hoped that the Council’s expression of its support to the Department would help make possible the commencement of the works project.
41. Mr. SO Sik-kin believed that a signature campaign in support of the conversion of the secondary pool of the Morse Park Swimming Pool into a heated pool, if launched, would receive very active responses. Pointing out that the Hon. IP Kwok-him, GBS, JP, was also present at this meeting, he hoped the latter would understand the demand of WTS residents for early attention to the district needs by the FC of LegCo and the pressure that Members were facing, and rendered assistance in striving for early works commencement. He was very worried about the works project which had already been endorsed by this Council many years ago but still could not be commenced. On the other hand, he was pleased to note that Ms. LI had paid a visit of inspection to the Lung Hing Public Library which had high elderly and student patronage rate. If the Department was to expand the Lung Hing Public Library, he would then go for a secondary option instead and demanded provision of a library at Ma Chai Hang Recreation Ground in Chuk Yuen as soon as possible in order to achieve diversion of patronage. The two locations were in proximity with each other, with only one hill slope standing between them. However, it was very inconvenient to travel between them. The residents of Chuk Yuen had to go to the Lung Hing Public Library outside the library van service hours. If a small library could be set up in Chuk Yuen, the residents of Chuk Yuen could then use their own library. Therefore, he suggested the Director to actively consider setting up a small library in Chuk Yuen.
(Ms. CHAN Man-ki, Maggie, MH arrived the meeting at 4:55 p.m.)
42. The Chairman opined that the redevelopment of the secondary pool of the Morse Park Swimming Pool into a heated pool mentioned by the Hon. CHAN Yuen-han, SBS, JP, as well as the relocation of Ma Chai Hang Recreation Ground
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 39 should both be passed to the DFMC for follow-up. He believed that Ms. LI had noted the views of all Members. For the planting issue raised by Mr. CHAN On-tai, it could be left to Ms. LI for discussion with her staff and he believed that the Department would be able to offer assistance. He thanked Ms. LI and her officers for coming to the WTSDC and hoped that the Department would keep on taking note of Members’ views.
III(iii) Visit of Hon. IP Kwok-him, GBS, JP, Functional Constituency - District Council (First) to Wong Tai Sin District Council
43. The Chairman welcomed the Hon. IP Kwok-him, GBS, JP (District Council (First) Functional Constituency), to attend the meeting for exchanging views with Members of WTSDC. The Chairman said that the Hon. IP Kwok-him, GBS, JP was the representative of District Council Functional Constituency who had also visited the previous term WTSDC to gauge Members’ views, and proactively and successfully fought for the interests of District Councils.
44. The Hon. IP Kwok-him, GBS, JP said that he had, one after another, visited 12 District Councils, including WTSDC. He thanked Mrs. CHOI MA On-ki, Angel, JP, District Officer of Wong Tai Sin, and the Chairman of WTSDC as well, for arranging this meeting, and would like to share with and report the work that he had done in the LegCo to all Members during the meeting. The salient points of the Hon. IP Kwok-him, GBS, JP’s speaking were as follows:
(i) In this year, the LegCo had scheduled luncheon meetings with the 18 District Councils one by one. Among these meetings, the one with the WTSDC would be held on 27 November 2014. During the meetings, he would brief Members on the current status of the LegCo and various district issues. The meetings would also require the attendance of all LegCo Members from District Council functional constituencies and LegCo Members returned by geographical constituencies through direction election. The purpose of the meetings was to facilitate views exchange among Members on districts matters;
(ii) LegCo had passed the “District Council (Amendment) Bill 2013” which introduced changes to the arrangement on appointed seats. From 2016 onwards, seats of all District Councils would be elected seats. Meanwhile, Causeway Bay and Tai Hang, the DC constituencies currently under the Eastern District, would be by then transferred to the Wan Chai District, maintaining the number of seats of Wan Chai DC at 13 seats;
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 40 (iii) The running of LegCo meetings had deviated from its normal course with some LegCo Members frequently staging non-cooperative movement against the bills or funding applications put forth by the Government. The passage of bills and endorsement of funding applications were frequently disturbed. These non-cooperative movements at the same time affected some of the works of WTSDC, for examples, the tender for refurbishment project of the Hong Kong Buddhist Hospital in Wong Tai Sin had to be re-invited, and at the current stage approval of 89 works projects had been delayed. There was no definite date for commencing the works project of Morse Park heated swimming pool in Wong Tai Sin. He hoped that DC Members could have more exchanges of views with LegCo Members and relay the aspirations of residents in the district. He also pointed out that the FC of LegCo would soon have to deal with some severe challenges, including the discussion of the “three landfills and one incinerator” proposal;
