A 08/09-9

Legislative Council

Agenda

Wednesday 26 November 2008 at 11:00 am

(a)	of the land exchange policies in place and the criteria adopted for land exchange; the land lot proposed to be surrendered by the developer in exchange for the land on the slope mentioned above; and whether the proposed land lot can also serve the same function as some 500 trees on the slope in terms of absorption of carbon dioxide;
(b)	whether it will consult the public on the land exchange proposal and approve it only after a consensus is reached in the community; if it will not, of the reasons for that; and
(c)	although the land grant provisions require that the developer to carry out road improvement works, the proposed improvement measures by the developer are limited only to mitigating the vehicular flow into Queen's Road East from Kennedy Road, without addressing the impact of the vehicular flow on the junction of Queen's Road East, Wong Nai Chung Road and Morrison Hill Road, impact on Canal Road West and Leighton Road and their neighbourhood, as well as the impact on traffic to and from Southern District, the Cross Harbour Tunnel to Hung Hom, and the east and west bound traffic of Hong Kong Island, whether it will request the developer to cover the above districts in its traffic impact assessment; if it will not, of the reasons for that?

(a)	of the latest progress of the above review;
(b)	of a breakdown by school type of the names of schools and school sponsoring bodies with which the authorities have liaised, and their specific views on changes to the class sizes (including the reasonable class sizes of the different categories of special schools for meeting their actual teaching needs); and
(c)	whether the authorities will reduce the class sizes of the different categories of special schools; if they will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

(a)	it has discussed with the Guangdong Provincial Government the implementation arrangements for the measures; if so, of the details of the arrangements; if not, the reasons for that;
(b)	it has conducted relevant studies and formulated relevant policies to facilitate the development of business in the Guangdong Province by local professionals and service sectors; if so, of the details of the studies and the policies; if not, the reasons for that; and
(c)	it will refer such liberalization and facilitation measures to the Task Force on Economic Challenges for discussion; if not, of the reasons for that?

(a)

whether the Government will, by following the measure of waiving business registration fee for this year as announced in the 2008-2009 Budget, immediately waive the hawker licence fee for fixed-pitch hawkers and itinerant hawkers for one year, so as to alleviate their burden; and

(b)

as the rentals for Cheung Sha Wan and Western Wholesale Food Markets under the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department this year have risen, whether it will waive the rentals for one quarter for wholesale food markets under the Department and those for public markets and shopping malls under the Government, or lower such rentals immediately, and in respect of wholesale food markets which are required to pay commission according to their sales turnover, cease to collect commission for one quarter, so as to reduce the operating costs of small shop tenants and lower food prices, as well as take the lead in lowering shop rentals; if it will not, of the reasons for that?

(a)	of the respective numbers of school-aged students, places and teachers for each senior secondary form in these two districts for the current and the two previous school years, and the relevant estimated numbers for each school year from the next one to 2016;
(b)	of the roles and functions of Band One to Band Three secondary schools under the current education system; whether it has considered if a reduction of senior secondary classes provided by Band Three secondary schools will add to the burden of secondary schools of other bands; and
(c)	whether it will consider implementing small class teaching in the Band Three secondary schools concerned, so as to enable them to continue to perform their intended functions, and to solve the problem of surplus teachers; if not, of the reasons for that?

(a)	whether it has assessed the impact of the above agreements on the air and maritime transport, logistics and tourism sectors in Hong Kong; if it has, of the details of the assessment, and how the Government will assist these sectors in consolidating their position in the region, so as to withstand the impact of the "Three Direct Links";
(b)	whether it has actively prepared for the impact on the above three sectors of further expansion of the "Three Direct Links" in future, with a view to achieving a win-win situation for the Mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(c)	given that the Government indicated early this year that it was studying how to enable Hong Kong to play a part in our country's "Twelfth Five-Year Plan", of the latest progress of the part of the study relating to the above three sectors, and whether it has expedited the study in the light of the signing of the agreements on the "Three Direct Links"?

(a)	whether it has reviewed the effectiveness of the current anti-mosquito measures being carried out in various districts; if it has, of the results of the review; if not, how it finds out the effectiveness of the anti-mosquito measures; and
(b)	of the new anti-mosquito strategy to be formulated to solve the mosquito problem?

(a)	of the amount of tax revenue foregone in the past three financial years as a result of exempting electric vehicles from first registration tax;
(b)	of the number of electric vehicles newly registered in the past two years; and
(c)	apart from exemption from first registration tax, what measures the Government had adopted in the past two years to encourage more vehicle owners to buy electric vehicles?

