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fully in the work of greening the environment. I support the idea of having an on-going working group to monitor and promote the campaign. And in this group I hope the representatives of all concerned departments, including the Highways Department, Lands Department, Housing Department, CNTA as well as the Territory Development Department. Because they will be able to provide valuable views to the working group so that the group would be able to promote this greening awareness to all organizations, for example, District Boards. In the Eastern District Board we have a committee which took the initiative to set up a working group on greening the environment. It has six objectives. Firstly, to study and promote the ways of and means of greening the environment in the Eastern District. Secondly, to coordinate with the government departments as well as public utilities company to identify ways and sites to green the environment. Thirdly, to set out a criteria to propose sites for greening the environment. Fourthly, to finalise a list to solicit private sponsorship or commercial sponsorship to green the environment. Fifthly, to liaise with concerned or interested bodies to promote the greening campaign. Sixthly, to coordinate and to monitor the progress and report back to the District Board. So the District Board has taken the initiative to setting up this group which will be able to assist the Urban Council in promoting the work. So if we could have an on-going working group to monitor the progress we will be able to enhance the work and also to help other district boards and interested organizations to set up similar working groups to comprehensively launch this programme. If we could have this working group being set up, we will be able to effectively solicit commercial support to launch this programme, and the expenses of this programme would be able to be shouldered by commercial organizations and the maintenance cost would be shouldered by the USD. For example, in the Eastern District, we have a department store which is willing to provide funds for planting a large number of trees along or outside the department store. I believe such mega stores and department stores are most willing to take part in the greening environment campaign and I am sure with the initiative of the Urban Council, we will be able to enlist the support of all interested bodies. Mr. Chairman, with these remarks, I support the motion.
MR. FUNG KWONG-CHUNG (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, in principle I support Mr. MAN's motion. Because the Urban Council does have the responsibility to green the city and this has indeed been one of the most important tasks acknowledged by Councillors for long time. We can see we are developing a lot of programmes. And in our construction programmes we have tried our best to protect the existing greenery and in all our plans we have attached the highest importance to landscape beautification and for UC Smithfield Complex that we discussed this morning, we have also discussed about how we can protect the trees and plants nearby. This reflects that we are all very green conscious here. But I do have some doubts whether we have the ability to launch a comprehensive and coherent programme of tree planting and landscape beautification. We can only decide to plant trees in parks and in some roads. So we may not have the ability to launch such a programme all on our own.
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own. If the Council really want to launch such a programme then we must do something about our administrative structure, and I am afraid we may be doing something outside the ambit of our work. And we all recognize that if we want to launch such a programme, we must rely on the assistance and cooperation of other departments, for example, the Highways Department, Housing Department, the Agriculture and Fisheries Department, Environmental Protection Department and the District Board etc. which my colleagues have mentioned. We must also have the participation of the public before we can have the desirable results. As for setting up a working group, yes, I believe this is very essential but the terms of reference should not be confined just to monitoring the progress of the Urban Council or the Urban Services Department. It should also include discussion of the issue with concerned government departments and to make the best use of our resources so that the campaign can be a success. With these remarks, Mr. Chairman, I support Mr. MAN'S motion.
MR. WONG SHUI-LAI (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, just now a number of my colleagues have spoken their views on this subject. A lot of views have been repeated, so I will not repeat what have been said. But on the subject of 'Greening the City', to make it a more desirable city to live in I have some concrete proposals to make here. The reason why Singapore can become a green city is that it has a long term plan and also a coordinating body to coordinate all levies of government departments in greening the city. It also has a strong support and maintenance resources in terms of manpower and financial assistance. But in Hong Kong, what we are facing now is the lack of such supports. The Urban Council in the past has to rely on the limited resources, manpower resources and financial resources available to it to launch its work. So the achievements have not been very significant. So I have the following suggestions. The Urban Council should set up a working group to take the initiative to liaise with government departments and the administration to urge concerned departments, for example, Agriculture and Fisheries Department, Lands Department, Highways Department, Environmental Protection Department, Town Planning Board, and also District Boards to jointly organise themselves into a working party so as to coordinate all levies in greening Hong Kong. As we are all aware, in the downtown area in the busy districts especially in the main trunk routes, for example the Queen's Road Central, Nathan Road, apart from existing trees very often because of the constraints of utilities underground, for example wires, cables, telephone lines, so and so forth it is very difficult sometimes for the Urban Council to plant trees there. Therefore without a joint committee to coordinate all the efforts and to prepare the long term plan for greening the environment, it is difficult to achieve the aim or to complete the task. On the other hand, I think we can do a lot of things, for example, in printing the stamps. We could borrow the example of Singapore. We can have a tree planting day every year to promote the awareness of members of the public so that they would be made aware of the importance of greening the environment. In terms of implementation provided
Page 36 of 126
