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Mr. PATTEN has pointed out that his political reform package is only a proposal, not a final decision. Therefore, in the interests of the local people, he should also try to understand the personality traits of the Chinese people and seek positively to negotiate peacefully with China.
Mr. Chairman, with these remarks, I support the motion.
MR. THOMAS KWOK PING-KWONG (in Cantonese):- Mr. Chairman, Council Members, there are three points that I would like to raise which I believe the running of the Council could be improved. Firstly, I would like to say that whilst I believe the Urban Services Department is a reasonably efficient department with good organization, I have been concerned about the bureaucracy and the volume of paperwork being generated. It appears to me that council decisions, and therefore policy implementation, is being delayed by the various internal departmental approvals required. Many levels of approval are required even before the matter comes to the Council for a decision. I believe the Urban Services Department should look at this aspect with a view to streamlining and simplifying the procedures particularly in the area of delegating more decisions to district level. I also believe that streamlining could be made by shortening papers sent to Council members so that simple decisions can be made without having to read through a large volume of papers to obtain the relevant facts. If individual Council members require more detailed information this could be supplied on request. If we circulate all these papers to Members, it will be a waste of resources and time and would not help in a decision-making process anyway. To properly review this problem I would suggest the employment of an independent management consultant to carry out a study to review the management situation of the Urban Services Department with a view to improving the efficiency as a whole.
Secondly, I turn now to Capital Works. During my membership of the Capital Works Select Committee, sometimes there has been confusion over who has the authority to rank Capital Works projects in order of their priority. This problem should be addressed. My own opinion is that the Urban Services Department should submit recommendations to the Capital Works Select Committee for vetting before final approval by the Standing Committee of the Whole Council. Because of the importance of these works, and the money involved, the priorities should be reviewed by the Capital Works Select Committee and then the Standing Committee of the Whole Council on a quarterly basis. This would ensure that the priority of all projects is regularly reviewed so that the most urgent projects suffer no delays.
Lastly, the Urban Council each year is involved in the construction of a large number of projects - wet markets, leisure facilities, indoor games halls, and the like. These developments are often in very visible and prominent positions. Bearing in mind that these types of buildings are liable to be repeated within nearby areas, I believe it is important to pay more emphasis to the architectural design, especially in relation to the external elevations that can reflect the local culture and bring strong character to our buildings. In order to achieve this result, I would suggest that several architectural companies should be invited to compete to design Urban Council developments. Being from the private sector, I am a great believer that competition brings innovation and good results to the benefit of the whole community and at a reduced cost. I would like to suggest that in the future, we should organize a so-called 'beauty contest' among reputable local and international designers for our major prestigious projects. Selection of the final winning design will be recommended by an Ad Hoc study group to the Whole Council for final approval.
For the third university of Hong Kong, that procedure was followed. So I hope that the same procedure can be applied to prestigious projects of the Urban Council in the future.
These are my remarks.
MS. CARLYE TSUI WAI-LING (in English):- Mr. Chairman, I wish to address you on two major subjects.
Firstly, the application of Information Technology (IT). I am pleased that in response to my appeal in the last Annual Convention Debate for more focus on the application of IT and related issues, this Council set up, in the second quarter of 1992, an Information Technology Sub-committee under the Administration Select Committee.
The IT Sub-Committee serves the role of a technical advice and management committee on IT projects for all Select Committees, with the objectives of enhancing service to the public and improving management efficiency. This sub-committee has therefore been tasked with:
- the development of long and medium-term IT strategies and policies,
- evaluation and recommendations of proposed IT projects,
- monitoring project progress,
- evaluation of the effectiveness and performance of existing IT applications, and
- promoting a general awareness of IT and the appropriate use of IT within the Urban Council and the Urban Services Department.
The IT Sub-committee noted at its first meeting the following milestones for the application of IT in the Council:
- In 1980, set-up of our EDP Centre,
- In 1982, installation of our first computer, a midframe computer IBM System 34,
- In 1984, launching of URBTIX, an automated entertainment ticketing service (serving also Regional Council and other major cultural venues),
- In 1986, installation of an IBM 4381 mainframe computer for multiple administrative applications,
- In 1989, installation of a DECnet computer network,
- In 1990, installation of the STATUS text retrieval system.
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