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"Now that we have all the resources at hand, we can proceed with the drafting work at full swing," Mrs Tan said.
"We aim to submit to the Legislative Council our draft subsidiary legislation by end 1996," she added.
Altogether 36 consultancy firms were invited for the project and the Wyatt team was selected out of the three groups which had submitted detailed proposals.
End
Home Affairs Department embarks on new initiatives
Since the re-organisation of Home Affairs Department (HAD) in December 1994, the department has embarked on a number of new initiatives to serve the community, the Director of Home Affairs, Mrs Shelley Lau, said today (Saturday).
At a meet-the-media session to review the work of the department, Mrs Lau said: "One of the key initiatives is to support and boost District Administration."
A series of programmes and activities have been planned in conjunction with 18 district boards to raise the profile of district administration. These include a project to promote tourism in 18 districts, a DB chairmen visit to Macau, an 18-district health competition and activities to celebrate the 15th anniversary of district administration in November 1996.
Another new initiative, Mrs Lau said, was to implement strategies, both short- term and long-term, to address problems relating to bedspace apartments.
These include regular visits by the Director and her staff to bedspace apartments to ensure the building and fire safety of these premises.
As a long-term solution, Mrs Lau introduced the purpose-built singleton hostel which would be built in Shun Ning Road to provide accommodation for 600 people. The project is making good progress and is expected to complete on target in mid- 1998. Concurrently, the department continues to purchase suitable premises in different districts for conversion into singleton hostels.
In the meantime, HAD is distributing to bedspace apartment lodgers a "telephone contact card", providing them with telephone numbers of government departments concerned in case of need.