-7-
On the relationship between fringe benefits for those working for the subvented sector and those by and large working for Government departments, we did as you know make some effort to bridge the gap, for example in help with mortgage payments. I have to say that there is, I suspect always going to remain a difference between the subvented sector and Government and I'm a little leery about the idea of, in effect, nationalising the subvented sector. I think we do have to leave the subvented sector, the non-governmental sector with a bit of elbow room which both gives opportunities and in some cases may mean that career development and career benefits aren't quite the same but obviously we must be mindful of the importance of not allowing career opportunities to fall so far short of what is available in the Government sector that people aren't prepared to work in the subvented sector.
Question 4: My name is Chan. I am the Chairman of the Council ... Child Abuse. Everybody knows that Hong Kong government has over the years confiscated a large amount of asset from convicted drug traffickers. In many other countries, such as the UK, Australia, Malaysia and some parts of the United States, there are lots of examples that the respective governments earmark certain seized assets will be invested into drug education, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. Now we have already had a trust fund for AIDS presention and education. My question is: would the government consider using such ...money to set up a trust fund .......
Governor: Thank you very much indeed. I'm sure you will know that we've organised for the beginning of March, a summit of all those who were involved in the campaign against drug abuse, particularly drug abuse by the young, to try to ensure that we develop even more comprehensive and effective campaigns in Hong Kong than already exist. If you look at all the social statistics in Hong Kong and certainly if you look at the crime statistics, almost the area, in my judgement, for greatest concern is the increasing trend of drug abuse by youngsters, particularly by youngsters, which we've seen in the last few years. In some other communities there are often excuses paraded or reasons paraded for the increase in drug abuse by the young which don't exist in Hong Kong. People will point, for example, to high levels of unemployment, in North America and Europe, which isn't a problem in Hong Kong and yet we've got albeit at a much lower level the same indications of growing drug abuse by young people. So we do need to tackle it more imaginatively and more effectively and I'm sure your idea is one that we should examine when we have our summit in early March and give proper attention to.
They're always produced by bureaucracies, I'm sure in good faith, there are always arguments against the hypothecation of revenues. Those arguments aren't always very good ones and for instance in our recent consultation document on transport and traffic management we've proposed one hypothecation of resources which I offer to you as an argument to use at the seminar at the beginning of March.