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Infrastructure Development and Heritage Conservation | 231

providing training and trade testing services for the construction industry under the new name of Construction Industry Council Training Academy.

Response to the first phase of the Voluntary Subcontractor Registration Scheme, launched in November 2003, has been encouraging. By November of 2007, 3 897 applications for registration were received and 3 558 were approved.

Construction Workers Registration

The Construction Workers Registration Authority continued the registration of construction workers. Up to mid-December 2007, about 225 000 construction workers had been registered. Phase one prohibition of the Construction Workers Registration Ordinance commenced on September 1, 2007 prohibiting workers from carrying out construction work on construction sites unless they were registered under the ordinance. Under the second phase, those not registered as skilled or semi- skilled workers of a designated trade will not be allowed to work in that trade.

Developments under CEPA

The Development Bureau continued discussions with stakeholders of the Hong Kong construction industry and the Ministry of Construction (MoC) on the fifth phase of the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA). Further commitments in promoting the mutual recognition of professional qualifications and registration of professionals were secured under Supplement IV to CEPA signed in June 2007. The bureau continued to organise with the Shenzhen Construction Bureau and the Shenzhen Works Bureau the Mainland secondment training programme for graduates. The first batch of quantity surveying and structural engineering graduates as well as the third batch of civil engineering graduates completed successfully a three-month training course in Shenzhen in February and July 2007 respectively. Based on the positive results in the Shenzhen secondment training programme, the programme was extended to Guangzhou. The first batch of quantity surveying and landscape architectural graduates commenced training in Guangzhou in October 2007. To further promote exchange and cooperation in the training of professionals, the bureau has planned to extend the programme to other Mainland cities.

During the year, as part of Hong Kong's ongoing promotion of its construction industry and related services, the Development Bureau organised a large-scale forum on the planning and development of sustainable urban form in Changsha with the MoC. The bureau also jointly organised a seminar with the Guangdong Provincial Department of Construction in Guangzhou for the contractors and consultants of the two places to enhance mutual understanding in preparation for further business collaboration.

Websites

Development Bureau: www.devb.gov.hk

Planning and Lands Branch: www.devb-plb.gov.hk

Works Branch: www.devb-wb.gov.hk