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HONG KONG PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
Chairman (in Cantonese):-The amended motion by Mr. Albert Lai Wing-lis is carried. We now move on to the next motion to be moved by Ms. Ada WONG Ying-kay.
(4) MS. ADA WONG YING-KAY moved as follows:-
RESOLVED that the Council review its relationship with the SAR Government, including its powers and jurisdiction, financial accounting system, arrangement for providing services to the Council by other government departments, and the self-financing system of the Hong Kong Stadium.
She said (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, allow me to move the motion standing in my name.
The relationship between the Urban Council and Government is spelt out in the Urban Council Ordinance and Memorandum of Administrative Arrangement of 1973.
I would like to go over some history here since the Ordinance and the Memorandum were drawn up in view of the financial independence of the Council. In 1971, the Urban Council studied a white paper which traced back to the review report on district administration of 1966. The report was controversial for its suggestion to set up 4 to 6 district councils to replace the Urban Council. A working group was set up by the Council to study this matter.
In 1969, the Urban Council made a counter-proposal and put forth a report on reform of district administration. While opposing district councils, it was also suggested that the scope and jurisdiction of the Urban Council should be enlarged and that it should become a financially independent municipal council to take up areas of traffic, medical care, city planning, education, etc.
Some of our Members may not know about this historical development. Seeing that objection from the Urban Council was strong and there were a lot of divergent opinions within the community, the suggestion to replace the Urban Council with 4 to 6 district councils was halted. However, Government was aware that the reform suggestion by the Urban Council was going too broadly. Finally, in the white paper published in 1971, it was suggested that the Urban Council should become a financially independent body on the basis of its original areas of jurisdiction, namely public hygiene, recreation and culture (also resettlement) and licensing. I hope you have an idea how the Urban Council won financial independence. It was after 7 years of discussions that financial independence was acquired.
The MAA of 1973 was issued to spell out clearly the establishment, financial arrangement of the Urban Services Department and the Council's relationship with other Government departments. All sorts of matters were arranged in accordance with the Memorandum in the years that followed. It is now 24