Introduction

1. The Hong Kong Coalition of Service Industries believes the current review of district organisations will have important implications not only for the development of representative government for Hong Kong, but also for many important service sectors of the economy. It is from the latter angle that our comments will be addressed, rather than from the viewpoint of political development for the territory.

2. Much of the work of the municipal councils, i.e. the Urban Council and the Regional Council, are relevant to the service sector. Our comments are, therefore, related mainly to the municipal councils rather than the district boards. In the following paragraphs we shall remark on the three aspects of the municipal council’s work as outlined in the consultation paper, namely, food safety and environmental hygiene, art and culture, and sport and recreation.

Food safety and environmental hygiene

3. Food safety and environmental hygiene are important aspects of the ordinary daily life that affect the well being of residents and tourists alike. As described in the consultation paper, a wide range of services are provided by the municipal councils. Many of these activities are civic in nature, such as health education, street cleaning and refuse collection, and the provision and management of markets, public toilets and bathhouses. For these services, we have no strong view as to whether the status quo should be maintained. However, there are some areas of the municipal council’s work that have a direct impact on important service industries of Hong Kong, where the current arrangement is unsatisfactory. This is particularly so in the case of licensing for restaurants.

4. The fragmentation of policy responsibilities and the arbitrary division of labour among the municipal councils and the health and environmental protection departments have created a lot of confusion for the restaurants. Business efficiency is often hampered by bureaucratic red tape. For the business sector, one bureaucracy is bad enough, but the autonomy of the municipal councils means that one has to contend with two bureaucracies. In our view, this is not the best management structure to safeguard the interest of the public. We therefore support the centralising of food-related control and regulation under one government authority. That being the case, notwithstanding our reference to the status quo in the previous paragraph, it would appear logical for the other services of a more civic nature to also be undertaken by the same authority.

5. A centralised authority would be a more preferable structure for food safety and environmental hygiene. Equally important, this authority should endeavour to deregulate and to let market forces work as far as possible in the provision of related services. It should give rise to less, not more, bureaucracy.

Art and culture

6. Art and culture is part of the way of life of Hong Kong residents. It is also an important service sector in its own right, a sector that gives Hong Kong its overall character. A strong art and cultural sector will play an important part in making Hong Kong a leading metropolitan economy and an attractive tourist destination.

7. Yet something must be wrong when the Arts Development Council spends only 7.5% of all expenditure on culture and arts whereas 83% of the money goes to the municipal councils. It is difficult to understand the rationale behind the current arrangement whereby the municipal councils are managing what should be art organisations of Hong Kong as a whole, such as the Hong Kong Philharmonic and Hong Kong Dance Company. Nor is it easy to justify the management of the Film Archive by the Urban Council; clearly, residents in the new towns also have an interest in films.

8. In our view, it would be much more logical for the development of art and culture to be placed under some central authorities with expertise in the respective sectors. The Arts Development Council should be the main driving force for the development of arts, and the art companies currently being funded by the Urban Council should fall under the ADC’s umbrella. Likewise, other aspects of cultural development should be managed by other central bodies with appropriate expertise, such as the management of cultural and historical heritage by an expanded, and more importantly, empowered Antiquities and Monuments Office.

9. This is not to say art and cultural activities should not be organised at a district level. We understand and support the presentation of art and cultural programmes in the districts. This will not only enhance the quality of life of our residents but also provide the training ground for aspiring art and cultural practitioners. However, we submit that there should be a difference between district and territory-level events and that a sense of proportion should be maintained in allocating resources between districts and “central” functions. The requirements of a performance venue for local interest groups and mini-concerts should be very different from that for territory-wide extravaganza. We suggest, therefore, that facilities like that of the Cultural Centre, the Space Museum and Science Museum should become an asset for the whole of Hong Kong rather than of a municipal council. In the case of the performing arts, in developing new facilities, the emphasis should be on central rather than district venues.

Sports and recreation

10. We would agree that sports and recreational activities are very often district-based and that they play an important part in the building of the local community. To promote sport and recreation as a form of community building, there would seem a case for activities hitherto undertaken by the municipal councils to be devolved to the district boards, whilst retaining “central” bodies like the Sports Development Council for the promotion and training of elite athletes.

Structure and finance

11. The municipal councils are currently funded by the rates collected on all rateable properties in the territory. In the end, rates are a form of tax on business and individuals. Like all other taxes, their use has to be justified by public interest. The latter would require that the district organisations are structured and their services provided as efficiently as possible. In this regard, it would appear from our observations above that the status quo is hardly the most efficient system.

12. It follows that the abolition of the two municipal councils, i.e. option (ii) in the consultation document, would be the most logical way forward. The current functions of the municipal councils should either be centralised in a government department or a statutory body in the appropriate field, or devolved onto the district boards.

(Ends)