A 99/00-21(1)

Legislative Council

Agenda
Wednesday 8 March 2000 at 2:30 pm


I. Tabling of Papers

Subsidiary Legislation / InstrumentsL.N. No.
1.District Court (Fixed Costs in Matrimonial Causes) (Amendment) Rules 2000

52/2000
2.Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes (Exemption) Regulation (Specification of Date under Sections 5 and 16) Notice

53/2000
3.Tax Reserve Certificates (Rate of Interest) (No. 2) Notice 2000

54/2000
4.Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Conduct) Ordinance (10 of 2000) (Commencement) Notice 2000

55/2000
5.Exchanges and Clearing Houses (Merger) Ordinance (12 of 2000) (Commencement) Notice 2000

56/2000
6.Licensing Appeals Board Rules (L.N. 43 of 2000) (Commencement) Notice 2000

57/2000
7.Electronic Transactions (Exclusion) Order

58/2000
8.Electronic Transactions Ordinance (Amendment of Schedule 2) Order 2000

59/2000
9.Electronic Transactions Ordinance (1 of 2000) (Commencement) (No. 2) Notice 2000

60/2000
10.Legislative Council (Amendment) Ordinance 1999 (Amendment) Ordinance 2000 (15 of 2000) (Commencement) Notice 2000

61/2000

Other Papers

1. No.80 - Hospital Authority Annual Report 1998-1999 with Statement of Accounts and Auditors' Report
(to be presented by Secretary for Health and Welfare)

2. No.81 - Report and Statement of Accounts of the Samaritan Fund together with the Director of Audit's Report for the year ended 31 March 1999
(to be presented by Secretary for Health and Welfare)

3. No.83 - Draft Estimates for the year ending 31 March 2001; Volume IA and Volume IB - General Revenue Account
(to be presented by Financial Secretary)

4. No.84 - Draft Estimates for the year ending 31 March 2001; Volume II - Fund Accounts
(to be presented by Financial Secretary)

II. Questions for Written Replies

1. Hon Andrew CHENG to ask: (Translation)

It is learnt that residents in Tai Po Tsai Village, Sai Kung have complained about golf balls flying frequently from the Clearwater Bay Golf Driving Range into the village, and it even happened that a villager was hurt on the head by a golf ball and sustained serious injuries. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

  1. of the present number and locations of private golf driving ranges in Hong Kong; of the number of complaints received over the past two years about golf balls flying out of a driving range;

  2. of the government department responsible for stipulating and monitoring the safety standards of the facilities in private driving ranges; and

  3. whether there is existing legislation governing the minimum distance between a private driving range and its nearby residential premises and other safety matters; if so, of the details; if not, of the reasons?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Home Affairs

2. Hon Ambrose LAU to ask: (Translation)

Will the Government inform this Council of the progress and effectiveness of the works in the river training projects and the village flood protection schemes being carried out in the Northern New Territories and North-West New Territories?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Works

3. Dr Hon LEONG Che-hung to ask:

The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety was adopted by the Conference of the Parties to United Nations Convention on Biodiversity in January this year. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it has plans:

  1. to study the possible impact of the Protocol on the import trade of Hong Kong; if so, of the timing of the study; and

  2. for Hong Kong to observe the rules and procedure set out in the Protocol; if so, of the implementation timetable; if not, of the measures it will adopt to prevent Hong Kong from becoming a dumping ground for genetically-modified organisms and foods?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment and Food

4. Hon CHOY So-yuk to ask: (Translation)

Will the Government inform this Council:

  1. of the total amount of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance ("CSSA") payment granted to non-Chinese persons by the Social Welfare Department, and the number of such cases, in each of the past three years; and

  2. in respect of such cases,

    1. of the three nationalities with the largest numbers of CSSA recipients and the respective numbers of cases involved; and

    2. of the three nationalities involving the largest total amount of CSSA payments, and of the respective amounts of payment involved?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health and Welfare

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

To achieve the interim target of providing whole-day schooling for 60% of primary school students by the school year 2002-03, the Administration has planned to build 73 new primary schools in the five years commencing from 1998-99. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

