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technology or science as a fundamental constituent of culture. (This can be seen in the work of the Urban Council, such as the establishment of the Science Museum and Space Museum as well as the organization of certain technology exhibitions.) The tendency to totally exclude science from culture or the attitude to treat science as merely common knowledge is deep-rooted in the mind of Hong Kong people. Since the cultural development in Hong Kong has for a very long time concentrated only on “arts”, development of "science culture" in Hong Kong has been lagging far behind other advanced countries and neighbouring regions.
The "bubble economy" of Hong Kong has recently been broken. To save our economy, the Chief Executive advocates developing "new technology" or "innovation and technology" in Hong Kong. It is a pity that our society is in want of a culture for innovation and technology. Hence we should try our best to establish a culture for innovation and technology in Hong Kong so as to tie in with our future economic development and to enrich the content of our culture. The cultural development of Hong Kong should not be confined only to arts. It should be extended to information, technology, innovation, continuing development, etc. It is now outdated to think of arts as antithetical to technology. In formulating the future cultural policy of Hong Kong, we should incorporate more technological elements into the scope of our culture. Otherwise, Hong Kong culture will only be a kind of entertaining, commercial, second-rate and subservient culture without its uniqueness, competitiveness and the potential for continuous development. It is said that future economic competition will be determined by cultural and technological competitions. Such viewpoint should be noted, especially by policy-makers at the top level of our Government.
At present, what our society urgently needs is a group of officials and councillors with scientific thinking and knowledge to lead, plan and promote all kinds of work, including municipal services, in our pursuit of cultural development in Hong Kong.
Mr. Chairman, with these remarks, I support the motion.
Mr. Tommy Cheung Yu-yan (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman,
In his Policy Address last year, the Chief Executive mentioned that the Government had set targets to achieve productivity gains and all government departments were required to reduce expenditure by 5% or enhance productivity by 5% within three years. I think this figure is too low. In the previous two quarters, Hong Kong had a negative economic growth and a negative figure of -0.7% was recorded last quarter. Looking ahead, there is no cause for optimism this year, but the SAR Government still maintains an oversize civil service. At present, within a labour force of over three million in the territory, 180,000 are civil servants. This, together with some 200,000 employees in quasi-government organizations, means that on average, there is
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technology or science as a fundamental constituent of culture. (This can be seen in the work of the Urban Council, such as the establishment of the Science Museum and Space Museum as well as the organization of certain technology exhibitions.) The tendency to totally exclude science from culture or the attitude to treat science from as merely common knowledge is deep- rooted in the mind of Hong Kong people. Since the cultural development in Hong Kong has for a very long time concentrated only on “arts”, development of "science culture" in Hong Kong has been lagging far behind other advanced countries and neighbouring regions.
The "bubble economy" of Hong Kong has recently been broken. To save our economy, the Chief Executive advocates developing "new technology" or "innovation and technology" in Hong Kong. It is a pity that our society is in want of a culture for innovation and technology. Hence we should try our best to establish a culture for innovation and technology in Hong Kong so as to tie in with our future economic development and to enrich the content of our culture. The cultural development of Hong Kong should not be confined only to arts. It should be extended to information, technology, innovation, continuing development, etc. It is now outdated to think of arts as antithetical to technology. In formulating the future cultural policy of Hong Kong, we should incorporate more technological elements into the scope of our culture. Otherwise. Hong Kong culture will only be a kind of entertaining, commercial, second-rate and subservient culture without its uniqueness, competitiveness and the potential for continuous development. It is said that future economic competition will be determined by cultural and technological competitions. Such view point should be noted, especially by policy-makers at the top level of our Government.
At present, what our society urgently needs is a group of officials and councillors with scientific thinking and knowledge to lead, plan and promote all kinds of work, including municipal services, in our pursuit of cultural development in Hong Kong.
Mr. Chairman, with these remarks, I support the motion.
Mr. Tommy Cheung Yu-yan (in Cantonese);—Mr. Chairman,
In his Policy Address last year, the Chief Executive mentioned that the Government had set targets to achieve productivity gains and all government departments were required to reduce expenditure by 5% or enhance productivity by 5% within three years. I think this figure is too low. In the previous two quarters. Hong Kong had a negative economic growth and a negative figure of -0.7% was recorded last quarter. Looking ahead, there is no cause for optimism this year, but the SAR Government still maintains an oversize civil service. At present, within a labour force of over three million in the territory, 180,000 are civil servants. This, together with some 200,000 employees in quasi-government organizations, means that on average, there is
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