(iv) The FC of LegCo had in December 2013 approved the modification to the honorarium and allowance package for DC Members, with an increase of the Operating Expenses Reimbursement (OER) rate for DC Members by 34% from $25,392 per month to $35,496 per month. This arrangement was an enhancement of the Government’s support to DC Members for their service provision. Besides, the modification to honorarium and allowance package for DC Members would not come into effect until next term of DC and the honorarium and allowance for this term DC Members would remain unchanged. However, he was hopeful about the honorarium and allowance adjustment for the DC Members in the coming term and he would strive for a reasonable honorarium and allowance package for the DC Members of the next term;
(v) He learned from the focus group convened by the Government that after the abolishment of appointed seats, the Government would enhance the honorarium and allowance package to make it more attractive in a bid to absorb more young professionals with various professional expertises to join the DCs. The Government would also actively study the seniority recognition system for DC Members and look into whether the honorarium and allowance package for DC Members was lagging behind as compared with the market rate;
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 41 (vi) He was also concerned about the operating expenses arrangement for DC Members with offices established in non-PRH estates. He pointed out that there were 412 elected DC Members seats, with 217 seats from PRH constituencies and 195 seats from non-PRH constituencies (constituting 47% of the total). As the rentals for non-PRH premises would be higher, he proposed that special arrangement for DC Members from these kind of constituencies be offered; and
(vii) LegCo Members could each year obtain a one-off allowance of about $50,000 for duty visits outside Hong Kong. He considered that similar arrangement could also be put in place for DCs to finance their DC Members for duty visits outside Hong Kong to broaden their horizons.
45. Mr. SO Sik-kin thanked the Hon. IP Kwok-him, GBS, JP, for attending the WTSDC meeting to listen to the views of DC Members. He acknowledged that the Hon. IP Kwok-him, GBS, JP had done much to strive for the interest of DCs and the medical allowances for DC Members were eventually increased. This enhancement could allow DC Members to take care of their own health while serving the community. He concurred with the concern about the operating expenses arrangement for DC Members from non-PRH constituencies. As the rent of non-PRH premises for setting up an office was higher and Members also had to hire two assistants for handling district matters, he found that all these expenses could not be fully covered with the original OER rate unless an increase of OER for DC Members by 34%. Since the current OER amount was just sufficient to cover all these expenses, he considered that further adjustment to the OER should be made for better benefits of all DC Members and districts.
46. Mr. LAI Wing-ho, Joe, MH welcomed the Hon. IP Kwok-him, GBS, JP to the WTSDC for exchanging views with DC Members. He acknowledged the positive results that Hon. IP Kwok-him, GBS, JP had achieved in striving for the welfare and gauging the views of DC Members. However, he was worried that the current phenomenon of the LegCo had already affected or even caused devastation to some district issues and development. He was very annoyed by the fact that the tender procedures for the Hong Kong Buddhist Hospital Refurbishment Project in Wong Tai Sin had to be re-done due to the delay caused by the LegCo. In his opinion, district issues should not be affected by what had happened in the LegCo, let alone these issues involved development for the benefits of local residents. He pointed out that a DC had to surmount “two hurdles” after it had reached a consensus over an issue. While funding support from the LegCo had to be secured, inputs of various Government departments also had to be obtained. Taking the Our Lady of Maryknoll Hospital as an
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 42 example, he opined that difficulties had been encountered in the course of seeking inputs from government departments. He said that although it would be, objectively speaking, difficult to change the ecology of LegCo, he still hoped that Hon. IP Kwok-him, GBS, JP could provide assistance in coordinating with the government departments in a bid to meet the districts’ needs.
