Page 103 of 606
124
PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
out. District Board members as the representatives of the community are very close to the people. These functions should be intensified so that district boards will be better motivated to serve people in their districts.
The Democratic Party therefore suggests that district boards should be given more resources to carry out their duties so that they can carry out environmental improvement works and community involvement projects more effectively.
I would like to sum up the proposals of the Democratic Party in brief. Having read through the options given in the Consultation Document, the Democratic Party feels that transfer of food safety and environmental health functions to Central Government cannot meet the needs of our time. Neither can it answer public demand for democracy. We maintain that it is important to follow the path of democracy when drawing principles for district organisations to be answerable to government administrative structure. Let me recap points made by Members of the Democratic Party as follows:
1. In order to increase channels for public political participation, we should hold full general elections for district organisations and abolish all appointed, ex-officio and indirectly elected seats;
2.
3.
4.
5.
We should support merging of the two municipal councils to streamline the executive structure as well as the maintaining 18 district boards; The Democratic Party suggests that the two municipal services departments should be combined into one and that in addition to the traditional functions of culture, entertainment and recreation, the new department should be responsible for executing food safety and environmental health functions;
The Democratic Party suggests that a Food Safety Bureau should be set up under the new combined municipal council and that relevant professionals should be invited to join the new combined council in the formulation of food safety policies;
District boards should be granted more resources to carry out their duties so as to be more effective in environmental improvement works and community involvement projects.
Those are my remarks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Tam Kwok-KIU (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, I think we are today almost at the end of the consultation period for Central Government's Consultation Paper on Review of District Organisations. The officials of relevant policy bureaux have stated the government position clearly on different occasions.
Obviously, the ADPL agrees with fellow colleagues in their analyses and the conclusion that the most important purpose for Government to publish this Consultation Document is to recall power. If Government chooses to go
Page 102 of 606