Sir,
DRAFT SPEECH BY HON HO SAI-CHU, MBE, JP LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 7 JANUARY 1987
RESOLUTION UNDER SECTION 36 OF THE PNEUMOÇONIOSIS
COMPENSATION) ORDINANCE
When the Secretary for Education and Manpower moved the Pneumoconiosis (Compensation) Bill at the Legislative Council Meeting on 4 December 1985, I proposed that the
Government should continue to reduce progressively the rate of levy on the value of construction works and quarry products basing on the surplus condition of the Pneumoconiosis Compensation Fund. Furthermore, I also proposed that the Government should review the ambit of the Fund so that it may
be extended and applied in the promotion of education, publicity and research in relation to the prevention of pneumoconisois. After the lapse of one year, I heartily welcome Government's positive response to the aforesaid proposals. Up to November 1986, the Pneumoconiosis Compensation Fund has acquired a surplus of $72 million. therefore most reasonable and realistic to reduce the rate of
levy from 0.15% to 0.05% and I am sure this reduction will be
extensively supported.
It is
Sir, I am all the more delighted at Government's proposal to review the ambit of the Pneumoconiosis Compensation Fund. The original purpose of the Fund is to provide monetary compensation to those who have become incapable as a result of the disease and the dependants of those who died of the disease. I believe we all agree that monetary compensation is not sufficient to alleviate the pains suffered by the pneumoconiotics themselves or their dependants. Therefore, a more positive and fundamental way to reduce the incidence of the disease is to reinforce education, publicity and research