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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
MR. LAM MAN-FAI (in Cantonese):- Mr. Chairman, the past achievements and contributions of the Urban Council to Hong Kong are well known to all. For example, the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Hong Kong Museum of Art and Hong Kong Science Museum which are already commissioned and the Hong Kong Museum of History, Hong Kong Film Archive and Hong Kong Central Library, which are in the planning stage, all help to make Hong Kong a clean and beautiful city with a cultural atmosphere. With its distinctive features, Hong Kong attracts large numbers of tourists from overseas. Tourism has become a major industry in Hong Kong. It has not only created a large number of job opportunities but also helped to promote the image of Hong Kong in the world. When we go up the Victoria Peak, the first sight that comes into our view is the Victoria Harbour. For this reason, Hong Kong is known to the world as the Pearl of the Orient. I took a beautiful picture on Victoria Peak a few years ago. In the picture, the magnificent Hong Kong Cultural Centre sits gracefully by the side of the beautiful harbour. However, it would be very difficult to take a similar picture now.
It is a pity that our beautiful harbour is diminishing. The harbour front in West Kowloon is now filled up with mud and dirt. The Blake Pier, a landmark in the past, now also becomes a stretch of dirt. The harbour front in Wan Chai, where fireworks used to shoot up, is now turned into land. Maybe in future, we have to light the fireworks on land. The harbour channel is becoming narrower now; this affects the safety of sea transport. The sea in front of the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal is rough. The narrowest part of the harbour lies between the pier at Edinburgh Place just outside the building in which we are meeting and the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in Tsimshatsui. Reclamation work will start here in one or two years' time and the pier which used to be the previous governors' landing place in Hong Kong will be reclaimed to form land. Do we have to be in such a hurry to destroy all these places of historical significance before the return of sovereignty to China in 1997, leaving the harbour channel only 800m in width? The Urban Council has the responsibility to preserve these historical relics. For the sake of our younger generations, we should preserve the pier at Edinburgh Place as well as the beautiful Victoria Harbour. I would like to take the opportunity offered by today's Annual Debate to appeal to fellow UC Members, members of the two municipal councils, the Legislative Council and various District Boards, and members of the three-tier councils to urge the Central Government to stop reclaiming the Victoria Harbour immediately for the future of Hong Kong and for the benefits of our descendants so as to maintain Hong Kong's reputation as the Pearl of the Orient. It is easy to turn sea into land but it would be extremely difficult to revert reclaimed land to sea. Hence, we should cry out with the enthusiasm we had during the election: For our future, save the Harbour.
Mr. Chairman, with these remarks, I support the motion.
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