Council Meeting ( Agenda ) 12 January 2000

A 99/00-14(1)

Legislative Council

Agenda

Wednesday 12 January 2000 at 2:30 pm
I. Tabling of Papers

Subsidiary Legislation		L.N. No.
1.	Road Traffic (Construction and Maintenance of Vehicles) (Amendment) Regulation 2000	1/2000
2.	Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters (United States of America) Order (L.N. 278 of 1999) (Commencement) Notice 2000	3/2000

Instrument	L.N. No.
Import and Export (Strategic Commodities) Regulations (Amendment of Schedule 1) Order 2000	2/2000

Other Papers

1. No.59	-	Report by the Controller, Government Flying Service on the Administration of the Government Flying Service Welfare Fund for the year ended 31 March 1999
(to be presented by Secretary for Security)
2. No.60	-	Audited Financial Statements and Programme of Activities of the Hong Kong Examinations Authority for the year ending 31 August 1999
(to be presented by Secretary for Education and Manpower)
3. Report of the Bills Committee on Hong Kong Sports Development Board (Amendment) Bill 1999
(to be presented by Hon Timothy FOK Tsun-ting, Chairman of the Bills Committee)

II. Questions

1. Hon CHEUNG Man-kwong to ask: (Translation)

It is learnt that the number of students reaching the starting age for Secondary One in the next school year will far exceed that in each of the past few years. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

of the number of Secondary One places available and the number of students of the starting age residing in each of the districts in the next school year;
of the estimated number of Secondary One students who will need to commute to schools outside their residential districts in the next school year; how the figure compares with the corresponding figures in the past three years; and
whether it has plans to increase the number of Secondary One classes for the next school year; if so, of the details and the additional resources to be allocated in this respect?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education and Manpower

2. Hon LEE Cheuk-yan to ask: (Translation)

At present, it is common practice for public housing contractors to use prefabricated building components manufactured in factories. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:

it knows the respective proportions and values of local and imported components among the number of prefabricated components used by public housing contractors, and the numbers of work-years involving in-situ construction processes at construction sites which have been replaced by such local and imported prefabricated components over the past three years; and
it will consider stipulating that the prefabricated components used by public housing contractors must be locally made, so as to increase employment opportunities for local workers?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Housing

3. Hon Andrew CHENG to ask: (Translation)

It is learnt that various local public transport operators require passengers at the age of 12 or above to pay adult fares. The Mass Transit Railway and the Light Rail Transit offer fare concessions to students while the East Rail and franchised buses do not. As a result, students at the age of 12 or above are required to pay adult fares when travelling on these two modes of public transport. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:

it knows if the age of 12 is commonly adopted by public transport operators in other countries as the dividing line at which adult fares should be paid; whether it has assessed if the maintaining of such a dividing line by local public transport operators is meeting present-day needs;
it will, from the social policy point of view, consider promoting actively the offer of fare concessions to students by various local public transport operators; and
the means-tested Student Travel Subsidy Scheme was introduced with the purpose of replacing the fare concessions to students offered by public transport operators; if not, whether it will take follow-up action in regard to the refusal by some public transport operators to offer fare concessions to students on account of the existence of the scheme?

Public Officers to reply

Secretary for Transport
Secretary for Education and Manpower

4. Dr Hon TANG Siu-tong to ask: (Translation)

Will the Government inform this Council:

of the number of persons injured in accidents that occurred while they were riding cross-country motorcycles in local private motocross courses in the past five years; the causes of these accidents, the age of the injured and the degree of injuries sustained;
whether there is any existing legislation governing matters such as the design of private motocross courses, the activities permitted therein, the safety requirements for motorcycle racing and the training courses for motorcyclists taking part in races; if not, whether it will consider enacting such legislation; and
whether the authorities have set up a mechanism to review regularly the relevant legislation to ensure proper regulation of newly emerging sports and amusement activities, such as riding cross-country motorcycles; if so, how the mechanism operates and whether the authorities have considered, under the mechanism, the matter of regulating private motocross courses?

