HONG KONG PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
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MR. RONNIE WONG MAN-CHIU (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, allow me to add two points to the view given by Mr. SZETO Wah. If an organization intends to distribute food or beverage which carries a trademark, it could discuss with our colleagues in the venue or the operator of the food kiosk. I think allowance can be made. However, it would be a different thing if the sponsorship of a certain company was involved because this is a commercial activity and is therefore a violation of the franchise.
As to the problem of food quality raised by Mr. Wu, it is in fact a different issue. Any complaint about the food quality should be lodged by the organization concerned or members of the public and then handled by the Department, which would ask the operator to make improvement. Generally speaking, tenders are re-invited after three years and if no improvement was made, complaints of this sort would become a consideration for renewal or otherwise in the next tendering exercise.
Mr. Szeto Wah (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, as far as I know, when the schools distribute the beverage, no trademark will be displayed within the venues, but the beverage itself definitely bears a trademark and it is not possible for every beverage to have the trademark erased. Just now it was mentioned that the legal loophole could be made use of by distributing the beverage outside the venue but this is likely to cause accidents to the students. If the school holds a sports event inside the venue but arranges for each student to collect the beverage outside the venue before going in, accidents might happen easily. I hope the Chairman of the Select Committee can tell us when the review will be conducted. In the course of review, the most desirable thing is to withdraw such a restriction, or alternatively, limits should be imposed on the prices the food kiosks charge for each bottle of beverage brought into the venue because sometimes they do charge expensively.
MR. RONNIE Wong Man-chiu (in Cantonese):—I wish to reiterate that be it monitoring over prices or monitoring over food quality, it can be incorporated in the scope of review. It will be reviewed shortly at the meetings of the Recreation Select Committee but the review cannot cover those food kiosk contracts already granted. Only new contracts may be covered.
Mr. Albert Lai Wing-lin (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, if a school holding an athletic meet in a venue distributes drinks to students by leaving the drinks at a corner for the students' own collection, it is possible that it is not free distribution at all because the drinks might have already been paid for in the school and that the drinks are merely placed there to be collected by the students on their own. In this way, can it still be regarded as free distribution, which is forbidden as stated in the notification? It is neither sale within the venue because the payment is made in the school. Is this an act making use of the legal loophole?
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