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all recognize that the work in these areas is closely linked with our services and requires our co-operation at all times.
My last aspiration is that the Urban Council, as a non-political council, will have a smooth transition beyond 1997, regardless of whatever processes it may have to go through. By smooth transition, I mean all the existing Councillors, irrespective of their political party background and stance, will still be appointed Urban Councillors after July 1997 to serve the Urban Council, or the Provisional Urban Council, or the Council of whatever name it will be called. I believe that through our joint efforts, the three aspirations I cherish will gradually come true, and the Urban Council will, under the Special Administrative Region Government, be able to benefit the people of Hong Kong and become a veritable urban council in the long run. Mr. Chairman, with these remarks, I support the motion.
THE HON. Mok Ying-fan (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, I would like to concentrate on the discussion of environmental protection issues of Hong Kong today. According to environmentalists, if the natural environment of Hong Kong had not been polluted and ruined, its beaches would be comparable to the clean and white beaches of Maldives; its coastal scenes would also be on a par with the beautiful scenery of Thousand Island Lake (Qian Dao Hu) in China; and its undersea picture would be similar to the coral seaview of Great Barrier Reef in Australia. However, what I saw under the sea last year when I learned diving was totally different from the notion of the environmentalists. Even a schoolchild will agree that the pollution problem is extremely serious.
We always say that Hong Kong is developing rapidly and that it has become one of the three biggest financial centres of the world, earning one of the highest per capita income. However, when we come to the commitment on environmental protection, I think Hong Kong has, by far, fallen behind the developed countries of the western world. It is therefore hoped that the Hong Kong Government and Urban Council will actively attend to the issues of environmental protection. At present, the major environmental concerns of Hong Kong include the threats posed by development projects on the wetland of Mai Po Nature Reserve, the establishment of marine parks, the high mortality rate of Chinese white dolphins, the problem of foreign refuse from the western countries being accumulated in Hong Kong, the delay experienced by our Strategic Sewage Disposal Programme, the water quality and ecological environment in our harbour being ruined by continuous reclamation projects, etc. In fact, Hong Kong is confronted with so many environmental problems that we can hardly name all of them. However, how much attention have we paid to these problems? An article that I read last month has referred to an academic report on the calculation of the accumulative rate of natural resource deposits in Taiwan, its environmental pollution level and its rate of nature recovery, etc. They find that the accumulative rate of Taiwan's natural
Page 303 of 498
Page 303 of 498
Page 303 of 498
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
345
all recognize that the work in these areas is closely linked with our services and requires our co-operation at all times.
My last aspiration is that the Urban Council, as a non-political council, will have a smooth transition beyond 1997, regardless of whatever processes it may have to go through. By smooth transition, I mean all the existing Councillors, irrespective of their political party background and stance, will still be appointed Urban Councillors after July 1997 to serve the Urban Council, or the Provisional Urban Council, or the Council of whatever name it will be called. I believe that through our joint efforts, the three aspirations I cherish will gradually come true, and the Urban Council will, under the Special Administrative Region Government, be able to benefit the people of Hong Kong and become a veritable urban council in the long run. Mr. Chairman, with these remarks, I support the motion.
THE HON. Mok Ying-fan (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, I would like to concentrate on the discussion of environmental protection issues of Hong Kong today. According to environmentalists. if the natural environment of Hong Kong had not been polluted and ruined, its beaches would be comparable to the clean and white beaches of Maldives; its coastal scenes would also be on a par with the beautiful scenery of Thousand Island Lake (Qian Dao Hu) in China; and its undersea picture would be similar to the coral seaview of Great Barrier Reef in Australia. However, what I saw under the sea last year when I learned diving was totally different from the notion of the environmentalists. Even a schoolchild will agree that the pollution problem is extremely serious.
We always say that Hong Kong is developing rapidly and that it has become one of the three biggest financial centres of the world, earning one of the highest per capita income. However, when we come to the commitment on environmental protection, I think Hong Kong has, by far, fallen behind the developed countries of the western world. It is therefore hoped that the Hong Kong Government and Urban Council will actively attend to the issues of environmental protection. At present. the major environmental concerns of Hong Kong include the threats posed by development projects on the wetland of Mai Po Nature Reserve, the establishment of marine parks, the high mortality rate of Chinese white dolphins, the problem of foreign refuse from the western countries being accumulated in Hong Kong, the delay experienced by our Strategic Sewage Disposal Programme, the water quality and ecological environment in our harbour being ruined by continuous reclamation projects. etc. In fact, Hong Kong is confronted with so many environmental problems that we can hardly name all of them. However, how much attention have we paid to these problems? An article that I read last month has referred to an academic report on the calculation of the accumulative rate of natural resource deposits in Taiwan. its environmental pollution level and its rate of nature recovery, etc. They find that the accumulative rate of Taiwan's natural
Page 303 of 498
Page 303 of 498
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