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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
up on the review and improvement measures. With these remarks, I support the Chairman's motion.
Mr. Hung Chung-fun (in Cantonese):—I am also very glad to learn of such a motion because we finally have this problem on our agenda. However, Mr. Chairman, with your forbearance I will once again comment on your speech. I think you only highlighted part of the problem but failed to reflect the problems in a well-defined concept. In your motion you have mentioned the 'effectiveness of market operation'. What do you mean by that? What angle should I adopt to look at this point? When I read through your speech, I can only see proposals of structures, machines and individual devices. It seems that with the installation of such devices the effectiveness of our market operation can be improved. However, I would like to remind you that operational effectiveness is rather a matter of personnel and management. Several Members have supported the motion basing on management aspects, I have gone through the Chairman's speech but I did not find the word 'management' in your paper. So what do these Members mean by 'management'? There is also another question. The Chairman's speech has only mentioned about manpower. According to the U.C. Annual Report which is published today, the annual emolument for U.S.D. staff is $31.2 billion and the operating cost is $13.5 billion. We are spending huge money in our day-to-day operation. A bureaucratic system will become conservative after it comes into operation and will only adopt the practice that suits its convenience. The market management problem does not necessarily have anything to do with manpower shortage. In fact, it is a problem of manpower management. A few moment ago, Mr. San Stephen Wong talked about illegal extension of shop spaces and the Chairman mentioned something about designs and partitions. I would like to point out that some of the illegal structures and partitions are made by the traders. Shui Wo Street Market and Ngau Tau Kok Market are the markets which I have strongly criticized. In these two markets the partitions are illegally built by the traders. There are such structures at the market corners, under the stairs and in between two stalls. Last time when I raised this question, some Members replied that improvements had been made. I agree that some improvements have been made and the unsightly structures were cleared but only at the entrances and in eye-catching areas. In fact, illegal extensions outside the market first affect the business inside the market. The extensions at the outskirt areas then affect business in the inner areas. Now after illegal structures in the outer-most areas are cleared, there are still illegal structures in the next outer-most areas. A customer-oriented market must be convenient. However, experience tells that the stalls that occupy the front-most area are most convenient to the customers. So stalls at the roadside are the best patronized. I would also like to talk about management, operational effectiveness and equity. On the point of equity, just now Mr. Wong Kwok-hing mentioned about Shui Wo Street Market and several Members mentioned that there were many 'dead stalls' in our markets. There are some 300 stalls in Shui Wo Street Market but there are only less than 100 operators. Smaller stalls are 'eaten up' by larger stalls. Small stalls and dead corner stalls are not viable. They can