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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

To date Council has provided support for District Festivals to 7 of the 10 districts; 2 of the 3 districts who have not previously sought the support of Council are now considering this for festivals later this year.

In addition, to supporting District Festivals, Council has provided cash subsidies to all 10 Districts to organize District Carnivals during traditional Chinese festivals such as the Mid-Autumn and Spring Lantern Festivals.

Thus it can be seen that Council has played an active part in supporting the District Festivals in the past and plans to continue this support in the future, by providing programmes, venues or financial assistance, as far as possible, if requested by Districts.

However the initiative must come from the District Boards, rather than from Council. If District Boards do wish to have the support of Council for their Festivals, then approaches can be made through the Cultural Services Department's Regional Cultural Services Officers, who serve on the Community Building Committees of all 10 of the District Boards, and who act as a link between the Districts and the Department. All such requests will be sympathetically considered by the appropriate functional Select Committee of the Council and support will be given whenever possible.

MR. TONG (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, as the Government is promoting the district administration, District Boards and the Urban Council should reinforce their relationship and co-operate. According to Mr. LAU, we have to wait for these requests and wait for the districts to take initiative, I am wondering whether we ourselves should take initiative to see what we can do to help district activities and we take up the responsibility and discuss with them. I am sure that there are districts having Urban Council facilities which will be very useful to the district, and if we take the initiative then our relationship will be improved. Has the Urban Council considered this?

MR. LAU (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, I am sure that Urban Council can take the initiative but districts' individual needs are different. If the initiative is taken by the Urban Council, then it will destroy the flexibility; but, of course, I do not rule out the possibility that Urban Council will take a lead in this matter.

4. MR. JOSEPH Y. S. CHAN asked the following question (in Cantonese):---Do the kiosks in Urban Council facilities such as parks, swimming pools, beaches, etc. provide enough services to the public using these facilities? Have any kiosks closed down before the termination of their contracts? If so, what action should we take in order to sustain proper services to the public as before?

MR. KENNETH T. C. Lo, CHAIRMAN OF THE RECREATION SELECT Committee, replied as follows (in English):—This question asks whether the kiosks in Urban

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

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Council facilities provide adequate service to the public; whether kiosks have ever closed down before the termination of their contract; and if so, what action we should take to sustain a proper public service.

Many Urban Council facilities have kiosks for the sale of refreshments to members of the public. These kiosks are let out to individual operators, since the Council is not in the catering business and, anyhow, many of the facilities have a seasonal or periodic demand which is better served by the private sector. The kiosks at beaches, for example, do a good trade in the summer and little in the winter; the kiosks at the Hong Kong Stadium do well during football matches but no business at all at other times.

General speaking, I would say that most kiosks provide a fairly good service to the public; however, one or two have closed down because their operators misread the commercial value of the market. When this happens the opera- tion of the kiosk is usually re-tendered. Inevitably there is a gap between the termination of one contract and the start of the next. Where successive tender exercises do not attract tenders as has been the case occasionally then this is a fair guide to the lack of demand.

MR. JOSEPH Y. S. CHAN (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask two supplementary questions.

Firstly, some of such kiosks during the summer may have very good business, and therefore of course, they will operate, but sometimes particularly in the winter when business is low, do they have the right to close down?

Second supplementary question, some of these kiosks, we have a number of tendering exercises and yet people are not interested, what are the major reasons? Is it because the premium is too high or, as stated, that there is not such a demand?

MR. LO (in English):—Mr. Chairman, on the first of Mr. CHAN's supplementary questions, the operators now have to pay rent all through the year, they are required to carry on business even during the slack season. Of course, it is possible that from time to time they may not be very much on sale there, but they are required to carry on all through this season. On the second question, perhaps could Mr. CHAN ask the question again?

CHAIRMAN (in Cantonese):-Could you ask the question again, Mr. CHAN?

MR. CHAN (in Cantonese):—Some of the kiosks, we have conducted a number of tendering exercises and yet the response is not so good, what are the reasons? Is it probably because the upset premium is too high and therefore they feel that is not viable or is it because, as stated, that there is not such a demand at that particular location?