Page 60 of 498
Page 60 of 498
60
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Chairman (in Cantonese):—We shall now put the original motion moved by Ms. Jennifer CHOW to vote. Please indicate if you are in support of the original motion. The original motion is now put to vote.
The question on the original motion was put.
The original motion was carried unanimously.
(3) MR. LEE Kwok-KEUNG moved the following motion:—
'In view of public demand for a higher standard market services and the need to enhance the competitiveness of UC markets, the Urban Services Department should be asked to consider handing over the management of some of its markets to private companies.'
He said (in Cantonese):—Today, I move a motion on 'privatisation of market management services'.
There are at present 52 public markets, 11 cooked food centre cum markets and 46 markets per se managed by USD. As a public market system, we have to offer shopping convenience to our citizens and look after a very important area under our hawker policy. In fact, it was pointed out in the 1987 UC review of hawking activities and the relevant Working Group report and proposals that licenced hawkers at the markets should be moved to market buildings for more effective management. To achieve that aim, the Council has to offer favourable business environment to the hawkers so as to attract them and convince them to abandon the idea of on-street hawking. The proposal clearly pointed out that the main reason for the failure of hawking policies in the past was to move hawkers to markets which were unfavourable for business. After the hawkers had been resited as stall owners, they chose to go back to the streets and engage in illegal hawking. One can see that a market system with good management and favourable conditions for business is useful to solving the hawking problem ......
Chairman (in Cantonese):—Hold on, Mr. LEE. We do not have a quorum. Will our staff bring in more Councillors please? My apologies to you, Mr. LEE.
MR. LEE KWOK-KEUNG (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, do we need to adjourn the meeting?
CHAIRMAN (in Cantonese):—If we adjourn the meeting, I don't think they will come in again. I have asked the staff to bring them back to their seats. Maybe we can make the speeches as brief and precise as possible. We still have another motion and it is now already 6.15 pm. We need to have 11 Councillors present in order to form a quorum. Now we have a quorum. Please proceed, Mr. LEE.
Page 60 of 498
Page 60 of 498
Page 60
Page 61