Public Officers to reply

Secretary for Home Affairs
Secretary for Transport

5. Hon LAU Kong-wah to ask: (Translation)

It is learnt that a number of picnickers were robbed by suspected illegal immigrants in recent months. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

of the number of reported cases of picnickers who were robbed and the number of victims injured or killed in these robberies over the past year, together with a breakdown of the cases by places and months in which the robberies occurred; and the number of offenders prosecuted and convicted of such crimes, as well as the percentage of illegal immigrants among those convicted;
of the actions normally taken by the Police upon receipt of the reports of such crimes; and
whether the Police will consider adopting other measures to combat crimes of this kind?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Security

*6. Hon Kenneth TING to ask: (Translation)

Regarding the work of the Audit Commission, will the Government inform this Council whether:

it has assessed if the Commission has adequate financial and manpower resources as well as investigative powers to deal with its increasingly complicated audit work; and
it will consider expanding the purview of the Commission and providing additional resources for the Commission, so that it can audit the accounts of various government departments more effectively?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Treasury

*7. Dr Hon LEONG Che-hung to ask:

The current starting salary points of Dental Officers and Veterinary Officers in the Civil Service establishment are respectively two and three pay-points lower than that of Medical and Health Officers. Given the similarity in job nature and academic requirements of the three professions, will the Government inform this Council of the rationale for such differences?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Civil Service

*8. Hon Bernard CHAN to ask:

Will the Government inform this Council of:

the number of complaints about unscrupulous business practices received by the Consumer Council and a breakdown of such complaints by their type of trade; and
the number of cases brought to the court involving tourists as victims and, among them, the number of tourists who returned to Hong Kong subsequently to testify in court, in the past 12 months?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Trade and Industry

*9. Hon NG Leung-sing to ask: (Translation)

Will the Government inform this Council:

of the number of key government officials holding Tier I posts who failed to comply with the requirements to declare personal investments and financial interests within the prescribed period in the past three years, and the reasons for and details of such non-compliance cases;
whether it has taken disciplinary actions against the above government officials who were in default of declaration; if so, of the details of such actions; if not, the reasons for that; and
whether it has reviewed if the prescribed period for declaration is reasonable; if it has, of the results of the review; if it has not, of the reasons for that?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Civil Service

*10. Dr Hon LUI Ming-wah to ask: (Translation)

All local universities in Hong Kong have assembly halls of different sizes on their campuses. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:

the monthly average number of hours of usage for each of these halls in the past year;
if community organizations are allowed to hire these halls; if they are allowed, of the relevant hiring policies and levels of venue rental charges; and
if students and internal bodies of various universities are allowed to use the assembly halls on campus free of charge, for meeting or performance purposes; if they may not use such facilities without paying, the reasons for that?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education and Manpower

*11. Hon Eric LI to ask: (Translation)

In April last year, the Financial Secretary appointed Mr Richard Henry FARRANT, former Chief Operating Officer of the Financial Services Authority in the United Kingdom, as an independent inspector to investigate the collapse of the Peregrine group of companies and the Government expected the investigation to take about six months to complete. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

whether the investigation has been completed; if so, when the Administration will announce the findings; if not, of the current progress of the investigation; and
of the estimated total costs of the investigation?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Financial Services

*12. Hon SIN Chung-kai to ask:

Will the Government inform this Council whether it has drawn up any plan with the relevant Mainland authorities for setting up data communication links between the computer systems of the customs offices on both sides, so as to shorten the customs clearance time for cross-border goods; if so, of the details of the plan; if not, the reasons for not doing so?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Trade and Industry

*13. Hon TAM Yiu-chung to ask: (Translation)

The current school nets for allocation of secondary school places are delineated in accordance with the district boundaries for District Administration. However, for those secondary school students who live in the Islands District, which covers an extensive area, the time required for travelling to some secondary schools within their school net but distant from their places of residence is often longer than that required for travelling to schools in an adjacent school net. For example, it takes more time for students living in Tung Chung of Lantau Island to go to secondary schools on Ping Chau and Cheung Chau than to those in Tsing Yi, Kwai Chung and Tsuen Wan. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it will consider revising the school net concerned so that Secondary 1 entrants-to-be who live in Tung Chung can choose to go to secondary schools in Tsing Yi, Kwai Chung and Tsuen Wan; if not, the reasons for that?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education and Manpower

*14. Ir Dr Hon HO Chung-tai to ask: (Translation)

It was reported that the soil on the proposed site for the construction of the Disney theme park, currently occupied by a ship-breaking plant, has been seriously polluted over the years by oils, heavy metals, dyes and organic solvents brought about by ship-breaking activities. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

whether it has assessed the extent to which the site in question has been polluted; if it has, when the assessment results will be made public; and
of the specific measures in place to ensure that the pollutants will not affect the health of the staff of and visitors to the future theme park?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Works

*15. Hon Christine LOH to ask:

In its reply to my question on 31 March 1999, the Government estimated that 876 million litres of light diesel oil, or 53% of the total consumption of light diesel oil in 1998, were brought into Hong Kong in the year by cross-border vehicles returning from the Mainland. On the other hand, in response to another question of this Council on 24 March 1999, after stating the facts that the sulphur content of diesel used by cross-border vehicles was about six times of that used in Hong Kong and vehicles using diesel with this level of sulphur content could result in about 10% higher particulate emissions, the Government estimated that the overall particulate emissions from vehicle fleet might be reduced by only 1% to 2% if all cross-border goods vehicles used diesel with a sulphur content meeting Hong Kong's standards. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of the detailed calculations showing how such percentage reduction in particulate emissions was arrived at, and how this percentage reduction can reconcile with the figures stated in the reply to my question?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment and Food

*16. Hon Emily LAU to ask: (Translation)

Regarding the promotion of a unified Chinese language interface, will the Executive Authorities inform this Council:

of their total expenditure in this respect in the past three years;
whether they have assessed the effect on the validity of the legal documents involved in litigation where such documents contain characters which are included in the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set but the interpretations of such characters are not available in authoritative Chinese dictionaries; and
whether they have assessed if the development of Chinese-based information technology and the promotion of Chinese-based education will be adversely affected by the inclusion in the above Character Set of a large number of characters the interpretations and pronunciations of which are not available in authoritative dictionaries?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Information Technology and Broadcasting

*17. Hon CHEUNG Man-kwong to ask: (Translation)

Regarding the assessment of land premiums, will the Government inform this Council:

of the number of property development projects along the railway lines in respect of which the Mass Transit Railway Corporation, or the real estate developers with which it cooperated, appealed to the Administration against the premium assessment in the past five years; among the appeal cases, the number of projects in which the premiums were lowered by the Administration, and the range of reduction for each project;
whether it has any plans to negotiate with the real estate developers concerned over the land premiums before they are formally offered;
whether it will, in assessing land premiums, take into account the expected rate of return for real estate developers in developing the projects concerned; if it will, of the permissible target rate of return;
of the composition of the Valuation Committee, the Valuation Conference and the Appeal Conference; and
how it will ensure that all market-related factors are fully considered in assessing land premiums?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Planning and Lands

*18. Hon LAU Kong-wah to ask: (Translation)

It was reported that the design of the staircases used as fire escapes in Trident 2 and Trident 3 Public Rental Housing ("PRH") estates failed to meet the relevant requirements under the Building (Planning) Regulations (Cap. 123 subsidiary legislation). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

of the names of PRH estates in which the fire escapes are not in compliance with the above Regulations and, among them, the PRH estates that have been included in the Tenants Purchase Scheme ("TPS") and will be subject to monitoring by the Buildings Department starting from July this year; of the measures it will adopt to make these PRH estates comply with the above Regulations;
whether it has commissioned consultancy firms to assess if fire safety in PRH estates will be adversely affected by fire escapes which do not comply with the above Regulations; if it has, of the assessment results; if it has not, of the reasons and the improvement works or measures that it will implement to ensure fire safety in those PRH blocks; and
whether it will commission improvement works for the PRH estates which do not comply with the above Regulations before putting them up for sale under the TPS?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Housing

*19. Hon NG Leung-sing to ask: (Translation)

It was reported that the advance works carried out by the Mainland authorities for the construction of the Lingdingyang Bridge, which will link Hong Kong with Zhuhai, had been suspended due to a shortage of funds. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:

it knows the progress of the works carried out by the relevant Mainland authorities on the Lingdingyang Bridge; and
it has assessed if the state of such works will have any impact on the current consultancy studies under the Crosslinks Further Study; if it is assessed to have impacts, of the details of them; if it is assessed to have no impact, the justifications for that?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Planning and Lands

*20. Hon SIN Chung-kai to ask:

Will the Government inform this Council whether the Post Office has plans to introduce the Zone Improvement Plan ("ZIP") Code or similar postal coding systems to Hong Kong; if so, of the details of the plan; if not, the reasons for that?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Economic Services

*For written reply.