47. Mr. KAN Chi-ho, BBS, MH, JP thanked the Hon. IP Kwok-him, GBS, JP for coming to the WTSDC to listen to the views of all DC Members. He acknowledged that the welfare benefits of DC Members had been substantially enhanced in recent years and the efforts of Hon. IP Kwok-him, GBS, JP as a representative of DC Members were indispensable. However, he still considered that the Government should, after its reorganisation of the Urban Council, devolve more of its powers concerning management of district facilities to the DCs. The Director of LCSD had, during her visit to the WTSDC, also conceded that devolvement of the powers concerning management of district facilities to DC had facilitated better results in management of district recreation and sports facilities, as well as in collaboration with DCs. Mr. KAN hoped that Hon. IP Kwok-him, GBS, JP would, in the future, make more efforts to persuade the Government to devolve more its powers concerning management of district facility to the DCs. In his opinion, DC Members were the ones who were most familiar with local affairs and the devolvement of powers concerning management district recreation and sports facilities was only the first step. He hoped that the Government would go further by taking the second step, or even the third step, such as devolvement of municipal management powers to DCs.
48. Mr. CHAN On-tai was of the view that it would be uneconomical if the Government’s requirements on procurement of capital items had to be followed. For example, while a wooden chair procured from TaoBao cost less than HK$1,000, procurement of the same product item through a Hong Kong provider in compliance with the Government’s requirements might possibly be over HK$1,000. He considered such procurement arrangement uneconomical and hoped that Hon. IP Kwok-him, GBS, JP could reflect this situation to the parties concerned for DC Members so that adjustment could be made accordingly.
49. Mr. HO Yin-fai thanked the Hon. IP Kwok-him, GBS, JP for paying visit to the WTSDC in person to gauge the views of DC Members. He said that his two offices established in the district were highly representative because one of them was set up in a private building whereas the other one was within a PRH estate. Rental alone had already been a headache. He hoped that Hon. IP Kwok-him, GBS, JP could relay this situation to the parties concerned and further consideration for dealing with such special situation would be given. He also raised the difficulties that he encountered in hiring assistant to DC Member, mainly due to insufficient manpower. For the honorarium and allowance package of DC Members, he considered that it could be left
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 43 to the next-term DC for resolution. Since the honorarium and allowance of DC Members involved spending of public money, he considered that the final decision should be made by members of the public. While the WTSDC was a rather harmonious DC and all Members were able to take the approach of “nothing personal” in handling district affairs, he considered that the Council was only an advisory organisation as it had no real powers. Many issues would be for discussion only because DCs had no concrete execution powers. Therefore, he concurred very much with what had been said by Mr. KAN and he hoped that the Government could review the suggestion on devolvement of the powers concerning management of district facilities.
50. The Chairman applauded the Hon. IP Kwok-him, GBS, JP for his remarkable success in striving for the welfare benefits, allowance and support for DC Members. He opined that DC Members had to make sustained efforts to make up the deficiencies if found. He iterated that the purpose of running for the DC Election was to serve the local communities in the districts. While opining that there was nothing wrong with the government bureaux for not casting their main focus on the needs of the local communities when formulating policies, he hoped that the Government could enhance the capacity of DC Members in pursuing requests for the local communities. Since currently the Government was heavily relying on DCs in implementing its policies in the districts, he believed that the Government should allow DCs to raise one to two issues that concerned the local communities most and make corresponding policy adjustment in response to these concerns. Besides, for the $100 million grant reserved for each district for implementation of the Signature Project Scheme, he considered that the WTSDC had made the best use of it. He called on the Government to regularise the fund granting instead of providing it on a one-off basis so as to allow better utilisation of the funding by DCs under the scheme.
