1985 — Page 141

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

I hope that in the meantime if there is work in the Urban Council that needs to be done and if I could contribute, I would certainly be most willing to offer what I can. Thank you. (applause)

MR. EDMUND W. H. CHOW (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, I thank you very much for the kind words of praise. Election and fighting a battle actually are quite similar, you either win or you lose and there are people who say that success makes a hero, but such cynical remarks would not appear in this Council. Although people depart through various means, still those who leave would be given kind words by other colleagues in this Council. We do not see this very often in other circles and my colleagues in the Urban Council may differ or may argue in the execution of the public duties, but when there is need to unite and when there is need to support each other, we will certainly offer such help without reservation. In times of crisis, we could really stand together and comfort each other. Service in the Council and outside the Council are all different forms of public services, although I leave the Urban Council for the time being and people say that I may come back in 3 years' time, be it 3 years' time or a certain number of years outside the Urban Council, I could still serve the public as if I were a member of the Urban Council and could have equal contributions. I hope that the Urban Council in future will as we suggested time and again have their duties paid greater attention to by members of the public and be appreciated by the public. I would say that in the near future, the Urban Council will certainly not be disbanded. (applause)

PAPER

The following paper was laid on the table:

(1) Report to the Urban Council by the Director of Urban Services and Secretary, Urban Council, for the month of February 1986.

QUESTIONS

1. MR. WALTER M. SULKE asked the following question (in English):-— I understand that recently cultural events transferred from the City Hall to the Tsuen Wan Concert Hall were priced lower by the Provisional Regional Council than by us. One presumes that the PRC takes into consideration the lower earning capacity of residents in the New Territories and therefore is prepared to subsidize cultural events at higher rates than this Council can afford. This is laudable but obviously creates problems. What steps has the Chairman of the relevant committee taken in order to coordinate such matters in future, and should we not consider increasing our subsidies in line with those in the New Territories?

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MR. FREDERICK K. K. FUNG, VICE-CHAIRMAN OF THE CULTURE SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in Cantonese): This question deals with the pricing of tickets for cultural events presented jointly by the Urban Council and the Provisional Regional Council as well as subsidy for such presentations.

Programme-sharing between the Urban Council and the New Territories Cultural Presentations Office of the former Cultural Services Department had been practised for a number of years. Apart from promoting greater cooperation, programme-sharing serves the objective of bringing cultural presentations within the convenient reach of residents in both the urban areas and the New Territories. The basis of this cooperation was for costs to be shared on a pro rata basis and for a common price structure to be adopted.

Since the establishment of the Regional Services Department in April 1985, programme sharing has continued as a feature of cooperation. In a few cases, the New Territories presentations adopted a lower ticket price structure than their urban counterparts. The Urban Services Department is at present in discussion with the Regional Services Department on this issue and proposals will be submitted to the Culture Select Committee for consideration in due course. There is difference in the pricing because when New Territories residents take part in cultural presentation, they are of a smaller number and if the prices are lower, then we could encourage more New Territories residents to take part in such cultural events.

The level of subsidy and ticket prices were set by the UC after taking into account the marketability of the programme and the affordability of the likely target audiences. Hence different considerations might probably apply for New Territories as contrasted with urban venues, but it depends on the data and further information emerging in the discussions.

MR. SULKE (in English):—Mr. Chairman, I do not think my question was answered. I think we really have to consider how much the taxpayers should subsidize culture whether it is in the city or in the New Territories, surely should it not be a discussion between the two councils rather than between the two departments.

MR. FREDERICK FUNG (in Cantonese):-I must emphasize one point i.e. the level of subsidy and this is because of the difference in the pricing policy, this is for sure. As to why there is less subsidy in the urban areas, the reasons I have stated and i.e. based on papers of previous meetings and we are not allowing the department to make a decision but rather the department would provide us with information to reach a decision. According to information that we have got, there are several types of activity, such as the paper is in English, so I would say that it is the Shanghai opera and performance from the United States and it is in these programmes that the ticket price of the urban areas exceeds that of the New Territories by 40%. If the New Territories were to charge the same price,

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