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Mrs Shelley Lau stressed that the Government was committed to helping owners to manage their buildings effectively, adding that a series of measures had been introduced to improve residents' living environment and their overall quality of life.
In addition to the study on the setting up of a building management resource/enquiry centre, the Government had adopted legislative means to help owners carry out their building management duties. For example, the "Building Management Ordinance" was amended in 1993 to provide a legal framework to encourage owners to form OCs and to outline their rights and responsibilities in handling building management matters.
"To promulgate the proper concepts of building management, HAD and its district offices have regularly organised seminars and training courses as well as produced booklets, leaflets and video tapes on the subject.
"HAD is also actively encouraging and assisting owners to form OCs. The staff pay regular visits to OCs once they are formed to help solve their management problems," Mrs Lau said.
As regards buildings already beset with management problems, Mrs Lau said they could resort to the Building Management Co-ordination Teams (BMCTs) which HAD has set up in nine districts since 1985. The teams offer practical advice and act as a co-ordinator with various Government departments in rendering assistance to OCs.
"Over the past 12 years, more than 1,000 buildings have been selected for inclusion in the improvement programme. Over 400 have seen marked improvements and the Department will continue to work on the remaining buildings on the action list.
"The BMCTs have tried every year to get more buildings in the district to join the improvement programme so that more owners can benefit from it.
"On the staff training programme, HAD has included relevant legal aspects and offered guidelines to help them handle enquiries from OCs and owners.
"The Department has already obtained approval to increase the number of liaison officers by 10 per cent and to deploy more staff to the building management team in the headquarters in the coming financial year," she added.
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