Page 36 of 126
fully in the work of greening the environment. I support the idea of having an on-going working group to monitor and promote the campaign. And in this group I hope the representatives of all concerned departments, including the Highways Department, Lands Department, Housing Department, CNTA as well as the Territory Development Department. Because they will be able to provide valuable views to the working group so that the group would be able to promote this greening awareness to all organizations, for example, District Boards. In the Eastern District Board we have a committee which took the initiative to set up a working group on greening the environment. It has six objectives. Firstly, to study and promote the ways of and means of greening the environment in the Eastern District. Secondly, to coordinate with the government departments as well as public utilities company to identify ways and sites to green the environment. Thirdly, to set out a criteria to propose sites for greening the environment. Fourthly, to finalise a list to solicit private sponsorship or commercial sponsorship to green the environment. Fifthly, to liaise with concerned or interested bodies to promote the greening campaign. Sixthly, to coordinate and to monitor the progress and report back to the District Board. So the District Board has taken the initiative to setting up this group which will be able to assist the Urban Council in promoting the work. So if we could have an on-going working group to monitor the progress we will be able to enhance the work and also to help other district boards and interested organizations to set up similar working groups to comprehensively launch this programme. If we could have this working group being set up, we will be able to effectively solicit commercial support to launch this programme, and the expenses of this programme would be able to be shouldered by commercial organizations and the maintenance cost would be shouldered by the USD. For example, in the Eastern District, we have a department store which is willing to provide funds for planting a large number of trees along or outside the department store. I believe such mega stores and department stores are most willing to take part in the greening environment campaign and I am sure with the initiative of the Urban Council, we will be able to enlist the support of all interested bodies. Mr. Chairman, with these remarks, I support the motion.
MR. FUNG KWONG-CHUNG (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, in principle I support Mr. MAN's motion. Because the Urban Council does have the responsibility to green the city and this has indeed been one of the most important tasks acknowledged by Councillors for long time. We can see we are developing a lot of programmes. And in our construction programmes we have tried our best to protect the existing greenery and in all our plans we have attached the highest importance to landscape beautification and for UC Smithfield Complex that we discussed this morning, we have also discussed about how we can protect the trees and plants nearby. This reflects that we are all very green conscious here. But I do have some doubts whether we have the ability to launch a comprehensive and coherent programme of tree planting and landscape beautification. We can only decide to plant trees in parks and in some roads. So we may not have the ability to launch such a programme all on our
Page 36 of 126
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
61
own. If the Council really want to launch such a programme then we must do something about our administrative structure, and I am afraid we may be doing something outside the ambit of our work. And we all recognize that if we want to launch such a programme, we must rely on the assistance and cooperation of other departments, for example, the Highways Department, Housing Department, the Agriculture and Fisheries Department, Environmental Protection Department and the District Board etc. which my colleagues have mentioned. We must also have the participation of the public before we can have the desirable results. As for setting up a working group, yes, I believe this is very essential but the terms of reference should not be confined just to monitoring the progress of the Urban Council or the Urban Services Department. It should also include discussion of the issue with concerned government departments and to make the best use of our resources so that the campaign can be a success. With these remarks, Mr. Chairman, I support Mr. MAN'S motion.
MR. WONG SHUI-LAI (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, just now a number of my colleagues have spoken their views on this subject. A lot of views have been repeated, so I will not repeat what have been said. But on the subject of 'Greening the City', to make it a more desirable city to live in I have some concrete proposals to make here. The reason why Singapore can become a green city is that it has a long term plan and also a coordinating body to coordinate all levies of government departments in greening the city. It also has a strong support and maintenance resources in terms of manpower and financial assistance. But in Hong Kong, what we are facing now is the lack of such supports. The Urban Council in the past has to rely on the limited resources, manpower resources and financial resources available to it to launch its work. So the achievements have not been very significant. So I have the following suggestions. The Urban Council should set up a working group to take the initiative to liaise with government departments and the administration to urge concerned departments, for example, Agriculture and Fisheries Department, Lands Department, Highways Department, Environmental Protection Department, Town Planning Board, and also District Boards to jointly organise themselves into a working party so as to coordinate all levies in greening Hong Kong. As we are all aware, in the downtown area in the busy districts especially in the main trunk routes, for example the Queen's Road Central, Nathan Road, apart from existing trees very often because of the constraints of utilities underground, for example wires, cables, telephone lines, so and so forth it is very difficult sometimes for the Urban Council to plant trees there. Therefore without a joint committee to coordinate all the efforts and to prepare the long term plan for greening the environment, it is difficult to achieve the aim or to complete the task. On the other hand, I think we can do a lot of things, for example, in printing the stamps. We could borrow the example of Singapore. We can have a tree planting day every year to promote the awareness of members of the public so that they would be made aware of the importance of greening the environment. In terms of implementation provided
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