XN000022-1995-05-17 — Page 47

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The Administration has taken note of the Honourable Dr Samuel Wong's concerns about a lack of annual reconfirmation of the competence of APs. We shall address these concerns in the Buildings Amendment (No. 2) Bill 1995 which we hope to introduce into this Council on 31 May 1995. The proposals included in the Bill will facilitate the implementation of the principles of self regulation and continuing professional competence and will only allow registered professionals under the relevant professional Registration Ordinances to be qualified as candidates for registration as APs under the Buildings Ordinance.

As a result, the Administration do not intend to include, at this stage, in the Code of Practice a clause which requires completion and certification of the OTTV forms by a party other than the AP. Nevertheless, as the Honourable Dr Samuel Wong has pointed out, the Administration do recognise the potential contribution by professional engineers to improving energy efficiency in building designs. We have, therefore, encouraged the use of such professional service in the Practice Note to Authorised Persons. It is our intention to review the existing control standard and arrangement after two years, and I can assure the Hon Dr. Samuel Wong that his suggestion will be included as one of the review items.

End/Wednesday, May 17, 1995

Measures to safeguard foreign exchanges reserves

Following is a question by Dr the Hon Philip Wong Yu-hong and a written reply by the Financial Secretary, the Hon Sir Hamish Macleod, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Question:

In view of the depreciation of the US Dollar by a big margin, will the Government inform this Council whether the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has adopted any measures to safeguard the territory's foreign exchange reserves and fiscal reserves; if so, what these measures are; if not, why not?