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Council's activities. In addition to existing venues such as the museums, libraries, Science Museum, Space Museum, Museum of History and Museum of Arts, there are some coming on stream, such as the Lei Yue Mun Museum, the Film Archive etc. I hope that the idea of installing plaques thanking the sponsors could be included to promote the schemes concerned. This is in fact very popular overseas. The above ideas could be adopted for the Council's existing venues and activities. I think they could increase the Council's revenue and at the same time promote its activities.
The second advantage is about increase in rentals. By this I don't mean increasing the rentals. What I mean is to increase the number of existing venues that could be leased, that is, making some additional leasing arrangements. Take the Hong Kong Coliseum for example. There is a large stage on each of the three sides and I hope that we could examine carefully the possibility of opening a flea market. In exploring this possibility, we could start with the Hong Kong Coliseum. Although the annual leasing rate of the Hong Kong Coliseum is as high as 90% and there are activities almost every evening, I still hope the Select Committee concerned will give a thought to this idea. Besides solving the problem of itinerant hawkers, additional revenue could be generated from snack-catering services provided within the venues while the activities are held. It could at the same time help solve indirectly some of the problems caused by itinerant hawkers. But of course we must pay attention to the problems of management of traffic and flow of people.
Lastly, I myself took part in the meeting with Secretary for the Treasury Mr. K. C. KWONG held last year. He clearly indicated that should the Urban Council be in the red three years later, they would be most willing to seek provision from the Legislative Council. It is therefore very clear that the Council itself must make both ends meet. I hope we will work harder in developing new sources of income to help the people of Hong Kong tide over the difficulties. With these remarks, I support the motion.
MR. AMBROSE Cheung WING-SUM (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, let me first of all thank Members for providing the various options. There are altogether four options. If I must pick one, it is probable that none of them would be chosen after I have stated my stance. However, in terms of objectives and principles, these four options actually do not vary much from one another. In the end I might pick one of them.
I want to say something about my views on three aspects. What are under discussion are freezing of charges, reduction of charges and financial sources. As far as these three principles are concerned, my views are different from those of Members.
I support freezing of charges. As everyone has expounded, the rationale is that we are experiencing economic difficulties and that every trade is suffering from poor business. However, this option of freezing charges is being
Page 562 of 654
Page 562 of 654
Page 562 of 654
556
HONG KONG PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
Council's activities. In addition to existing venues such as the museums. libraries, Science Museum, Space Museum, Museum of History and Museum of Arts, there are some coming on stream, such as the Lei Yue Mun Museum, the Film Archive etc. I hope that the idea of installing plagues thanking the sponsors could be included to promote the schemes concerned. This is in fact very popular overseas. The above ideas could be adopted for the Council's existing venues and activities. I think they could increase the Council's revenue and at the same time promote its activities.
The second advantage is about increase in rentals. By this I don't mean increasing the rentals. What I mean is to increase the number of existing venues that could be leased, that is, making some additional leasing arrangements. Take the Hong Kong Coliseum for example. There is a large stage on each of the three sides and I hope that we could examine carefully the possibility of opening a flea market. In exploring this possibility, we could start with the Hong Kong Coliseum. Although the annual leasing rate of the Hong Kong Coliseum is as high as 90% and there are activities almost every evening, I still hope the Select Committee concerned will give a thought to this idea. Besides solving the problem of itinerant hawkers, additional revenue could be generated from snack-catering services provided within the venues while the activities are held. It could at the same time help solve indirectly some of the problems caused by itinerant hawkers. But of course we must pay attention to the problems of management of traffic and flow of people.
Lastly, I myself took part in the meeting with Secretary for the Treasury Mr. K. C. KWONG held last year. He clearly indicated that should the Urban Council be in the red three years later, they would be most willing to seek provision from the Legislative Council. It is therefore very clear that the Council itself must make both ends meet. I hope we will work harder in developing new sources of income to help the people of Hong Kong tide over the difficulties. With these remarks, I support the motion.
MR. AMBROSE Cheung WING-SUM (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, let me first of all thank Members for providing the various options. There are altogether four options. If I must pick one, it is probable that none of them would be chosen after I have stated my stance. However, in terms of objectives and principles, these four options actually do not vary much from one 10 another. In the end I might pick one of them.
I want to say something about my views on three aspects. What are under discussion are freezing of charges, reduction of charges and financial sources. As far as these three principles are concerned, my views are different from those of Members.
I support freezing of charges. As everyone has expounded, the rationale is that we are experiencing economic difficulties and that every trade is suffering from poor business. However, this option of freezing charges is being
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