(a)	the respective numbers of applications approved for the construction of small houses each year, as well as applications on the waiting list;
(b)	the annual number of applications for payment of additional premiums for the removal of the restriction on alienation clause from the land lease of a small house, and the total amount of premiums received in such applications; and
(c)	the administration costs involved in processing the applications?

(a)	of the respective numbers of operations mounted by the Police in various police districts in Hong Kong since January this year against prostitution activities conducted under the name of "compensated dating"; the number of persons arrested in the operations, the respective numbers of males and females engaged in prostitution (and the number of minors among them), as well as the number of persons convicted and the penalties imposed on them;
(b)	whether it has assessed if the police operations against such prostitution activities are effective, and of the current number of such syndicates in Hong Kong;
(c)	what measures have been taken by the Police to combat such illegal activities taking place in the discussion forums and chat rooms on the Internet, and the enforcement difficulties encountered;
(d)	of the number of cases received since January this year by the authorities in which people engaged in such prostitution activities requested for assistance, what assistance they requested and what assistance was provided by the authorities; and
(e)	what specific measures will be adopted by the authorities in schools and the community to help young people understand the perils of such prostitution activities?

(a)	it knows the respective average daily numbers of passengers of various overnight franchised bus routes to and from Tseung Kwan O;
(b)	it has reviewed if the current overnight public transport service to and from Tseung Kwan O is adequate, and of the criteria adopted for determining if the service need to be enhanced; if it has; of the results of the review; if it has not, the reasons for that; and
(c)	it will introduce overnight GMB routes between Mong Kok and Tseung Kwan O?

(a)	it knows the names of the PLGs presently in existence;
(b)	public transport operators are required to regularly submit to the Government updated membership lists of PLGs;
(c)	it had, in the past five years, issued detailed guidelines to the relevant public transport operators advising them on how to comply with the requirement of making arrangements "to the satisfaction of the Commissioner"; if so, of the nature of the guidelines; if not, how it determines whether the requirement has been complied with;
(d)	TD sends its staff to attend or by other means to monitor the conduct of PLG meetings and meets with those PLG members who are not representatives of the public transport operators concerned, so as to ensure that PLGs are serving their intended purpose; and
(e)	the Government or the Transport Advisory Committee had, in the past 10 years, evaluated the PLG scheme to determine ways to improve the scheme; if so, of the recommendations made in the evaluation reports concerned; if not, whether such reviews will be conducted?

(a)	of the current measures to protect the above victims;
(b)	whether it has assessed if card-issuing institutions have contravened the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap. 486) by disclosing the personal data to DCAs they hired without the authorization or consent of the data subjects; if it has assessed that there is no contravention, of the measures to protect the privacy of the data subjects; and
(c)	as the Law Reform Commission recommended in its Report on Stalking released on 30 October 2000 that the pursuit of a course of conduct amounting to harassment should be criminalized, of the progress and results of the studies conducted by the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau on the recommendation?

(a)	whether the incumbent MA, who is presently over 61 years old, will retire in September next year, and what criteria the authorities used in determining his retirement date;
(b)	whether it will conduct a review on the appointment mechanism for MA; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(c)	given that the existing legislation allows maximum flexibility for FS to handle MA's appointment, how the authorities ensure transparency and accountability of the mechanism; and
(d)	whether the authorities will make reference to the appointment arrangements for central bank heads in major overseas economies, including the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia and Japan, and stipulate in the relevant legislation the tenure of office of MA as well as the criteria for determining his remuneration; if they will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

(a)	whether it knows the number of eco-tours with itineraries covering marine parks or marine reserves in the past three years;
(b)	of the number of persons prosecuted for violating the Marine Parks and Marine Reserves Regulation (Cap. 476 sub. leg. A) in each of the past three years, together with a breakdown of the offences charged against such persons;
(c)	of the current number of staff employed to work in marine parks and marine reserves; whether the Government has reviewed if the manpower is adequate; if so, of the results of the review;
(d)	as the Hong Kong Tourism Board organized with the industry an islands hopping tour and other eco-tourism activities in recent years, whether the Government has reviewed the effectiveness of such activities, and of the number of overseas visitors participating in such activities; and
(e)	given that from 2004 to May this year, the Government provided training through the Skills Upgrading Scheme for some 360 tourist guides and staff of travel agencies to enhance their knowledge in guided nature eco-tours, whether the Government has ascertained if the training quota concerned can meet the demand and whether these people have taken up work as eco-tour guides upon completion of such training?