  1. of the estimated completion dates, locations and the school nets of these 73 primary school premises;

  2. of the number of new school premises set aside for the implementation of whole-day schooling in existing bi-sessional primary schools, and the criteria it has adopted for allocating new school premises to various schools;

  3. of the bi-sessional primary schools which have been or will soon be allocated those new school premises; the original and the newly allocated locations of those primary schools; and the respective school nets to which the new and existing premises belong; and

  4. whether it has plans to provide more school premises for other existing bi-sessional primary schools to facilitate their conversion to whole-day operation; if it has, of the original and the newly allocated locations of those primary schools, and the respective school nets to which the new and existing premises belong?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education and Manpower

6. Hon SIN Chung-kai to ask: (Translation)

According to an information paper provided to the LegCo Panel on Education, more than 6 000 students graduated last year in information technology ("IT")-related courses run by the University Grants Committee-funded institutions. It is estimated that the number of graduates in these courses for the current and the next two academic years will be about 6 800, 6 900 and 6 400 respectively. Besides, the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education under the Vocational Training Council currently provides some 7 000 training places for IT-related courses. In this connection, will the Government provide this Council with a breakdown of the above figures by training providers, majors, course duration and modes of attendance (full-time and half-day, etc.)?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education and Manpower

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

On the 13th of last month, an underground potable water pipe outside the fire station at the Tsuen Wan section of Castle Peak Road burst allegedly due to excavation works, causing serious flooding. It was reported that it was not until two hours after it had learnt of the incident that the Water Supplies Department ("WSD") managed to turn off the gate valve in question. One of the reasons for the delay was that it took the workers some time to locate the gate valve because of the flooding. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

  1. of the time the WSD normally takes to turn off the relevant gate valve of a burst potable water pipe after it has learnt of the incident, and of the procedure involved;

  2. whether the WSD has arranged for staff to stand by in various districts for emergency repairs; if not, of the reasons for that; and

  3. whether the WSD will, in the light of this incident, improve its procedure for handling emergencies and the location markings of the gate valves?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Works

8. Dr Hon David LI to ask:

According to a survey, 81% of the principals of the schools provided with information technology ("IT") co-ordinators hired on contract term consider that IT development in schools and teaching quality will be adversely affected if the contracts of such co-ordinators are not renewed. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it will consider providing each school with an IT co-ordinator, in order to maintain the impetus of using IT in school?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education and Manpower

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

Given that the Financial Secretary, subject to Section 8 of the Exchange Fund Ordinance (Cap. 66), "may transfer from the Fund to the general revenue …… any sum or part of any sum in excess of the amount required to maintain the assets of the Fund at 105% of the total obligations of the Fund for the time being outstanding ……", will the Government inform this Council:

  1. whether the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has assessed the assets value of the Exchange Fund required for performing each of the following obligations:

    1. providing full backing to the monetary base;

    2. acting as the lender of last resort for financial institutions; and

    3. performing other central banking obligations (please give a breakdown);

  2. whether the total assets value of the Exchange Fund at present exceeds the amount required for the performance of various obligations; if so, whether the Administration has plans to invest the excess assets in infrastructure or allocate them to other public expenditure purposes; and

  3. of the circumstances under which the Financial Secretary will consider a transfer?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Financial Services

10. Hon YEUNG Yiu-chung to ask: (Translation)

To be eligible for assistance under the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance ("CSSA") Scheme, applicants are required to have resided in Hong Kong for 44 weeks. However, applications from persons who do not meet the residence requirement can be approved on a discretionary basis. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

  1. of the basis for deciding whether the discretion should be exercised;

  2. of the number of CSSA applications filed by applicants who do not meet the residence requirement during the past three years, together with a breakdown of such applications by reasons for applying and household types of the applicants; and among such applications, the number of cases in which the discretion was exercised;

  3. whether there are other measures in place to assist CSSA applicants whose applications have been rejected in overcoming their financial difficulties; and

  4. whether it has estimated the number of CSSA applications to be filed by new arrivals in the next three years; if so, of the details?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health and Welfare

