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HONG KONG PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
MR. WONG CHUNG-KI (in Cantonese):- Mr. Chairman, let me first thank members of the DAB for supporting our motion. Although they do not agree to some wordings and have different interpretations, they refrain from proposing any amendment and support my motion.
However, I cannot agree that our motion is too late, because if it had been too late, it would have meant that the Urban Council is now enjoying a balanced budget, or even surplus. As I said just now, the financial situation of the Urban Council is such that even if the last cent of the fiscal reserves was spent, there would still be a deficit of $500m by 2000. Is somebody going to pay the bill or should we postpone our service provision and capital works?
Just now Mr. Ngan Wing-fai cited an example of pioneers, saying that some municipal services in the reclamation area had to be shelved or postponed. This is getting very true. Let me cite some simple examples. At the meetings of the Finance and Capital Works Select Committees, Ms. Ada WONG Ying-kay requested that the Department should not deliberately delay some projects on the pretext of technical problems, thereby deferring all the steps, such as submission to the Council, financial provision and commencement of works. After the related papers were endorsed by the Finance Select Committee, I got in touch with our colleagues in the Department and asked them how certain municipal services were planned for the new reclamation area. I will give a simple example of the UC Complex on Tung Chau Street in Shamshuipo. Over 30,000 people will be moving into Cheung Sha Wan Estate West but because of various technical problems, it is envisaged that the provision of our municipal services, originally scheduled in 2001, will be deferred until 2003. In other words, additional expenditure will be incurred while the 30,000-odd residents will have to wait for two years before being provided with municipal services such as markets and refuse collection points. I don't understand why there are technical problems. And I still have not found a workable solution.
It is never too late to put forward the motion because our intention is to point out that in our discussions on finances, especially when there is a shortage of funds and hence a need to cut down on the provision of facilities, we often adopt the ostrich's policy. I remember a lot of Members mentioned that it was only a cashflow problem, that we need not worry because there might be a balanced budget the following year and that we should leave the problem to the following year.
However, as I said earlier, I could not understand at all how one could predict so early that the next year's budgetary position would be all right, since the financial provision for municipal capital works has been reduced by more than $1b. I hope that in future when the Chairman of the Urban Council submits our budget to the Chief Executive, our financial situation will be clearly presented. As Mr. CHEUNG Wing-sum proposed, the impact should be clearly stated, because we cannot possibly lie about our overall financial situation. We know very well what lies ahead and it is a $500m deficit.