III. Bills

First Reading

Factories and Industrial Undertakings (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 1999

Second Reading (Debate to be adjourned)

Factories and Industrial Undertakings (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 1999 : Secretary for Education and Manpower

Second Reading (Debates to resume), Committee Stage and Third Reading

1. Stamp Duty (Amendment) Bill 1999	:	Secretary for the Treasury
2. Merchant Shipping (Safety) (Amendment) Bill 1999	:	Secretary for Economic Services
3. Hong Kong Sports Development Board (Amendment) Bill 1999	:	Secretary for Home Affairs

IV. Motions

1. Proposed resolution under the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance

Secretary for Trade and Industry to move the following motion:

RESOLVED that the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance (Amendment of Schedule 1) Order 1999, made by the Chief Executive in Council on 12 October 1999, be approved.

(Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance (Amendment of Schedule 1) Order 1999 has been circulated on 29 December 1999 under LC Paper No. CB(3) 373/99-00)

2. Proposed resolution under the Trading Funds Ordinance

Secretary for Information Technology and Broadcasting to move the following motion:

RESOLVED that Schedule 1 to the resolution establishing the Post Office Trading Fund by the then Legislative Council made and passed on 19 July 1995 (Cap. 430 sub. leg.) be amended by adding -

"10. Providing the services of a certification authority within the meaning of the Electronic Transactions Ordinance (1 of 2000) and services incidental or related to such services.".

V. Members' Motions

1. Political reforms

Hon Emily LAU: (Translation)

That this Council urges the Executive Authorities to conduct a public consultation as soon as possible on the relationship between the executive and the legislature, the ministerial system and the election of the Chief Executive and the Legislative Council by universal and equal suffrage.

Amendments to Hon Emily LAU's motion

Hon James TIEN:

To delete "Executive Authorities" and substitute with "Government"; to delete "conduct a public consultation" and substitute with "review"; to delete "on" after "as soon as possible"; to delete "the" before "ministerial system" and substitute with "examine the feasibility of a"; to add "consult the public at an appropriate time on the respective methods for," after "ministerial system and"; to delete "election" before "of the Chief Executive" and substitute with "selection"; to add "the formation of," before "the Legislative Council"; and to delete "by universal and equal suffrage" and substitute with "after 2007".

Dr Hon YEUNG Sum:

To add ", with a view to establishing a political system which is democratic and open and in which the executive authorities are accountable to the legislature, thus fulfilling the promises in the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law" after "equal suffrage".

Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Constitutional Affairs

2. Demand for Compensation from Japan

Hon Albert HO: (Translation)

That, as the Japanese Government has, since the Second World War ended over fifty years ago, never made any formal apology and reasonable compensation for its invasion of China (including Hong Kong) and the war crimes it committed during that time, but has instead tried to distort the historical facts of its invasion of China by embellishing the invasive war and concealing the war crimes, as well as honouring the war criminals, unlawfully occupying the Diaoyutai Islands, expanding its military forces, and is exhibiting an inclination towards reviving militarism, this Council expresses strong regrets about Japan's policies and behaviours mentioned above and solemnly urges the Japanese Government to take the following actions immediately:

(1)	to offer an official written apology to the Chinese people for waging the war against China (including Hong Kong) and the war crimes it committed during that time, as an indication of its admission of the responsibilities for the invasion and the war crimes;
(2)	to make apologies and compensation to individual victims or their families for the various war crimes it committed, which include the "Nanjing Massacre", "Unit 731 Scheme", "use of chemical weapons", "army sex slaves (comfort women)", "forced labour" and "forced exchange of war currency";
(3)	to return the sovereignty of the Diaoyutai Islands to China;
(4)	to disclose all the existing secret official records of Japan's invasion of China and the war crimes it committed during that time; and
(5)	to educate the younger generations of Japan on the historical facts of Japan's invasion of China and to disseminate the message of safeguarding peace and human rights in order to stop the revival of the militarism trend;

this Council also urges the Central People's Government and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government to step up education on the history of our ethnicity, build a museum in Hong Kong in memory of the defence against the Japanese invasion, and give appropriate support to the war crimes victims in their demand for compensation from the Japanese Government.

Amendment to Hon Albert HO's motion

Hon YEUNG Yiu-chung: (Translation)

To delete "Diaoyutai" after "unlawfully occupying the" and substitute with "Diaoyu"; to delete "reviving" and substitute with "restoring"; to delete "return the" before "sovereignty" and substitute with "acknowledge China's"; to delete "of" after "sovereignty" and substitute with "over"; to delete "Diaoyutai" in "Diaoyutai Islands to China" and substitute with "Diaoyu"; to delete "to China" and substitute with "and to cease all incursions into the Diaoyu Islands, which are our territory"; and to delete "revival" and substitute with "restoration".

Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Home Affairs

Clerk to the Legislative Council