HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
169
Chairman (in Cantonese): The next motion will be moved by Mr. WEN Choy-bon. Before he speaks, I would like to remind Members that the Department has issued a confidential paper on the UC market rental policy for discussion at the next meeting of the Markets and Street Traders (MST) Select Committee. I hope you will not disclose the contents of this paper in your speeches. According to Standing Order 8(3), Urban Councillors and other persons should not disclose the contents of confidential papers to be discussed at meetings when they are still regarded as confidential. So, please bear this point in mind when you speak. Mr. WEN Choy-bon.
(6) MR. WEN CHOY-BON Moved the following motion:-
'Since the Urban Council market stall tenants representatives have reflected that some tenants considered the market rental increase to be too high, thereby increasing their operation cost, indirectly adding to the citizens' expenditure, and reducing the competitive edge of the Council markets, RESOLVED that the Council should conduct an overall review of the market rental policy.'
He said (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, representatives of UC market stall tenants have recently reflected to me that they were burdened by the high rates of rental increases for many UC market stalls. Rises in market rental can increase the UC's rental income, but they also adversely affect stall tenants and the public. Even more serious is the possibility of forcing the tenants to abandon their stalls for illegal street hawking. Such a development is contrary to our purpose of building markets.
Sharp rental increases at markets increase the operating cost of stalls. The daily expenses of our citizens as well as the operating difficulties of stall tenants will be indirectly increased too. At the same time, it weakens the competitiveness of market tenants in relation to illegal hawkers. I think the above phenomena are the result of the current market rental policy of the Council.
The purpose of providing UC markets is to improve the appearance of the city, provide convenience to the public and resite on-street hawkers. This Council has all along subsidized operations within UC markets. The current rental policy is obviously a hindrance to the rightful social function of UC markets. At present, the policy is to follow the Rating and Valuation Department's independent assessment which is based on the market rent.
Our economy has been on a down-turn in recent years. We can see that the Housing Department is responding to this by lowering the rent of shops within its premises. We, on the contrary, are increasing the rent of our market stalls by continuing to peg them to market value. On the one hand, we are increasing the burden of stall tenants, thereby adding on to the burdens of our citizens. On the other hand and even worse, a lot of unlicensed hawkers are cramming
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