(a)

of the number of complaints received by the authorities over the past two years from mobile telephone users about such marketing activities and, among these cases, the respective numbers of those in which the complainants alleged that the calls had caused nuisance or were made with intent to defraud, or queried how the marketers obtained their telephone numbers; of the details of those cases involving fraud and the follow-up actions taken by the authorities; and whether the authorities have investigated if the malpractice of selling personal data was involved in such cases; and

(b)

whether it has examined if there has been an upward trend in such marketing activities over the past two years; if there has been such a trend, of the circumstances under which the authorities will consider regulating such activities through legislation?

(a)	whether it has assessed the efficacy of the measures to encourage children to develop the habits of healthy eating and frequent exercising starting from childhood; if it has, of the assessment results, if not, the reasons for that;
(b)	as it is learnt that in view of an increasing number of children suffering from obesity, the Government intends to introduce healthy eating campaigns at the pre-school stage, which are currently implemented in secondary and primary schools, of the details of its thinking, including how the educational institutions concerned should complement;
(c)	whether it will consider checking the body mass index for school children on a regular basis and recommend that secondary and primary schools should increase the number of sessions and extend the duration of physical education lessons; and
(d)	whether it will implement more effective measures to stop the problem of childhood obesity, including restricting the broadcast of television advertisements of foods that are high in fat, sugar or salt (generally referred to as "junk food") during children's programmes or family viewing time and regulating the contents of such advertisements, so as to reduce children's access to information about such foods, as well as banning the sale of junk food in schools; if it will, of the implementation timetable; if not, the reasons for that?

(a)	of the current number of temporary teachers in each school and its percentage in the total number of teachers in the school, together with a breakdown of the total number of such teachers by their grade and total years of service (including their appointments in different government schools);
(b)	of the number of temporary teachers who were offered appointment on permanent terms in each of the past five years; and
(c)	whether it will expeditiously offer appointment on permanent terms to temporary teachers in order to solve the current problem of different remuneration among teachers performing the same duties and possessing the same qualifications?

(a)	of the monthly average number of requests for assistance concerning marriage problems received by the Social Welfare Department ("SWD") since September last year, and whether there was a significant increase in the number of such requests in the past two months;
(b)	whether SWD has plans to allocate additional resources to reinforce family and child welfare services, including assistance hotline service; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(c)	whether, in the light of the above situation, it will adopt various approaches (e.g. paying home visits) in order to understand in-depth the circumstances of families seeking assistance, so as to provide suitable assistance for them?

(a)	the annual numbers of donor centres and mobile vehicles under the Hong Kong Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service and the changes in such numbers;
(b)	the respective numbers of blood donations and bags of blood collected each year and, among the bags of blood collected, the number of those which were found to contain pathogens or had been contaminated and thus unusable;
(c)	the annual blood demand of various medical institutions; and
(d)	whether the number of blood donations by the public was declining; if so, of the measures to encourage more people to give blood?

"2.

Interpretation Regulation 2 is amended by adding - ""milk" (奶類) means cows milk, buffaloes milk and goats milk, and includes cream, separated milk and milk beverage, but does not include dried milk, condensed milk or reconstituted milk; "milk beverage" (奶類飲品) means any beverage resulting from combining liquid milk fat with other solids derived from milk, whether exclusive of any food additive or otherwise;".".

1. Formulating a roadmap for a low carbon economy
   
   Hon Audrey EU: (Translation)
   
   That, as the Chief Executive has proposed in his Policy Address to build a low carbon economy, i.e. promoting the development of an economy based on low energy consumption and low pollution, yet he has failed to put forward a specific policy framework, strategies, proposed plans, targets and a timetable to set out the specific steps and measures to be taken for achieving a low carbon economy, this Council urges the Government to study the formulation of a timetable and a roadmap for a low carbon economy, including:
   
   

   (a)	setting interim and long-term targets for the reduction of total greenhouse gas emissions in Hong Kong;
   (b)	making reference to overseas examples and studying the formulation of strategies and legislation on climate change;
   (c)	providing economic incentives and formulating measures to encourage energy conservation by the public;
   (d)	expeditiously drawing up proposed plans for grid access;
   (e)	expeditiously formulating standardized arrangements for grid connection and encouraging the use of renewable energy power facilities by various sectors of the community; and
   (f)	tightening the current standards of the Air Quality Objectives to expeditiously align them with the World Health Organization Air Quality Guidelines, and formulating an implementation timetable in this regard.