51. The key points of the Hon. IP Kwok-him, GBS, JP’s reply were as follows:
(i) He hoped that DC Members could provide suggestions of more concrete nature on the devolvement of powers in various aspects, such as recreation and sports, food and environmental hygiene, upon the reorganisation of the Urban Council, as he had heard from some DC Members during discussions on concrete suggestions that they did not want have too much powers because the responsibility would be too big. In his opinion, it was necessary to clearly define during discussions the extent of powers to be devolved and have thorough communications with all DC Members. He considered that the powers and responsibilities of various aspects had to be clearly defined during the discussions;
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 44 (ii) The Chairman’ suggestion on raising one to two major local requests by each term DCs for the Government’s due attention was a very good suggestion. He believed that this mechanism could effectively facilitate the Government “addressing district's pressing needs, addressing people's pressing needs” and was worth the Government’s serious consideration. He would follow up on this suggestion; and
(iii) He said that some DC Members used their honorarium and allowance to subsidy the expenses for service provision in the districts. Such efforts were respectable and had not gone unnoticed. He promised that he would follow up with the Government for enhancing economic effectiveness of the use of honorarium and allowance provided, and that he would make sustained efforts in getting resources for DC Members for serving the community.
(Mr. MOK Ying-fan left the meeting at 5:30 p.m.)
52. The Chairman once again thanked Hon. IP Kwok-him, GBS, JP for fitting the meeting of WTSDC into his schedule to gauge the views of Members.
III(iv) Request for Prompt Implementation of Demo-grant (WTSDC Paper No. 73/2014)
53. The Chairman said that Mr. HUI Kam-shing and Mr. MOK Ying-fan had furnished before the meeting a jointly signed written submission titled as “Request for Prompt Implementation of Demo-grant” for discussion at the meeting. WTSDC had also invited Mr. SUI Wai-keung, Stephen, JP, of the Labour and Welfare Bureau (LWB) to the meeting for listening to Members’ views.
54. Mr. HUI Kam-shing presented the paper, saying that the implementation of demo-grant would involve huge capital and resources commitments and requesting that the government follow-up actions be taken and public consultation be conducted for early implementation of the proposal.
55. The Hon. CHAN Yuen-han, SBS, JP said that as she was also the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Retirement Protection of the LegCo, she would like to, at this meeting, relay the views of various academics and organisations that she had heard in the LegCo. Pointing out that currently there were respectively nearly 200 000 elders on Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) and nearly 400 000 elders
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 45 receiving the Old Age Living Allowance (OALA), she was worried that with the future rise in elderly population, the Government’s expenditure would be higher and tax increase measures might have to be introduced to cover the expenditure. She thought that the problem had to be faced up to by all sectors of the community. She said that a team in the LegCo had all along been following up on the issue. She concurred with the saying of Mr. HUI Kam-shing that the Government should conduct the discussion as soon as possible since the expert team commissioned by the Government to conduct study on retirement protection had already submitted a report to the Commission on Poverty (CoP). Besides, she said that the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) had also been making efforts in working out appropriate options. It was opined that currently Hong Kong had the “land fund” with value of $220 billion. If both the employers and employees could respectively increase their Mandatory Provident Fund contribution rate by 0.5%, it would help them get prepared for the bad weather. She was also worried that our younger generations had to shoulder a very heavy burden as there would be less and less tax payers in future. Lastly, she thanked Mr. SUI for attending the meeting to listen to Members’ views and she hoped that the Government could be pragmatic and formulate the policy concerned as soon as possible.
56. The Chairman said that a written submission from nine WTSDC Members and three community organisers of the Wong Tai Sin Branch of Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) (at Annex) was tabled at the meeting. The Chairman invited Mr. KAN Chi-ho, BBS, MH, JP, to present the document.
57. Mr. KAN Chi-ho, BBS, MH, JP presented the document, urging the Government to promptly conduct study on the sources of funding for and the operation of elderly retirement protection scheme, and include the proposal “Three-tier Retirement Protection Old Age Pension Scheme” put forth by the DAB into consideration during the consultation process, with a view to forging social consensus without delay.
(The Hon. CHAN Yuen-han, SBS, JP left the meeting at 5:40 p.m.)
