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work can be speedily executed without delay. In the light of future experiences, this group may be expanded to cater for the ever increasing need of our increasing number of facilities and venues.
With these few words, Mr. Chairman, I support the motion.
(Mr. CHAN Kwok-ming arrived at 2:34 p.m.)
MR. LEE CHIK-YUET (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, looking back to the past year, my work in the Council has been mainly with the Market and Street Traders Select Committee. Because of the overall review on market and hawker policies, which is not yet complete, our committee has been faced with a particularly difficult task in the past year. We have to give consideration to traditional policies and practices while bearing in mind the new policies that are proposed by the Working Party and may soon be implemented. In formulating policies for this transition period, we have to be careful on the question of convergence. I believe the total time spent on meetings of our committee in the past year was longer than any other committees of the Council. But this I dare not boast of because it might be due to the low efficiency of the chairman. Anyway, it does, to a certain extent, reflect the workload of our committee. Our discussions cover: (1) the planning, construction and opening of markets and renting matters such as the renting policy on new market stalls; (2) the management of on-street hawkers such as the Yaumatei pilot scheme; (3) matters submitted by the sub-committees such as appeal cases by hawkers and the review on hawker and related policies etc. That our committee can work smoothly is a result of the concerted efforts of its members, and staffs of the Urban Services Department and the Council Secretariat, to all of whom I would now like to extend a vote of thanks. But as the review has not yet achieved success, we still need to work hard.
After participating in market and hawker work, I have arrived at certain views which, as they are rather crude, I seldom mention at ordinary times. They are: (1) The rent for UC market stalls is set at 60 per cent or 75 per cent (and in a few cases 100 per cent) of the 'fair market value' assessed by the Rating and Valuation Department. This policy in principle is not unsound, but when there are deviations in assessments by the Rating and Valuation Department, problems will arise. Valuation is not an exact or objective science, but rather a practical art. We have reasons to believe different points of view and stands will result in different assessments. For example, the market stalls referred to by the Council in the consultative document as ‘unviable' are assessed by the R & V Department to have a value much higher than the current rent. I believe the USD should consider having its own experts to assess, from the Council's point of view, whether assessments by the R & V Department are reasonable. (2) While management of markets and hawkers is mainly the work of the Council and USD, coordination with and assistance from other government departments will help a great deal. For example, we need support of the Police in the control of hawkers and assistance from the department responsible for urban area development and town planning in the planning of markets. The two senior police officers seconded to the USD in early November will surely help improve cooperation and tie with the Police. We should also pay attention to liaison with the department for town planning on, among other things, the overall planning for provision of market facilities and reservation of sites. (3) There must be professionalism in the management of markets and cooked food centres. The supervisory grades at present comprise mainly Health Inspectors who are professionally trained in the work of public hygiene but not in management of the rather commercial markets and cooked food centres. Thus we should consider providing professional training to the supervisory grades or employ personnel with relevant experience to help manage the 50 or so markets and cooked food centres.
Mr. Chairman, allow me to turn to the topic of 'visual arts'. Compared to the investment and sponsorship in performing arts, promotion by the Council of visual arts such as sculpture, painting, graphic drawing, ceramics and photography etc. (quite apart from the photo albums of female film stars in recent days) is rather lacking. This is especially so in the fostering of the truly local visual artists. It is true our performing companies still need to be improved, but the Council's investment in them and achievement in this area are quite unquestionable.
For visual artists in Hong Kong, the lack of workshops and exhibition venues poses the biggest problem. To tackle this problem, I suggest the committee concerned should seriously consider building a 'Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre' with not less than 50 workshops for painting, sculpture, ceramics and photography and one or more exhibition galleries, or converting a low-rent building such as a vacant factory or an old building for the purpose. These workshops should be let at a low rent to local visual artists, especially the younger ones, who should perform the following obligations:—
(1) open their workshops as far as possible for the public to see how they work;
(2) exhibit their works in the exhibition galleries regularly, say once a month or a quarter;
(3) lecture at interest classes organized by the Council to promote the forms of arts that they specialize in.
The above is only a rough idea. We need to deliberate on the details to decide whether it is feasible. As far as I know, similar schemes have been implemented rather successfully in countries such as Australia. I thus call on the committee concerned to seriously consider my proposal.
Mr. Chairman, my last topic, as you may expect, is on the development of political system in Hong Kong, together with some opinions on democracy.
Mr. Chairman, I have never tried to hide my political stand and views on the development of political system in Hong Kong. Having put my signature on the 'Manifesto of the Ko Shan Rally', I of course support that after 1997 the
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