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our demands, we will recruit the staff on contract terms. The ratio of civil service posts to contract posts shown in the reply is the actual ratio under this principle. As to the expenditure on fringe benefits and salaries of the contract staff, they are basically in line with the fringe benefits and salaries of the civil servants.
MISS ADA WONG YING-KAY (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask whether we can conduct a review on the ratio of Information Officer grade staff to contract staff in the PIU, and whether we can negotiate with the ISD to see if there can be greater flexibility in staff deployment.
MR. SUEN KAI-CHEONG (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, we can always conduct a review. We can work on this ratio with the ISD. However, I hope Members will express their views more specifically, i.e. do we want more seconded staff or less seconded staff, so that we can have a direction for the review.
IV. MOTIONS
(1) Ms. GRACE AU YUK-HAN moved the following motion:—
'RESOLVED that the Urban Council should conduct comprehensive and regular studies to obtain an effective assessment of the district needs for recreation and sports activities and also gather the views of the public on the recreation and sports services provided by the District Offices (Recreation, Amenities and Sports), so as to evaluate objectively the effectiveness of the recreation and sports services for future references in the planning of recreation and sports activities for the districts.'
She said (in Cantonese):—In the UC Annual Debate held in January this year, I said that there should be scientific assessment for sports and recreational activities, and this motion proposes to put this idea into effect.
Obviously, as Hong Kong is becoming more and more affluent, the people of Hong Kong are more keen on pursuing higher quality lives in their spare time. In this regard, recreational and sports activities can enrich the life of our new urban generation as well as sharpen our will and strengthen our mental and physical health. In fact, many academics have already put the concept of 'leisure' into the arena of public policy for further study and thematic discussion. This shows that recreational and sports activities are very important. They have a salutary effect on our lives.
However, I found that the Council seems to lack a long-term and comprehensive policy for recreation and sports development. It is true that we do have recreation and sports venues for public usage, and new venues will be built or redeveloped in future. Last year, some 7,800 recreational and sports activities were organized by our District Offices (Recreation, Amenities and Sports) and other organizations, attracting some 500,000 participants. That is
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