58. Dr. WONG Kam-chiu, MH, expressed gratitude to Mr. MOK Ying-fan and Mr. HUI Kam-shing for raising this item for discussion at the meeting. He pointed out that Professor CHOW Wing-sun, Nelson had recently published a retirement protection report in which it was suggested all permanent residents aged 65 or above would be eligible for a monthly old age pension of $3,000 for each and no means test should be imposed. He found that although the scheme was attractive, views from the district were diverse. The government’s figures showed that currently there were about 1.1 million elders aged 65 or above in Hong Kong (i.e. on average, one in every five Hong Kong people was elderly) and the elderly population would surge to 2.6 million in 2041. By
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 46 then, there would be about 1.4 persons supporting one dependent elderly person on average. In his opinion, the Government might be able to meet the request proposed by Professor CHOW under the current financial condition, but welfare policy had to be made sustainable. He was worried that with the rising number of elders in the coming two or three decades, the reserve kept by the Treasury might not be sufficient to provide old age pensions for all and tax rises might be resulted. He also pointed out that Professor CHOW in his report had suggested the Government to impose “payroll old age tax” for the provision of old age pensions. However, many people from the middle-class and of younger generations were against imposition of the tax, saying that the taxpayers had already been bearing the brunt of heavy tax and that the Government should not impose further tax on them. Some people suggested that the expenses incurred from provision of old age pensions should be borne by the business sector. Many small business owners were against the suggestion, saying that the responsibility of providing retirement protection for the whole community should not be taken up solely by the business sector. In his opinion, the Government should carefully work out the problem of “where would the money come from” when trying to enhance the retirement protection. He also concurred with what had been said by Mr. MOK Ying-fan and Mr. HUI Kam-shing, urging the Government to conduct public consultation exercises as early as possible for collecting the views of the public. In addition, he expressed reservation over the implementation of “across the board” welfare policy, believing that those rich people living at the Peak should not enjoy the same monthly amount of old age pension of $3,000 as received by those from the less advantaged families in Wong Tai Sin District. He suggested concentrating the resources on the provision for the needy people instead. Besides, he said that while offering protection with a dignified living to the less advantaged, our society should also have to honor those who were shouldering the responsibility of our economic development and our working young people. He believed that if the retirement protection of the current retirees was to be borne by the current taxpayers and future generations, it would be met with widespread objections from the middle class and young people.
59. Mr. WONG Yat-yuk pointed out that the majority of Members present at the meeting would like to see the Government provide concrete proposal and conduct public consultation. The statistics from the Census and Statistics Department revealed that the current median age of Hong Kong stood at around 35 to 37. He was worried that if our demographic structure and population policy kept unchanged, the median age of Hong Kong after 30 years would become 65 to 67. By then, the majority of Hong Kong’s population would be elders. He said that there were many long-term retirement protection proposals, including some of them raised during discussions in society, and the one proposed for public consultation by the Government and put forth by Professor CHOW Wing-sun, Nelson. It was suggested among these proposals that the retirement protection fund instilled by the Government and members of the public should be pegged with the performance of the Exchange Fund or Tracker Fund so that it
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 47 could grow in tandem with our economic growth. Saying that the past performance of both the Exchange Fund and Tracker Fund was satisfactory, he considered that investing the retirement protection fund in such kinds of funds might help risk diversification. Besides, as the size of Hong Kong grassroot population was on the high side, it was therefore hoped that the Government could, with the vision of retirement protection for all, work for the aim of “Care for the Elderly” and bring substantial changes to the poverty population. He also recommended the Government to consider the three-tier proposal put forth by the DAB, which would not only provide support to the elderly in poverty, but also allow working elderly enjoy a certain level of protection. He hoped that the Government would put forth a proposal that was widely accepted by the society in general for forging of consensus and prompt implementation of retirement protection scheme.
60. Mr. CHAN On-tai said that the tax rate of Hong Kong was lower than that of many countries. Many new migrants to the European countries were not entitled to the community welfare there. They had to prepare sufficient money on their own for paying up their expenses of living for up to 3 to 5 years before their settlement was officially approved. Meanwhile, Hong Kong did not have such requirement. Every day, there were many migrants coming from the Mainland to Hong Kong for settlement and they did not have to pay tax. In his opinion, if these migrants were also entitled to the old age pensions with the same amount of $3,000 when they reached the age of 65, it would be very unfair to the elders in Hong Kong. He also pointed out that other Western and European countries also put in place mechanisms for retirement protection and settlement of migrants. Their tax rates were higher than that of Hong Kong but the tax would be payable only for ten years before the formal retirement. Upon retirement, the tax paid would be returned in full to the contributors. This practice was worth making reference to by the Hong Kong Government. Besides, while saying that views of our society on the implementation of retirement protection were mixed, he considered that the Government should first work out the funding source for retirement protection implementation and how the retirement protection amount of $3,000 could be arrived at. He suggested that the Government should not focus just on whether the proposal could secure endorsement. Instead, it should focus on many other considerations, such as fiscal balance, and try to balance the contribution and commitment among all sectors of the society. For revenue generation, he considered that the sources of revenue could be from the profits of the stock market and the rise in property value, as well as from football and horse bettings. It was suggested that the Government should handle the retirement protection scheme separately from the rest of its other welfare initiatives.
