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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL - 3 February 1988
SECRI Y FOR LANDS AND WORKS: Sir, in Sha Tin we have found there is som interest in jobs in the servicing sector but generally, other than in support of manufacturing and to a certain extent in government offices, the actual demand for office accommodation has been low and can normally be met from the commercial part of commercial/residential buildings. There has been, to my knowledge, very little pressure for the sale of purely commercial land in northern New Territories but I feel that, if such a demand was evidenced, Government would be most anxious to respond to it.
MR. CHEUNG (in Cantonese): Sir, can the Secretary inform this Council: whether the limit of 50 hectares mentioned in the Sino-British Joint Declaration has limited the amount of land to be sold in Fanling?
SECRETARY FOR LANDS AND WORKS: Generally speaking, Sir, the Land Com- mission has been very understanding of the needs for balanced development in the new towns in the approval of its land sales programme. I can say that Fanling sales have not been inhibited by the restriction on the amount of land. What they have meant, rather than restrictive, is that we have had to think very carefully about the priority of land sales throughout the Territory.
Translators and simultaneous interpreters
2. MR. YEUNG asked: Will Government inform this Council what is the projected shortage of translators and simultaneous interpreters in the next three years and what measures will be taken to reduce such shortage given the increasing use of both Chinese and English at the meetings of various government boards and committees?
CHIEF SECRETARY: Sir, at present there are 436 chinese language officers, 14 full-time and nine part-time simultaneous interpreters, who provide translation and interpretation services for government boards and committees.
It is estimated that the establishment of chinese language officers will expand by 5 per cent annually and simultaneous interpreters by 10 per cent annually to cope with the increase in workload in the next three years. However, I do not envisage any major difficulties in filling most of the new posts. Putunghua interpreters are most difficult to recruit but this problem is being overcome by in-service training.
In the event of any unforeseeable difficulty in meeting the demand, we can arrange to contract out translation work to private agencies or hire part-timers for translation and interpretation. The pool of translation agencies and part-timers is at present being expanded.
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