Product Innovation and Design Unit is in line with the policy of providing the necessary infrastructural support for the development of technology- intensive industry; Hong Kong should take a step forward in automation; the Hong Kong Productivity Centre's proposal to establish an Industrial Automation Unit to cater to the needs of industry should be considered; for the promotion of foreign investment, the Government should consider using the facilities of the Trade Development Council which provided much wider coverage across the world; a study team should be set up to examine the feasibility of a border industrial zone; the establishment of a border economic zone could promote the image of industry utilising cheap labour which Hong Kong, since the war, had been working hard to overcome; responsibility for the supervision of overseas offices should be vested in the Secretary for Trade and Industry; the overseas offices, particularly those in USA and in Europe, should be given sufficient manpower of the right calibre; the activities of the Brussels Office should be extended to capitals of other EEC member states other than London; a review should be made of each major manufacturing industry, to assess the size of their problems, to ascertain their growth prospects and to determine the extent to which Government might help to improve their output; Hong Kong products must be truly Hong Kong made, or contain no more than an agreed percentage of foreign parts.
Housing
Price of Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) flats should include the land value and revenue thus received could be channelled to funding more HOS flats; elderly singletons currently accommodated in insanitary and over- crowded cheap boarding houses should be given proper housing; across-the-board subsidy of public housing tenants should be reviewed; Government should not subsidise those who can afford to pay an economic rent; empty HOS flats difficult to dispose of should be rented out at unsubsidised rent; cheaper methods to implement squatter control should be explored.
Medical & Health Government should consider the privatisation of its hospitals and
clinics; hospital fees should be moderately adjusted; Government should consider introducing a medical insurance scheme, so that the mammoth recurrent expenditure on medical services could be met.
Social Welfare
If justified, staff increases should be allowed for social work provided by Government and subvented voluntary agencies; Government should consider standardising methods of funding non-profit making hospital beds, welfare projects and school places.
Miscellaneous
Educational, cultural and recreational activities are as vital as economic services to the well being of society; while educational, cultural and recreational activities are the inevitable budgetary casualties in a stringent financial climate, the low provisions for 1985/86 should not form the basis of funding for the future; conduct an overall review of the monitoring of all privately owned public utilities and formulate a uniform and
comprehensive policy towards the operation of new schemes of control; for better efficiency, conduct constant reviews of government activity, consult the public when such activities are closely related to them and listen to constructive views; to protect Hong Kong's image as a tourist centre, steps must be taken to prevent tourists being cheated or robbed; with the 1997 issue resolved, closed border areas, notably Sha Tau Kok and the Northeastern New Territories, no longer served their original purpose and consideration should be given to developing these areas; immigration control at points of entry into Hong Kong, in particular Tai Kok Tsui and Man Kam To, should be improved and speeded up, so that travellers did not have to wait an unduly long time for clearance; in engaging overseas consultants, other factors being equal, priority should be given to those with a local branch or partnership in Hong Kong; consider hiving-off some Governmental functions to China, for example transfer Stanley Prison to Shenzhen and re-locate barracks of British Garrison to the border region.
Bills
During the 1984-85 Session, 83 Bills were passed by Leg Co (see Appendix X). Twenty-five Bills were
amended in the course of their passage through the Council, mainly in response to public representations taken up by Unofficial Members. Some of the more important items are reported in the following paragraphs.
Trial of Commercial Crimes Bill 1985
(i) First Reading: 13.3.85
Based on earlier proposals to improve the trial of complex commercial crimes, the Bill sought to provide for the trial of such crimes by a judge and three commercial adjudicators.
The major provisions of the Bill were to enable an accused person or the Attorney General to apply for an order that this new mode of trial be used for a particular case. The Chief Justice could make such an order if he was satisfied that the evidence was likely to be difficult to understand because of its technicality or quantity and that justice would be best served by a trial of this mode.
Subject to the judge's traditional control over the course and conduct of a trial and other reserved functions, the commercial adjudicators would be full members of the court having an equal voice in the verdict, which would be reached by majority and given without reasons. A panel of commercial adjudicators consisting of people with relevant commercial skill and experience would be kept by the Supreme Court Registrar.
In view of the likely controversy surrounding the Bill, a LegCo Ad Hoc Group was set up under the convenership of Mr Peter C WONG to examine the Bill's proposals.
Following the introduction of the Bill, 23 written representations were received from groups as well as individuals from a wide cross section of the community, including those from the Hong Kong Bar Association, the Law Society of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Branch of Justice, Chinese Manufacturers' Association, Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, Christian Industrial
Committee and a group of Hong Kong
University Law students. Press comments on the issue were also carefully monitored.
It was recognised in all the representations that there was a problem with the existing system of trial of complex commercial crimes,
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Private notes are available after approval.