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dollars, in particular the erection of 3 Multi-purpose Games Halls respectively at Morse Park, Cheung Sha Wan Playground and Fa Hui Park. It is hoped to know whether this is tantamount to a project and, if so, whether it is recurrent, notwithstanding the fact that it may be recurrent in some other form so that we may infer whether there may be expected a deficit in the coming year.
Regarding the items in the Capital Expenditure which may involve the commitment of resources for the years ahead, it is thought that a long term planning policy, say for 5 years' span, may be more advisable whereby orderly decisions could be taken about the priorities for spending, and procedures could be established for planning the expenditures associated with their current and prospective policies over the relative period in the future. It is further thought that such a long term policy planning should be allocated to a Planning and Research Unit which should be equipped to assemble and analyse research information. Its major function should be to identify and study the problems and needs of the future, and the possible means to meet them. The Unit is also assigned to see that day-to-day policy decisions are taken with as full a recognition as possible of their likely implications for the future.
It is further hoped that this Budget may point out which is optimal and which are feasible, thus enabling this Council to make political decisions more rational and less a matter of hunch and horse-trading. Mr. Chairman, this is my submission. And with these remarks, I support the motion.
MR. PETER P. K. NG (in English): Mr. Chairman, the budget which you have just presented is an excellent budget, and I am sure you will agree with me that we must congratulate ourselves and the Department for having done such good work within such a short period after our financial independence. Sir, you and the Vice-Chairman have spoken very eloquently in general terms of the budget. Allow me to indulge in some details concerning our budget.
On looking at our revenue, we would know that we are only collecting 2 million dollars from our food premises licensing, including liquor licensing. This is by far very much less in comparison with the cost we have to bear in licensing these concerns. And it is high time that we should recognize the cold facts that we are spending far too much man-power and far too much money and getting far too little income from such licensing exercises. Perhaps, during the next year, we might look into a complete new system in abolishing the licensing system
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to all food premises and substitute it with a registration system, in view of the fact that nearly all existing food premises started their business before being licensed anyhow, and in view of the fact that the initial work done by the Department for the licensing requirement was actually the work which the owner should engage professionals to do. If we adopt the registration system, then all we have to do is to continue to supervise and to prosecute any food premises not complying with our health standards, and thereby we can save a lot of man-power and expense to this respect. And, of course, instead of charging the nominal licensing fees as we do now, we ought to charge a much higher registration fees. Concerning liquor licensing, I do not see how we can justify all the work and expense we have to go through to grant the licence, when we only charge $500 per annum for such a licence. This figure must have been established quite some years back, and we now must take a realistic look at it and readjust it to any reasonable amount which we do think fit. After all, any liquor licensing premises is a highly profitable commercial concern.
Sir, on the other side of the picture, I am glad to advise the Council that the final draft of the Advertising By-laws is progressing very satisfactorily, and I do hope that by next year we will be able to have formal regulations and By-laws established to control our ever-increasing advertising signs. Let me assure members of the public, especially those in the advertising business, that there is no intention to eliminate any advertising agencies or any advertising signs in Hong Kong. In fact, I think the advertising sign is one of the landmarks of Hong Kong which must be preserved. However, it should not be a free-for-all like the situation is now, when you can see advertising signs stretching from one side of the road to the other side, almost touching the opposite building. And in controlling the advertising signs and in considering the benefit and revenue from the advertising signs to the private individuals, we must propose to the Government to change the ordinance to allow licensing fees for advertising signs to be charged to make revenue for the Council, instead of just a fee to cover administrative costs. Let me hasten to say that the revenue so collected should be used more generously by the Council for entertainment of the general public. We do have a very ambitious entertainment programme for the mass in Hong Kong, and it is my proposal to the Council that we do go into the sporting world and associate ourselves with many of our sporting organizations in taking part, and in sponsoring many of the sporting events. take into consideration the over-crowdedness of conditions in Hong Kong, and the lack of recreational facilities for our youth, entertain-
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