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HONG KONG PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
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reducing cutting down expenditure has become our consensus. Apart from providing the necessary municipal facilities, all the venues under the Council, be they big or small, indoor or outdoor recreational venues or buildings, are indeed ideal locations for the placing of advertisements by some commercial organizations. As Mr. Eric WONG mentioned just now, maybe we should further examine the aspect of policy, so as to promote the publicity of products with a view to generating proceeds from advertisements for the Council. Take the Hong Kong Stadium and Hong Kong Coliseum for example. At present some advertisement spaces are made available for commercial organizations to stage publicity activities.
I consider that under the agreed direction of increasing revenue, we should adopt a more active approach in conducting a comprehensive study on the availability of any really suitable locations in the Council's venues and buildings for the display of commercial advertisements. For example, as Mr. LAI asked just now, is it suitable to turn the external facade of the Cultural Centre into a large advertisement space? We therefore need to actively study and examine. After obtaining the necessary information, we should draw up a list of the potential venues for advertisements and distribute the list to commercial organizations or their advertising departments and major advertising agencies for their reference.
I suggest that the Department assign an appropriate division to take complete charge of the matter. As this proposal would generate a certain amount of revenue for the Council, we should first of all actively examine it. I therefore support Mr. CHIANG's motion. We should implement the policy only after the outcome of the examination is known.
With these remarks, I support Mr. CHIANG's motion.
MR. CHAN BING-WOON (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, as far as increasing revenue and reducing expenditure is concerned, I am in support of the recommendation to make available the Council's venues, especially the external facades and suitable places, for the placing of commercial advertisements. However, I must remind Members that in working out the details, we must be particularly careful about the external facades and places outside the venues. We all know that comments on the advertisements displayed on the buses of a certain bus company are half favourable and half not. If in future we put up some large advertisements, large ones that can be seen from both sides of the Victoria Harbour as mentioned by a colleague just now, we must pay particular attention to the issue of safety. The occupier would be held legally responsible if the advertisements were not secure enough and fall, causing any casualties. I consider that this area must be studied in detail and with care, or else apart from failing to meet the purpose of increasing revenue and cutting down expenditure, we would have to pay a heavy indemnity. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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