ENG-2008 — Page 290

230 | Infrastructure Development and Heritage Conservation

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 2008, 4 317 applications for registration had been received and 3 838 were approved.

Construction Workers Registration

The Construction Workers Registration Authority (CWRA) continued the registration of construction workers. Up to the end of December 2008, about 266 000 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. The CWRA has been preparing for implementing the remaining phase of prohibition, under which 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

During the year, the Development Bureau continued discussions with stakeholders of the Hong Kong construction industry and the Ministry of Housing. and Urban-Rural Development on the sixth phase of the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA). Under Supplement V to CEPA signed between the Mainland and Hong Kong in July 2008, further commitments to market access were secured for Hong Kong service providers to set up construction engineering design enterprises in the Mainland. It also allows Hong Kong professionals, who have obtained the Mainland's registered Urban Planner or Supervision Engineer qualification, to register and practise in Guangdong Province.

In 2008, the bureau continued to organise graduate secondment training programmes with various Mainland authorities. In Shenzhen, the sixth batch of graduates commenced their training in October 2008. Based on the positive results in the Shenzhen secondment training programme, the programme has been extended to Guangzhou and Chongqing. The first batch of quantity surveying and landscape architectural graduates completed their three-month training in Guangzhou in January 2008 while the first batch of civil engineering and geotechnical engineering graduates completed their training course in Chongqing in June 2008.

Websites

Development Bureau: www.devb.gov.hk

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