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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

events

therefore been decided to highlight, for example, several forthcoming which clearly illustrate the Council's dedication to its goal of continuing to improve the living environment of the 42 million urban dwellers of Hong Kong.

Over the past two months the Administration Select Committee has been studying many interesting suggestions to provide the appropriate publicity on these activities. These ideas include the possibility of setting up a permanent exhibition hall to be used as an adjunct to the growing interest in civic education in Hong Kong. Also the Committee is looking at the value of having a mobile exhibition, which could travel from district to district and be used in conjunction with food hygiene campaigns, anti-pest drives and so on.

The Council is also considering the staging of more competitions on civic subjects among students of Hong Kong schools, and on this same line of thinking is working with RTHK on the production of a 10-part television series on the work of the Council, this series to include an interesting inter-school quiz contest.

The Committee is also taking a hard look at the Council's monthly newspaper, City News, to see how this may be improved upon.

Some other suggestions are connected with the large number of projects that are now under construction on either side of the harbour, among them nine multi-storey complexes. We are planning to have site visits to these oncoming facilities, and to invite the media along, too, to see just what a large range of improvements there are in the pipeline for Hong Kong's people. In these and several other fields, ideas are being looked into.

The Public Relations approach of the Council has always been (***) to be practical; to keep the public well informed of our work without over- emphasizing our achievements for the purposes of image-building. We intend to maintain this approach through the concerted efforts of the CUC, the VCUC, fellow Councillors and of course the staff of the Department.

MR. TONG (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, I agree with Dr. CHAM saying that we are always very practical. As to the exhibition hall, mobile exhibition and the 10-part television series, I have heard of these many times since I have come to the Council. Especially regarding the old-fashioned City News, it has been said that improvement will be made to it and I want to know how it will be improved? Also about financial and manpower resources implications, have you considered them, because you are proposing a lot of new things? Also in Hong Kong we are promoting the use of Chinese. Would it be that in future publicity campaigns in Hong Kong, we would use more Chinese?

DR. THE HONOURABLE KIM CHAM (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, a lot of ideas have come from our cumulative experience and they will be implemented stage by stage. We have to see how circumstances go and to see what we can implement at what time. Of course, we will deliberate on these new ideas and

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implement them at the appropriate time. As regards manpower or financial implications, these will be certainly taken into account before we implement any of the new ideas. About using Chinese more and more, as you can see Mr. TONG spoke in Chinese and we also try our very best to use Chinese in Council's meetings and so we always pay attention to the usage of both Chinese and English. We will not sacrifice one for the benefit of the other and since Hong Kong is an international city, we will use both languages as far as possible.

STATEMENT BY MR. PAO PING-WING, CHAIRMAN OF THE CAPITAL WORKS SELECT COMMITTEE

He said (in Cantonese):--I refer to the comments made by Mr. SUlke, Chairman of the Finance Select Committee at the last meeting of the Whole Council on 13 May 1986. Mr. SULKE expressed concern on the discrepancy between the budget set aside for capital works and actual expenditure. I have now checked with the department and found that the discrepancy in the last five financial years starting from 1981-82 had been about 20% and the actual expenditure had been on average pitched at 80% of the financial provisions made available for implementing the Urban Council Capital Works Programme and minor projects.

Whilst I generally share the concern of Mr. SULKE about the need to get the budget figures right, it is equally important to keep expenditure within budget. The vigilance exercised by Members of the previous Capital Works Select Committees in vetting and approving cost estimates and requests for supplementary provisions, and the stringent control exercised by the Archi- tectural Services Department on contract supervision and management have helped to ensure that project costs are kept within approved estimates.

Project planning and implementation is not an exact science. The implement- ation of work projects is affected by a number of factors which are outside the control of planners and architects and which can bring about delays to the construction programme and as a result, reductions in the financial out-turn. Examples of these factors are inclement weather, difficult site conditions revealed in the course of detailed planning, unforeseen changes to plans necessitated by new operational requirements, and absconded contractors and so on and so forth.

In 1984, the department instituted a monitoring system in conjunction with the Architectural Services Department. Under the system, both progress and financial expenditure of all capital work projects are monitored at quarterly intervals. Cost estimates are adjusted as actual contract sums are known, and financial spreads are revised according to the progress attained in the previous quarter. The Council receives a quarterly report at the end of January, April, July and October. The effectiveness of the monitoring system is now felt-the financial out-turn for 1985-86 was forecasted at $280 million in April 1985 and the actual expenditure reached $274 million at the end of March 1986.