61. Mr. TING Chi-wai, Roy, opined that the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) was the largest charity organisation in Hong Kong which had previously provided funding to various charitable institutions. Therefore, he suggested that the Bureau
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 48 might conduct an in-depth study with the HKJC. In his opinion, the taxation systems of other countries as mentioned by Mr. CHAN On-tai might be irrelevant to the situation of Hong Kong. For example, the average age of Japan’s population was higher than that of Hong Kong’s population, and therefore, it might not be suitable for Hong Kong to adopt the Japan’s practice. Besides, he also pointed out that the issue of new migrants was a more complicated issue and it required more information before any comment could be made. He quoted the Hon. CHAN Yuen-han, SBS, JP as saying that our new generation had to take on the responsibility of providing retirement protection for the elderly, which was quite a heavy and long-lasting commitment. He considered that all proposals were worth the Government’s continuous studying efforts. For Mr. CHAN On-tai’s proposal, he said that it would be difficult to request elders aged 60 to work and pay tax for 10 years. He suggested that the Government should consider the issue holistically.
62. The Chairman said that he had once heard from his student immigrated to Texas that the statutory retirement age of Texas had already postponed to 67. One could see that the Western and European countries were also in short of funding. Therefore, he suggested the Government to consider the issue thoroughly.
63. Mr. SUI Wai-keung, Stephen, JP thanked the WTSDC for its invitation, which allowed him to have an opportunity to listen to the valuable comments of Members. He stressed that “Poverty Alleviation”, “Elderly Care” and “Support for the Disadvantaged” were at the top of the Government’s agenda, saying that the Government had in the past two years introduced many initiatives for enhancing the social security and retirement protection systems, including among others, the introduction of the OALA, the further extension of the Government Public Transport Fare Concession Scheme for the Elderly and Eligible Persons with Disabilities to cover more public transport means, and a double increase in the annual amount of the Elderly Health Care Voucher. Besides, for the issue of aging population, the Government had also, through the CoP, commissioned Professor CHOW Wing-sun, Nelson and his team to conduct study on the future development of retirement protection in Hong Kong. He pointed out that the study conducted by Professor CHOW was an independent study, and that neither the Government nor the CoP had interfered with or given any guiding views in the course of the study, stressing that the views set out in the report were independent views. Professor CHOW and his team had also put forth some recommendations on old age pensions as well.
64. Mr. SUI added that the Government had an open mind on the future development direction of retirement protection and would listen to the views of different parties as far as possible for formulating future work initiatives. He said that Professor CHOW had already submitted his report to the CoP on 20 August 2014 and that the Commission had conducted a preliminary discussion on the same day and
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 49 publicised the whole report for public reference and discussion. On 29 August 2014, the Government, together with Professor CHOW, had presented the report to the LegCo. He said that this issue was a rather complicated issue with profound impacts on our public finance, and even on our economic and social development. Issues of various aspects would also be involved. For example, the different levels of commitments shared among the Government, employers and employees. Therefore, the contents of and recommendations made in the report had to be prudently studied and sufficient time and room for discussion should be given to the CoP and the society for thorough understanding and digestion of the report before having a focused discussion again on the crucial points. He said that the CoP had originally planned to have its second meeting in the latter half of September for in-depth discussion on the report and working out on the next follow-up work. However, the meeting was cancelled due to the street occupation movement. It was hoped that the meeting could be re-convened soon for the discussion.
