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30.

H

(b)

(c)

The Government believes that, in the delivery of public utilities services, market forces are the best to determine the scale and quality of services and the price at which enhanced efficiency and minimum costs can be achieved. However, the Government is prepared to intervene when a monopolistic situation exists or when intervention becomes necessary to protect the public interests. There are no standard ways of intervention; all are tailored to specific industries and circumstances. intervention may be by way of legislation, franchise and/or a scheme of control agreement. In all such cases, the level of intervention is kept to the minimum compatible with the public interests. For instance,

franchises are introduced for franchised transport companies;

The

a price control scheme, i.e. price-cap, is introduced for the Hong Kong Telephone Company; and

Scheme of Control Agreements are entered into between the Government and the two power companies.

Government monitoring depends on the need to intervene and is not limited to franchised business. For instance, the Government has entered into Scheme of Control Agreements with the two power companies which do not hold any franchise.

Western Corridor Railway project

Following is a question by Dr the Hon Samuel Wong Ping-wai and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport, Mr Haider Barma, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Question:

The Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) has recently announced that the estimated cost for the proposed Western Corridor Railway project has increased from $35 billion to more than $70 billion and that consultants will be invited to submit tenders for the next stage of the investigation and design work. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council: