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would be maintained. Given an appropriate period of time, more artists and exquisite works of art could be nurtured, producing an artistic and cultural atmosphere throughout the city of Hong Kong. Thus, I hope all of us will support the Council's current policy of 'arts for all'. Let's take the Museum of Art, Public Libraries and the Film Archive for example. Looking ahead, they should adopt a macroscopic approach in developing local art and culture. The functions of the Film Archive, for instance, should be clearly defined. It is neither an aristocratic library of the Middle Ages nor simply an archive for preserving film materials. The public must have the right to make full use of its resources. It should preserve the history of films and visual images, and more importantly, it should take up the role of educating and building up an audience, enhancing their power of appreciation for films. It should take the initiative to explore the territory's rich film heritage. In addition, the Film Archive should collate and catalogue all collections in a systematic way and publish research reports regularly. This is particularly essential to local film workers who are engaged in film preservation and research work. I hope the establishment of the Film Archive will make 'breakthrough' contributions to the filming art of Hong Kong, just as the National Film Archive in Paris has fostered world-renowned new wave films since its establishment.
Since the formation of the Urban Council, we have, for many years, been attaching importance to its leading role in the greening of Hong Kong and to the achievements it should make in this respect. During the Annual Debate held in 1993, I pointed out the importance of greening Hong Kong and made a suggestion for forming the Working Group on the Greening of Hong Kong with a view to promoting extensive tree planting. Moreover, I fully support the government's current policy of providing civic education which, I hope, will encourage public involvement in the greening of Hong Kong. However, much remains to be done by the Council. As a public body responsible for managing urban parks and open space, the Urban Council should take more active measures to vie for open space and green belt in the urban area instead of following its current practice, i.e., waiting passively for other government departments to designate certain areas as open space or parks before it starts planning or designing, which is obviously far from being adequate. Actually, the Council should have the right and responsibility to seek more open space and green belt whenever there is a plan for urban renewal or rezoning. Furthermore, since there are increasing public demands for high-quality passive recreational facilities, I hope more landscaped sitting-out areas can be provided by the Council to meet their needs. Unfortunately, unlike other government departments, such as the Housing Department, the Council has not yet created a permanent post of Landscape Architect. Perhaps there was a shortage of landscape architects in Hong Kong in the past, which caused much difficulty in recruitment. However, the University of Hong Kong has started a special course for training professional landscape architects. Therefore, I hope the Urban Council, as a promoter of the greening of Hong Kong, will have its own landscape architect in the future.
Last but not least, I would like to talk about shortfalls in our waste disposal process. Hong Kong should not rely only on landfills for refuse disposal. In fact, development of landfills is not the most effective way of tackling the problem. The countries
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which have resorted to landfill development have already realized the sole dependence on landfills will not only cause harm to the environment, but can also be considered as a waste of valuable resources. This is because some of the materials in the refuse are reusable, and after effective recycling, these materials can generate a large quantity of valuable resources. Actually, a comprehensive waste disposal policy should consist of four parts: (1) refuse collection and transportation; (2) refuse disposal; (3) reduction of refuse to be generated; and (4) recovery and recycling of reusable waste.
I hope the Council will play a more enterprising role in implementing a waste disposal policy which will enable the recovery of resources through the following four important steps:
(1) sorting and collection of reusable waste;
(2) removal of useless materials from the reusable waste and compression of the waste for easy transportation;
(3) recycling of the waste to produce new products; and
(4) consumption of the new products by consumers.
I sincerely hope that the Council can really consider enacting new regulations for the disposal of solid waste, thereby making the recovery of resources possible. For example, if we can sort and pack the waste at the collection point, the procedure of waste collection will be simplified and the cost will be reduced as well. I hope we can make more effort to recover resources from wastes by carrying out more recycling work. Apart from the sorting of refuse, the Council can also consider launching a waste collection scheme in conjunction with other government departments. For instance, the general response to the plastic bag or paper collection campaigns currently conducted in certain housing estates is encouraging. The Council can therefore put the waste collection scheme into effect, making it a part of its work. Besides, the range of items to be collected can also be extended to reusable waste such as aluminum cans and tin cans. I hope that by the 21st century, the Council will have implemented a more environment-friendly policy encompassing waste disposal in Hong Kong, so that our children can live in a cleaner and more persistent environment.
With these remarks, I support the motion.
MR. CHAN KWOK-MING (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, every year, when winter sets in, many on-road cooked food stalls are found operating at night in Mong Kok District. They are scattered around the Portland Street exit of the Mong Kok MTR Station, the junction of Nelson Street and Shanghai Street, Larch Street, Fir Street, Poplar Street, Ki Lung Street, Ivy Street and Kok Cheung Street. According to the most conservative estimate, more than 150 such stalls have been found in the first ten days of this year. At 9:30 a.m. on 6.1.1995, Friday, I took a walk along Fir Street, Tai Kok Tsui, after meeting the public and found more than 200 people eating Chinese hot pots at some 70 tables by the roadside. The number of such hot pot stalls in Mong Kok is continuously on the increase and complaints about this are received from the public every week. These on-road cooked food stalls pose serious threats to the tranquillity and appearance of the area. They also give rise to the following problems:
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