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pursuing. I don't want to be particularly long-winded but as an elected Member with ideals and goals I think we should all support Miss WONG's proposal.
Mr. LAM MAN-FAI (in Cantonese):- have discussed with other Urban Councillors of the political party I represent on Miss Wong's motion and we have reached a consensus. We feel that the UC has a responsibility to develop and promote art and culture in Hong Kong and we have proposed the formulation of objectives and plans during previous meetings.
It is necessary to set out long term objectives taking account of a few aspects. First, we have to promote local art and culture. Secondly, we should promote the unique culture of Hong Kong internationally. Hong Kong is a very special place and I believe the world would put their focus on us over the next few years. With the advent of 1997, we know that many of the hotels are fully booked, so we must have a unique feature in our culture. Many people have questioned the standard of art in Hong Kong and asked whether it is up to the international standard. Actually, we have expressed this to the Cultural Centre. If we are just maintaining the status quo, of course, we can't break into the international arena. But if we have long term goals to commit ourselves in promoting the art in Hong Kong, we can reach the target eventually.
So, in order to reach an international standard, we have to start our work now. We need to have a start or we will still be in the original position 5 years later. Miss WONG's motion will help our future work. With these remarks. I support Miss WONG's motion.
MR. WU CHI-WAI (in Cantonese):-The Democratic Party insists that we should have a considered policy rooted in Hong Kong in promoting art and culture. We should aim for diversification and the safeguard of the freedom of expression and creation. The Hong Kong Government said that legislation might be required in order to safeguard the freedom of expression. But in a society, the safeguard of the freedom of creation apart from legislation should be achieved through allocation of resources. The Government has put in a lot of resources in protecting endangered species but it seems that we are quite skimpy in putting in resources to encourage local artistic and cultural development. We support Miss Wong's motion and consider that we should liaise with other groups who are concerned with art and culture in setting up the working group. The UC is not the only body to deal with cultural affairs and we don't want to engage a discussion on who should be the Big Brother. The SDB has given us a document and it seems that our discussions have been focusing on who should play a dominant role in the cultural policy of Hong Kong. This is a wrong direction. We should take our stand upon Hong Kong's local culture and the diversification and freedom of creation. Enriching city life is the slogan of the UC and we must build up our image in this regard. Though we have TV advertisements to promote our functions and have organized cultural presentations like inviting the Vienna Philharmonic and other major international groups to stage performances in Hong Kong, we are unable to
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Page 157 of 485