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we have the determination to do this, we could, through legislation, penalize those who deliberately damage trees so as to achieve a deterrent effect. Mr. Chairman, with these remarks, I support the motion.

MR. SAN STEPHEN WONG HON-CHING (in Cantonese):-Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I remembered that at the beginning of this year, during an open meeting or annual debate, I also mentioned the concept of greening the city. About two months ago, there was a paper on the proposal to plant 500 trees by the Urban Council. At that time when we discussed the paper, I felt that it was too few judging from our budget and our manpower resources. Fortunately, Mr. Barma, the Director of the Urban Services, said that he would follow up on this issue and if possible, he would speed up the programme and to plant more trees. The Wanchai District Board is a very small committee. But it was able to plant around 600 trees in the past few years. So it proves that as long as you have the will, you will have the way. Many colleagues just now already mentioned the advantages of greening the city, I will not repeat their points. However, I would like to stress one point. If we were able to have a 'Greening the City Year' in 1993, it will be very meaningful. I think the Council will be able to achieve this. If we have the 'Greening the City Year' for Hong Kong, then I hope that during that particular year the entire community would echo our campaign and support the greening of the city. Then I think we will be able to achieve very much. Here I would like to show my support for Mr. MAN'S motion and I also support the setting up an on-going working group not just to monitor the progress as mentioned by one of my colleagues, it should also be doing the coordination work. With these remarks, I support the motion.

MR. CHIANG SAI-CHEONG (in Cantonese):-Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I fully support the views expressed by my colleagues. I would like to add a few words here. I feel that the Urban Council and the Urban Services Department would be the most appropriate public body to do this. At present the number of vehicles are increasing day by day. The carbon monoxide emitted by vehicles in Winter and Summer are causing a lot of air pollution and bad smell. On top of that we have the green house effect so the USD must launch a comprehensive programme on tree planting. In April when we visited Singapore they have a tree planting programme. Of course Singapore is different from Hong Kong in terms of its geographical situation and a lot of other factors. However, we do know that the Singapore government is very active in promoting greening the city activities. I think the Urban Council could collect information from our neighbouring country especially in the Asia Pacific realm and borrow their experience in greening the environment so as to enlist the support of members of the public and improve on their success. At present, we have hundreds of species of trees being planted. According to our understanding, in Singapore different species of trees and plants have different characteristics and they should be planted in different locations. So different environment would be suitable for different plants, for example, some trees are suitable for hotter or more tropical regions while some trees are suitable for pavements, streets and

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parks. I think the USD have the expertise who can provide more expert knowledge on this and advice as to what trees should be grown in what locations. In terms of education, I think at primary schools and secondary schools, we could liaise with the Education Department to include in the curriculum more opportunities for students to practise planting trees. And the Urban Council could also in its nurseries increase more manpower to educate students on how trees or plants can be grown. Meanwhile the USD also organise courses for the staff members on nurseries. Apart from the staff members of the USD, I am sure members of the public would require similar knowledge. So I hope that more courses could be organized for members of the public so as to increase their knowledge on planting and also on importance of maintaining our environment. Apart from that, I think plants grown by the Urban Council could be clearly described and their characteristics could be labelled so that the next generations and members of the public would be educated. And my proposal is that next year could be made the 'Greening the City Year' and commercial support or sponsorship could be solicited for this campaign. And the government as well as the Urban Council and various departments could work together to enlist public support. Although in the past, the Urban Services Department have spent no effort in working on this, we could still work harder to solicit more support from District Boards, private sponsors as well as other departments in launching this meaningful campaign. We should take the initiative in greening the environment and planting more trees to beautify the environment and by setting up a permanent working group would be able to monitor the progress. With these remarks, I support the motion.

MR. WONG SIU-YEE (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, just now many colleagues have given very valuable opinions and I share many of their views. In fact many have already taken the words out of my mouth. Hong Kong is very densely populated. Many people described Hong Kong as a concrete jungle. Even it is jungle it is not made of trees, it is made of concrete. Our living standard has been improving and the citizens have high expectations of the Urban Council where greening the city is concerned. It is the responsibility of the Council to green the city. Therefore I support the first point made by Mr. MAN in his motion. That is we must plant trees. But planting trees is not enough. We must also keep the trees healthy. In order to achieve this, we must have the participation of the public and the district organizations including District Boards should also play a very active role to cooperate with the Urban Council in choosing spots for planting trees and in maintaining these trees. As for the species of the trees to be planted, this is also a very important subject. We all want to see very healthy and lovely trees planting all around us. In order to achieve this, I also support the second idea mentioned by Mr. MAN, that is, to set up a working group to monitor the progress and to promote the 'Greening the City' concept. Of course we are very fortunate that we have all reached a consensus today on this and in fact the Urban Services Department has also given us very great support and I am sure they share our common objective.

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