TNAG-1724-FCO40-2437-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 246

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MR. EDWARD HO :

Sir, may I refer to the last paragraph of

the Secretary's reply which says

Planning Committee, 'selected the design'. I have two

'they', that is the

le.

le.

questions, Sir. First, does the statement mean that the

Assessment panel was incompetent in that it failed to

decide on the most suitable design? Secondly, each of the

shortlisted architects has to spend hundreds of thousands

of dollars on the entry. Their aim was to obtain the

ра

They counted on the

assessment panel

repute. Since the

Panel was not followed,

commission, not just the prize money.

fair assessment of an independent

composed of professionals of high

decision of Aubh the Assessment

will Government inform this Council whether this will

prejudice the success of future architectural competitions

which, after all, are to promote better civic architecture

for Hong Kong?

n/e

SECRETARY FOR EDUCATION AND MANPOWER : Sir, I think I

have already answered the first leg of that question. As

I said before, there is bound to be a subjective element

in such decisions. I do not think the fact that two

bodies differ implies any criticism of the quality of

either body. On the second point, it is not unheard of

for the project design of a project to be different from

the winner of the competition. I cannot believe that this

will prejudice future competitions in Hong Kong.