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1989/1990 was also annexed therein. This document has been extremely useful to members of the Capital Works Select Committee in their monitoring of the progress of projects and I hope my fellow Councillors would refer to it whenever questions on priorities of capital works arise in their own urban districts. I would like to thank the staff of the Planning and Development Division of U.S.D. for a job so well done.
While the Urban Services Department and the Building Development Department together provide this Council with all the necessary services from initial planning to final construction and completion of all our capital projects, perhaps we should also obtain inputs from other sources before we proceed too far with the planning of some of our future facilities. This would include feedbacks from end-users of our existing facilities; special studies to be carried out by experts in the field or specialist consultants with world-wide experience. Take for example, in the planning of new market complexes; our existing policies of re-siting all on-street hawkers into a nearby market-to-be may prove to be impractical. Have we taken into consideration the change in buying habits of our housewives? Why do they prefer to buy from street hawkers instead of visiting market complexes, even though prices could be cheaper there? Have we gathered enough information or comments from stall-holders in our existing markets so that we could improve the design and layout of our markets which are still on the drawing board? Have we even asked the Centre of Urban Studies and Urban Planning of the University of Hong Kong to research into this problem?
The Hong Kong Coliseum in Hung Hom is well endowed with traffic problems. Sometimes you have to allow an hour's travelling in order to get to it on time for a popular programme. Now that the Central Government has announced the Hung Hom Bay Reclamation Programme, including the Kowloon-Canton Railway's Terminal Expansion, we should make use of this opportunity to improve the accessibility of the Hong Kong Coliseum, particularly from the Hung Hom area. Similarly, the Hong Kong Cultural Complex in Tsim Sha Tsui will have both access and parking problems when completed in 1988/1989. Traffic along the stretch of Salisbury Road fronting the commercial areas in Tsim Sha Tsui East is very heavy, particularly in the evening between 6 and 8 p.m. If there were important functions taking place in the nearby hotels, then getting to the Hong Kong Cultural Complex on time would be quite impossible. I think advice from traffic experts is needed.
Our Chairman of the Capital Works Select Committee, Mr. Augustine CHUNG, and the Vice-Chairman of the Museums Select Committee, Mr. PAO Ping-wing, have drawn our attention to the rather out-dated Central Market, which has served its usefulness mainly in pre-war years. It has now become grossly a wholesale market. Do we still wish to keep it? Should we re-develop it into something similar to a supermarket, both for dry and wet goods, so that housewives would be attracted to shop there instead of buying from on-street hawkers nearby?
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Recently, the Hong Kong Tramways Company Ltd. has approached Government with proposals regarding the re-location of the present depot facilities from Sharp Street in Causeway Bay to two other sites on Western Reclamation and Shau Kei Wan, respectively. If this proposal meets with Government's approval, then clearly it is a good opportunity to improve the environment and facilities of the Sharp Street area, especially with the large number of on-street hawkers in Russell Street and nearby; once the depot has moved out.
I believe I have not yet taken up fully my allotted 10-20 minutes, so I shall add another paragraph, which is translated from English, to test the skill of our simultaneous interpreters. There is a common saying that "Flowers may not blossom no matter how one takes care of them, but the willows, left alone, may grow strong and beautiful." For many years now, the Common People's Nightclub in Sheung Wan, and in recent years, the market near Stanley Beach too, have become, by incident rather than design, favourite spots for the American and European tourists visiting Hong Kong. From these, an idea has dawned on me. The Urban Council could very well work together with the Hong Kong Tourist Association to develop the Jade Market in Yau Ma Tei and the early morning gold fish market near the Mongkok Railway Station into tourist attractions. Of course, we may expect the tourists to buy and bring home one or two jade ornaments as souvenirs, but it seems out of the question for them to take home a pair or two of gold fish of rare Chinese species. However, nothing is quite impossible with the enterprising spirit of the Hong Kong businessmen. It should not prove too difficult to put the gold fish to sleep in boxes of oxygenated water and ship them to the customers' home country. If the ideas are feasible, we shall have added two more tourist attractions to boost the tourist industry in Hong Kong.
With these words, Mr. Chairman, I support your motion before Council.
CHAIRMAN (in English): At this time, members might wish to have a short break—4.05 p.m., after which the debate will resume.
CHAIRMAN (in English): The debate will resume—4.20 p.m.
(Miss Maria TAM, Messrs. L. H. KWAN and LAM Chak-piu left after the recess.)
MR. RONALD D. B. LEUNG (in English): Mr. Chairman, from this year on, three new financial arrangements have been proposed by the Government and accepted by this Council.
Firstly, the percentage rate revenue for the Council will be increased from 2.5 per cent to 3.5 per cent, while the general rate for Government will be reduced from 3 per cent to 2.5 per cent, resulting in the total rate payable by property owners being 6 per cent. Income from rates accounts for 79 per cent of the total revenue in our budget. Adjustment in this direction will provide a welcome relief to the financial stringency exercised by the Council and will better enable the Council to cope with normal growth and inflation. According to the Financial...