65. Mr. SUI also said that a number of views had been received since the publication of the report and that the Bureau hoped the study report of Professor CHOW could provide a basis and some figures for reference by all sectors of the society. He opined that there were several questions requiring focused discussions by various sectors of the community. First, when considering the various options, should we choose provision of $3,000 for all without means test or should we provide assistance that suited the needs of our elders upon a means test. Second, whether the retirement protection scheme would pose long-standing burden on our public finance. The Financial Secretary, when announcing the analysis of the Working Group on Long-term Fiscal Planning in early 2014, had projected that there would be a structural deficit in 2029-30 even if no service enhancement would be made and merely price changes and demographic changes were taken into account. In this regard, the Government would have to generate revenue and cut expenditure, and consider tax-base broadening measures. He said that any of the options set out in the report incurred additional Government financial commitment and therefore social consensus had to be reached before implementation. Third, regarding the sources of funding, as said by Professor CHOW in the report, if the funding came solely from the Government, the sustainability would be questionable. Therefore, both employers and employees had a part to play. He also said that if the government encountered structural deficit, it had to take various measures, including the revenue-generating and tax-base broadening ones, which similarly required shared commitments of the whole community. He added that what Hong Kong had been adopting was a multi-pillar approach advocated by the World Bank. Self-reliance of individuals and family mutual support were encouraged. For example, having personal savings, investments, or making contributions to the Mandatory Provident Fund schemes, would help oneself get prepared for the future and minimise the changes to the living quality after retirement. On the other hand, provision of public resources, like the CSSA, Old Age Allowance, OALA, PRH,
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 50 medical services, were targeted for the elderly in need to provide them with a safety net and minimum protection. He hoped that all sectors of the community could cast their discussion focus on the development direction of retirement protection. He said that he would relay the suggestions of WTSDC Members to the Secretariat of CoP for further discussion and planning for the next step.
66. The Chairman thanked Mr. SUI for attending the meeting, and expressed gratitude to Mr. MOK Ying-fan and Mr. HUI Kam-shing for raising this item for discussion, and to Members for their valuable views given. He hoped that the WTSDC would be consulted again after the options for universal retirement protection scheme proposal had been worked out.
IV Progress Reports
67. Members noted the following papers:
(i) Progress Report of the 18th Meeting of the Community Building and Social Services Committee held on 23 September 2014 (WTSDC Paper No. 74/2014)
(ii) Progress Report of the 18th Meeting of the District Facilities Management Committee held on 30 September 2014 (WTSDC Paper No. 75/2014)
(iii) Progress Report of the 18th Meeting of the Traffic and Transport Committee held on 7 October 2014 (WTSDC Paper No. 76/2014)
(iv) Progress Report of the 18th Meeting of the Finance, General and Economic Affairs Committee held on 14 October 2014 (WTSDC Paper No. 77/2014)
(v) Progress Report of the 18th Meeting of the Housing Committee held on 21 October 2014 (WTSDC Paper No. 78/2014)
(vi) Progress Report of the 18th Meeting of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Committee held on 28 October 2014 (WTSDC Paper No. 79/2014)
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 51 (vii) Progress Report of the Wong Tai Sin District Management Committee Meeting held on 24 October 2014 (WTSDC Paper No. 80/2014)
(viii) Progress Report of the 12th Meeting of the Working Group on Government and Public Utilities Works Projects held on 23 September 2014 (WTSDC Paper No. 81/2014)
(ix) Progress Report of the 4th Meeting of the Task Force on Medical Facilities in Wong Tai Sin held on 26 September 2014 (WTSDC Paper No. 82/2014)
V Date of the Next Meeting
68. The 20th WTSDC Meeting would be held at 2:30 p.m. on 6 January 2015 (Tuesday).
69. The meeting was adjourned at 6:00 p.m.
Wong Tai Sin District Council Secretariat Ref: HAD WTSDC 13-5/5/53 Pt. 38 January 2015
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 52 Annex
Chinese Version Only (Please refer to: http://www.districtcouncils.gov.hk/wts/doc/2012_2015/tc/dc_meetings_minutes/DC _M19_M.pdf)
[20](1)4_DC[M19](2014.11.4)-e 53