   
   

   Amendments to the motion
   (i)	Hon KAM Nai-wai: (Translation) To delete ", as" after "That" and substitute with "the problem of global warming is aggravating,"; to add ", allowing electricity trading between users and power companies," after "grid connection"; to delete "and" after "community;"; to add "studying cooperating with Guangdong Province in developing wind farm projects to promote the use of renewable energy; (g) installing solar power facilities on the roofs of newly built public housing blocks and covered pedestrian walkways, and encouraging private developers to introduce related facilities; (h) implementing the promotion of the first stage of 'low emission zones' in Hong Kong in 2010; (i) setting up a data bank on energy efficiency of vehicles covering the data on greenhouse gas emissions; and (j)" after "(f)"; and to delete "and formulating an implementation timetable in this regard" immediately before the full stop and substitute with "raising them to the standards adopted by the European Union by 2012, and implementing the standards prescribed by the World Health Organization by 2015". Amendment to Hon KAM Nai-wai's amendment Hon CHAN Kam-lam: (Translation) To add "greening or" after "(g)".
   (ii)	Hon CHAN Hak-kan: (Translation) To delete ", as" after "That" and substitute with "in facing the impact and challenges brought about by climate change,"; to add "; as such" after "achieving a low carbon economy"; to add "considering bringing carbon dioxide emissions from local thermal power plants into the regulatory ambit; (d) actively collaborating with the neighbouring regions, including formulating agreements and relevant legislation, as well as setting up a trading platform to develop a mechanism for local and cross-border carbon trading; (e)" after "(c)"; to add "(f) discussing with power companies the inclusion of carbon emissions of users in their electricity bills, so as to assist users in conducting carbon audit;" after "by the public;"; to delete the original "(d)" and substitute with "(g)"; to delete the original "(e)" and substitute with "(h)"; to delete "and" after "community;" and substitute with "(i) raising the current tax concession rates and caps under the first registration tax concession scheme for environment-friendly vehicles to provide additional incentive for the public to switch to environment-friendly vehicles; and"; and to delete the original "(f)" and substitute with "(j)".

   
   Public Officer to attend : Secretary for the Environment

2. Reforming financial regulators
   
   Hon Ronny TONG: (Translation)
   
   That, as presently the regulation of the financial sector and financial products is vested in a number of regulators, causing the suspicion that there are duplication and fragmentation of their regulatory roles, functions and resources, this Council urges the Government to expeditiously conduct a comprehensive review and study of the existing four major financial regulators, including the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Securities and Futures Commission, the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance and the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority, to ascertain if there is any need to rationalize and improve their regulatory roles, functions and resources in the regulation of the financial sector, or introduce other improvement measures, such as strengthening the regulation on the sale of financial products, so as to enhance the standards of the regulators and protect the interests of investors.
   
   

   Amendments to the motion
   (i)	Hon CHAN Kam-lam: (Translation) To delete "as" after "That," and substitute with "under the mode of 'two regulatory authorities for one industry',"; to add "in Hong Kong" after "and financial products"; to delete "their" after "fragmentation of" and substitute with "the"; to add "among various regulators" before ", this Council"; to delete "strengthening" after "such as" and substitute with "reviewing the existing disclosure-based regulatory principle so as to strengthen"; and to add "establishing an independent complaint mechanism for financial businesses, and empowering the regulators to instruct defaulting financial institutions to compensate their clients etc," after "the sale of financial products,".
   (ii)	Hon Albert HO: (Translation) To delete "as" after "That," and substitute with "the recent spate of incidents occurring in the financial sector, including the 'Lehman Incident' and the 'Citic Pacific Incident', etc, reflect that the regulatory regime of Hong Kong's financial system needs to be further reformed and to enhance protection for bank clients and investors, whilst"; and to delete "and" after "the standards of the regulators" and substitute with ", as well as studying the establishment of an independent financial ombudsman to provide one-stop and convenient disputes resolution service for handling disputes and compensation matters between clients and financial institutions, so as to better".
   (iii)	Hon Miriam LAU: (Translation) To add "the 'Lehman Incident' has revealed that" after "That, as"; to delete "such as" after "improvement measures," and substitute with "in particular changing the existing regulatory regime, which is 'disclosure-based' and 'subjecting one industry to several regulatory authorities', and"; to add "as well as investment-linked insurance products" after "the sale of financial products"; to add "and plug the existing loopholes in the regulation of the financial sector," after "the standards of the regulators"; and to add "and insuring public" immediately before the full stop.

   
   Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury

3. Motion for the adjournment of the Council
   
   Hon Miriam LAU: (Translation)
   
   That this Council do now adjourn for the purpose of debating the following issue: Adjustment in the fares for the hiring of Lantau and urban taxis.
   
   Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Transport and Housing