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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
MR. RONNIE WONG MAN-CHIU (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, the number of hawkers on street has a direct bearing on the viability of a market. I wonder if Mr. IP's Select Committee has looked at this issue and urged the Department to review the problems of elimination of illegal on-street hawkers and reordering of licensed hawkers.
MR. IP KWOK-CHUNG (in Cantonese):-Thank you Mr. WONG for your question. Enforcement action in relation to on-street hawkers has, in fact, long been on the agenda of the MST Select Committee. Actually on 17 March last year, it was decided at the MST S/C meeting that Itinerant Hawker Licence (IHL) would eventually be deleted. In other words, we won't be issuing new IHL. This is one of the ways to control on-street hawking. At the recent meeting of the MST Select Committee, we strongly urged the Department to conduct operations to eliminate on-street hawkers, particularly those who hawk at night, by setting up of special squads. This shows that we do have the determination to tackle the problem of on-street hawkers. As for the reprovisioning of on-street hawkers, we do not have special measures to do so at present. As I have said in the reply, we have severed the link between market development and hawker reprovisioning. In other words, we will not be extending our markets or building new markets simply to take care of on-street hawkers. We have the new policy to reprovision IHL holders. They have been given priority to bid for vacant stalls in UC markets and we hope that in this way we will be able to solve the on-street hawking problem.
DR. THE HONOURABLE ELSIE TU (in English):—Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The reply says that termination of tenancy will mean that no rentals will be received. I can quite see that point. But in cases where we find that the stallholder is hawking illegally outside the market and is just keeping his goods in the stall as a supply in the background, would it not be wise to terminate the tenancy so that he cannot use it in that way?
MR. IP KWOK-CHUNG (in Cantonese): Concerning Dr. Tu's point, we do not have adequate evidence to show that our tenants are, in fact, using their stalls merely for storage purposes and hawking outside. But of course, if we do have adequate evidence that they keep on doing so despite persuasion and warnings, then we can terminate their tenancies. As I have said in reply to Mr. Wong's question, may I also reassure Dr. Tu that we will be very strict in our enforcement action in relation to on-street hawkers whether they be market stallholders or not. I would also like to stress one point. If we take very stringent enforcement action in relation to stalls used for storage purposes, that might further aggravate our vacancy situation. In Lockhart Road Market the stalls on one floor are all vacant. Recently we have tried new arrangements for the market. But as far as I know, that particular floor has been left vacant for three years. So I think we need to take this into consideration as well.
MR. JUSTEIN WONG CHUN (in Cantonese):--Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Concerning Mr. IP's fourth point, I think we should not accord different treatments between some older markets and newer ones. In a free market economy, I think we should leave everything to market mechanism. If a place is not suitable as a market, then perhaps we can just let everybody vacate his stall and leave the market vacant, so that it can be made available for tendering again. I would like to ask whether a review is necessary so as to avoid different treatments being given?
MR. IP KWOK-CHUNG (in Cantonese):-Thank you, Mr. WONG. Actually, I have already touched on this point. In relation to tendering, its aim is to ensure that the stalls will be let. In older markets, some are not really viable as they are not in good locations. If we put them up for tender, I don't really believe the response will be enthusiastic. But, of course, Mr. WONG's point will be referred back to the MST Select Committee for further deliberation to see whether it is feasible or not.
THE HONOURABLE LI WAH-MING (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, I would also like to follow up on Dr. Tu's point. Even though Mr. Ip has said that there is not enough evidence, in fact, this is happening in many markets. From my own observation, using the stalls for storage purposes will lead to a vicious cycle. The market will be even less viable if most of those stalls are used for storage because fewer people would patronize it. Mr. Ip says that the problem will disappear as markets are redeveloped or replaced. Are there plans actually to redevelop such markets in phases?
MR. IP KWOK-CHUNG (in Cantonese): Concerning redeveloping or replacing certain markets, it means we will continue to review the operation of different markets e.g. the Po On Road Market. It has been suggested that we should enlarge the stalls or take other appropriate action. All these are under active consideration by the Department. As to Mr. Li's point, if we do get sufficient evidence that people are using stalls as storage space and hawking outside, then the MST Select Committee will definitely deliberate on this.
MR. CHAN KWOK-MING (in Cantonese):—I would like to follow up on two points. What Dr. Tu has said is true, that is, we have people hawking outside the market and using the market stalls as storage spaces. In fact, this is happening in the Mong Kok Market. In the Fa Yuen Street Market, Mong Kok, there is one floor that has been left vacant for a couple of years, are there any plans to make use of the vacant spaces?
MR. IP KWOK-CHUNG (in Cantonese):-Thank you, Mr. CHAN. In relation to the Fa Yuen Street Market Complex, we are aware of the vacant floor. As I have said earlier, the Lockhart Road Complex also has a similar problem. In terms of design, there were flaws in some older markets. Some markets might be three-storey or even four-storey high. From experience, we know that this is
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