11. Hon Emily LAU to ask:

Will the Executive Authorities inform this Council whether they have requested or plan to request the Central People's Government to make public the views the Committee for the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress ("NPCSC") regarding the interpretation of the Basic Law, before NPCSC did so in June 1999; if the views will be made public, of the timing of that; if the views will not be made public, the reasons for that?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Justice

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

In view of the several recent incidents in which substandard piling works were found in public housing buildings under construction, will the Government inform this Council:

  1. whether it has assessed the costs of the remedial works for the two Home Ownership Scheme buildings with substandard piling works at Shatin Area 14B Phase 2, and of the expected date of completion of the remedial works;

  2. of the timetable for reviewing the piling works of its 106 public housing sites under construction; the names of the public housing projects for which reviews have been completed and the outcome of the reviews;

  3. whether it has plans to review the structural safety of the foundation of the public housing buildings that have been completed and occupied; if it has no such plans, of the reasons for that; and

  4. of the progress of the reform on the system for monitoring the quality of public housing projects?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Housing

13. Hon TSANG Yok-sing to ask: (Translation)

On matters relating to the processing by the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong of applications for listing on the Growth Enterprise Market, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:

  1. the time required in general from the submission of a listing application to the commencement of a hearing by the Listing Committee; and the current number of applications for which hearings have yet to be arranged after the lapse of such a general timeframe;

  2. if the requirement to consult the China Securities Regulatory Commission ("CSRC") has rendered the vetting and approving procedure for applications made by companies with business operations in the Mainland more complicated; and

  3. the number of outstanding applications pending the advice of the CSRC?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Financial Services

14. Hon SIN Chung-kai to ask: (Translation)

With regard to the provision of public library services through the Internet, will the Government inform this Council of:

  1. the number of occasions on which Internet library services were suspended due to website maintenance during the past year, and the average duration of service suspension as well as the causes of the maintenance works involved on each occasion;

  2. the respective numbers of renewals and reservations of library materials made through the Internet during the past year, and their respective percentages in the total numbers of renewals and reservations processed during the same period; and

  3. the reasons for not providing 24-hour Internet renewal and reservation services, which are now available from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. daily?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Home Affairs

15. Hon Emily LAU to ask:

Will the Executive Authorities inform this Council of the details of the public works projects which were shelved, postponed or cancelled due to the impending Cyberport or the Hong Kong Disneyland projects, including the names, the estimated project costs, the originally scheduled commencement dates or the forecast dates for upgrading to Category A in the public works programme?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Treasury

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

The Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity held a conference in Montreal, Canada from 24 to 28 January this year. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

  1. whether it had been aware of the conference; if so, whether it had considered sending government officials to attend the conference; if it had decided not to do so after consideration, of the reasons for that; if not, of the reasons for that;

  2. whether it plans to send government officials to attend future conferences of the Convention; if it has no such plans, of the reasons for that;

  3. whether it knew the agenda of the conference and the countries that had sent delegates to attend the conference, as well as the consensus or conclusion reached at the conference; and

  4. of the impact of the consensus or conclusion reached at the conference on the study being conducted at present on the best way to include the safety of genetically-modified foods in the legislation on food labelling in Hong Kong?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment and Food

17. Hon LAW Chi-kwong to ask: (Translation)

Will the Government inform this Council of the following statistics, broken down by sex and age (five years in a group), on persons who came to settle in Hong Kong from the Mainland last year:

  1. the number of such persons in each group, and its percentage in the relevant grouping of the population of Hong Kong;

  2. the number and percentage of holders of Certificate of Entitlement in each group;

  3. the number and percentage of One-way Exit Permit holders entering Hong Kong to join immediate family members in each group; and

  4. in respect of each group, the educational levels reached by such persons at the time they arrived, and how these compare to those in the previous two years?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Security

III. Bills

First Reading

Appropriation Bill 2000

Second Reading (Debate to be adjourned)

Appropriation Bill 2000 : Financial Secretary


Clerk to the Legislative Council