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HONG KONG PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
Firstly, it can set up an inspection system with the food exporting countries whereby the quarantine inspection, testing and random check are to be performed in the exporting countries. Take Australia as an example. As she depends on food export as a major source of revenue, she has put in place a set of stringent health regulations on the export of food products. I suggest that we should apply the same requirement on countries which wish to export food products to Hong Kong. Let me cite the example of methamidophos which is banned in Shenzhen. Can we negotiate with the Chinese Government to ban the use of methamidophos in Hong Kong's neighbouring regions in the southern part of Guangdong Province as well?
Secondly, the HKSAR Government can allocate more resources to strengthen publicity and education on public health. Publicity and education can be conducted on three levels, namely the general public, the market traders and members of the food business. In addition to publicizing the importance of personal hygiene to the general public, we should also give guidance to the market traders, members of the food business as well as the general public on how to slaughter and clean poultry and the proper cooking method. As regards members of the food business, we should inculcate on them the importance of personal hygiene and proper handling of food. Publicity and education can take various forms. Apart from distributing posters, leaflets and booklets, we can organize training courses and seminars with a view to teaching the market traders and members of the food business how public sanitation can affect the people.
At present there are over 9,000 food premises in Hong Kong, employing about 200,000 people in the food business. In my opinion, individual food premises and employees should be subject to prosecution and punishment if they have failed to abide by the legislation. However, we must not hastily propose to amend or tighten up the relevant laws and policies just because problems have cropped up with individual food premises, for most of the regulations and policies formulated by this Council have been tested and verified repeatedly over time. Any rash amendment will merely make the problems more complicated and difficult to tackle, undermine the confidence of investors, increase operational cost and add further burden to the food business.
Lastly, I would like to speak a few words on the revision of licence fees. As we are aware, the food premises in Hong Kong are facing hard times under the present economic depression. In fact, not only food premises, many other businesses are also beset with difficulties. Therefore, this year, when we discuss the revision of various licence fees, such as the Liquor Licences and the Restaurant Licences, we should consider the matter carefully. We should not contemplate a substantial increase in the licence fees without taking careful consideration because this will add to the burden of investors or operators and drive them to the miserable state of closing down their business.
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