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Page 121
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Page 120 of 195
208
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
1989/1990 was also annexed therein. This document has been extremely useful to members of the Capital Works Select Committee in their monitoring of the progress of projects and I hope my fellow Councillors would refer to it whenever questions on priorities of capital works arize in their own urban districts. I would like to thank the staff of the Planning and Development Division of U.S.D. for a job so well done.
While the Urban Services Department and the Building Development Department together provide this Council with all the necessary services from initial planning to final construction and completion of all our capital projects, perhaps we should also obtain inputs from other sources before we proceed too far with the planning of some of our future facilities. This would include feedbacks from endusers of our existing facilities; special studies to be carried out by experts in the field or specialist consultants with world-wide experience. Take for example, in the planning of new market complexes; our existing policies of re-siting all on-street hawkers into a nearby market-to-be may prove to be impractical. Have we taken into consideration the change in buying habits of our housewives? Why do they prefer to buy from street hawkers instead of visiting market complexes, even though prices could be cheaper there? Have we gathered enough information or comments from stall-holders in our existing markets so that we could improve the design and layout of our markets which are still on the drawing board? Have we even asked the Centre of Urban Studies and Urban Planning of the University of Hong Kong to research into this problem?
The Hong Kong Coliseum in Hung Hom is well endowed with traffic problems. Sometimes you have to allow an hour's travelling in order to get to it on time for a popular programme. Now that the Central Government has announced the Hung Hom Bay Reclamation Programme, including the Kowloon-Canton Railway's Terminal Expansion, we should make use of this opportunity to improve the accessibility of the Hong Kong Coliseum, particularly from the Hung Hom area. Similarly, the Hong Kong Cultural Complex in Tsim Sha Tsui will have both access and parking problem when completed in 1988/1989. Traffic along the stretch of Salisbury Road fronting the commercial areas in Tsim Sha Tsui East is very heavy particularly in the evening between 6 and 8 p.m. If there were important functions taking place in the nearby hotels, then getting to the Hong Kong Cultural Complex on time would be quite impossible. I think advice from traffic experts is needed.
Our Chairman of the Capital Works Select Committee, Mr. Augustine CHUNG and the Vice-Chairman of the Museums Select Committee Mr. PAO Ping-wing has drawn our attention to the rather out-dated Central Market which has served its usefulness mainly in pre-war years. It has now become grossly a whole sale market. Do we still wish to keep it? Should we re-develop it into something similar to a supermarket both for dry and wet goods so that housewives would be attracted to shop there instead of buying from on-street hawkers nearby?
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
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209
Recently, the Hong Kong Tramways Company Ltd. has approached Government with proposals regarding the re-location of the present depot facilities from Sharp Street in Causeway Bay to two other sites on Western Reclamation and Shau Kei Wan respectively. If this proposal meets with Government's approval, then clearly it is a good opportunity to improve the environment and facilities of the Sharp Street area, especially with the large number of on-street hawkers in Russell Street and nearby; once the depot has moved out.
I believe I have not yet taken up fully my allotted 10-20 minutes, so I shall add another paragraph, which is translated from English, to test the skill of our simultaneous interpreters. There is a common saying that "Flowers may not blossom no matter how one takes care of them, but the willows, left alone, may grow strong and beautiful." For many years now, the Common People's Nightclub in Sheung Wan, and in recent years the market near Stanley Beach too, have become, by incident rather than design, favourite spots for the American and European tourists visiting Hong Kong. From these an idea has dawned on me. The Urban Council could very well work together with the Hong Kong Tourist Association to develop the Jade Market in Yau Ma Tei and the early morning gold fish market near the Mongkok Railway Station into tourist attractions. Of course, we may expect the tourists to buy and bring home one or two jade ornaments as souvenirs, but it seems out of the question for them to take home a pair or two of gold fish of rare Chinese species. However, nothing is quite impossible with the enterprising spirit of the Hong Kong businessmen. It should not prove too difficult to put the gold fish to sleep in boxes of oxygenated water and ship them to the customers' home country. If the ideas are feasible, we shall have added two more tourist attractions to boost the tourist industry in Hong Kong.
With these words, Mr. Chairman, I support your motion before Council.
CHAIRMAN (in English):-At this time, members might wish to have a short break-4.05 p.m., after which the debate will resume.
CHAIRMAN (in English):---The debate will resume-4.20 p.m.
(Miss Maria TAM, Messrs. L. H. KWAN and LAM Chak-piu left after the recess.)
MR. RONALD D. B. LEUNG (in English):-Mr. Chairman, from this year on, three new financial arrangements have been proposed by the Government and accepted by this Council.
Firstly, the percentage rate revenue for the Council will be increased from 2.5 per cent to 3.5 per cent, while the general rate for Government will be reduced from 3 per cent to 2.5 per cent, resulting in the total rate payable by property owners being 6 per cent. Income from rates accounts for 79 per cent of the total revenue in our budget. Adjustment in this direction will provide a welcome relief to the financial stringency exercised by the Council and will better enable the Council to cope with normal growth and inflation. According to the Financial
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