TNAG-1724-FCO40-2437-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 42

5.

Financial Secretary:

Sir, as Mr. Desmond LEE has suggested,

the matter was discussed over quite a long period of time.

In fact, the proposal was raised in an adjournment debate in

this Council in May 1976. There were various views as to the

correct way forward and I am afraid that it has taken a long

time to reconcile those views and get to a position where we

can make decisions. We engaged our consultants, Burns and

Roe in 1982 to advise on the technical aspects of system

planning and it was really only from then that we were able to

tackle some of the problems likely to arise.

Prof. POON: Sir, with all the benefits that the Financial

Secretary has just outlined to us, will the Government inform

this Council when the Government will consider implementing

this change of voltage ?

Financial Secretary: Sir, as I said we ought to be in a

position to make further progress in the course of this year.

We expect to receive Burns and Roe's study early next month.

Thereafter we will have to have consultations with the power

companies, with various groups representing industry and

no doubt with the Consumer Council, so that we can

can fully

examine the proposal and get a proper public response.