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Question: Mr Governor, I have two questions for you. First of all about the general waiting-list. Now in your policy address a few years ago you said you would reduce the waiting time so that before 1997 those who are on the waiting-list could be offered public housing but in this year's policy address you have lengthened the waiting time again. So for HOS and for those on the general waiting-list could you work in tandem on both projects and speed them both up, because we are from the lower strata of the community, we do have difficulties with housing. So is it possible that we apply for both PRH and HOS at the same time; could that policy be made?
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And also, for new immigrants my second question many of them are here and they bring their children with them. Now if they go to school, like kindergarten or primary, they have no difficulties but for those aged 13, 14 or 16, now they are unable to come to Hong Kong to be reunited with their parents because of schooling problems. So can I suggest that perhaps you work with the Chinese side. Now the parents are in Hong Kong now and then they have children aged 13 or 14 in China without anybody to look after them. So, Mr Governor, could you do something for the new immigrants because this is the major concern of the new immigrants, they are concerned that their children are left in China with no one to look after them? So, Mr Governor, could you pay attention to that problem please?
Governor: On the first question, our objective in the housing strategy so far has been to reduce the waiting-list from seven years to five years. It is still, in all conscience - I was just saying that we have been trying to reduce the waiting-list from seven to five years. I think we have got to about six-and-a-half. The objective is to get down to five by the end of the present planning period in 2001 but it is still a considerable time and it is why I said that we needed to look at some of our housing priorities because we are plainly not doing as well as we would like.
In some individual sectors we have managed to do better than that I think. We have been developing our programmes for rehousing the single-elderly. We made a commitment in 1993 that every single-elderly person on the housing waiting-list would be rehoused by 1997. There were 4,000 of them on the waiting-list when we made that commitment and we have so far rehoused about 3,500 so we have moved individual groups rather more rapidly than perhaps for the community as a whole. But we must obviously give the issue the priority which you say it deserves.
Secondly, new immigrants from China. Under the Basic Law there are of course many people at present living in China who will have the right of abode here in Hong Kong and rather than land the SAR Government with a substantial immigration problem in 1997 with a large number of people suddenly coming into Hong Kong, what we have tried to do is to increase the numbers over the last couple of years so there won't be a sudden influx in 1997. We have increased the number allowed in each day to 150 which means that about 55,000 are coming in every year. It does produce additional problems for the Housing Department, for the Education Department and so on, but nevertheless I think that the problems would be much more severe if we would just have let them pile up in 1997.
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