The LegCo Reporter
2003-2004 		Issue No. 19 (25 March 2004)


At its meeting on 24 March 2004, the Legislative Council passed the following bill:

At the same meeting, the Council passed the following three resolutions:

(1)Resolution moved by the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury under the Dutiable Commodities Ordinance.

(2)Resolution moved by the Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology relating to the Copyright (Suspension of Amendments) Ordinance 2001 (Amendment) Notice 2004.

(3)Resolution moved by Hon Miriam LAU Kin-yee relating to the extension of the period for amending the Merchant Shipping (Local Vessels) (Certification and Licensing) Regulation and the Merchant Shipping (Local Vessels) (Typhoon Shelters) Regulation.


The following two motions with no legislative effect were also passed by the Council:

(1)Motion on "Conservation of monuments and heritage", moved by Hon CHAN Kwok-keung

"That this Council urges the Government to expeditiously revise the relevant policies upon completion of the consultation on the Review of Built Heritage Conservation Policy; as it takes time to revise the policies, in order to prevent the monuments and heritage from destruction or demolition in the interim, the Government should provide incentives to encourage owners to retain, repair and maintain the built heritage that has conservation value; furthermore, in addition to retaining their intrinsic characteristics, the Government should consider enriching the built heritage with economic values such as to tourism and entertainment, thereby promoting local community economy that has cultural characteristics and creating job opportunities."

(2)Motion on "Combating crimes relating to automatic teller machine cards and credit cards", moved by Hon LAU Kong-wah

"That, as the numbers of automatic teller machine frauds and credit card thefts are rising continuously and such crimes are committed in many varied ways, dealing a heavy blow to the public's confidence in electronic banking services and to Hong Kong's tourist and retail industries, this Council urges the Government to adopt the following measures to secure the confidence of the public and tourists in using electronic banking services:
(a)deploy sufficient resources and strengthen co-operation with overseas law enforcement agencies to enhance its capability to investigate and combat such crimes;
(b)extensively publicize the ways in which such crimes are committed to enhance the alertness and vigilance of the public and tourists; and
(c)actively explore, in conjunction with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, banks and other card-issuing institutions, the introduction of products of new technology with more sophisticated security features to safeguard the interests of users."