Hon Chan Kin-por’s Legco Member’s Office
Room 803, 1 Legislative Council Road
Phone 2899 2831 | Fax 2899 2050
Room 803, 1 Legislative Council Road
Phone 2899 2831 | Fax 2899 2050
Acclaim from the public on performance as Chairman of the Finance Committee
I was elected as Chairman of the Finance Committee for 2015-16 and was responsible for chairing the meetings of the committee to scrutinize the public expenditure of the HKSAR government. Faced with opposition legislators using filibustering to obstruct all kinds of important funding proposals, I made the decision to strike down the filibusters publically, based on LegCo’s Rules of Procedure and the principles laid down in court decisions. In addition, along with the LegCo Secretariat and legal advisers, etc., I balanced out, in a reasonable manner, the right of the legislators to ask questions and the efficient operation of meetings, and set the reasonable duration for debates. Finally, funding proposals that were the subject of much contention, such as funding requests for the establishment of the Innovation and Technology Bureau and additional funding for the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, were eventually approved. My striking down of the filibustering was applauded by the public and allowed the Finance Committee to operate normally again as it should have been, to efficiently scrutinize funding requests by the government. On this, I wish to thank everybody for supporting the Finance Committee and myself.
Advocating Building a Safe City, supporting the police in fairly enforcing the law and maintaining public order
I once raised the proposal “Building a Safe City” in LegCo, hoping that the government would set up a cross-departmental committee to comprehensively review various ordinances involved with safety of the city, in order to improve city safety. For “Building a Safe City”, I believe that supporting the police in fairly enforcing the law is very important. As such, in the past four years, I have actively participated in meetings of LegCo’s Panel on Security to understand, follow up and support the work of the police in maintaining public order. I was also one of the three LegCo members appointed as Vice-chairmen of the Independent Police Complaints Council, to monitor the police in enforcing the law and ensure there were no circumstances of abuse of power and dereliction of duty.
Concern for healthcare reform, following up closely on “10-year Blueprint for Hospital Development”
Hong Kong is facing an ageing population and as such I have all along been following up on all manner of healthcare policies, including problems such as the shortage of beds in private hospitals, etc. Moreover, I have raised questions to find out all the measures taken by the government to increase transparency of fees charged by private hospitals. In its policy address of 2016, the government said it will implement a “10-year Blueprint for Hospital Development” which I fully welcome.
Striving to increase competitiveness of young people and opportunities to move up the social ladder
In recent years, young people lack opportunities to move up the social ladder. In the past four years, I have raised queries to follow up on how the authorities can assist young people to start up Internet businesses. I have also proposed to the Chief Executive and the Financial Secretary on providing “All-round training” to young people to increase their competitiveness so as to increase their upward social mobility.
Developing headquarters economy and expand pillar industries to improve Hong Kong’s competiveness
In the past four years, I have all along been concerned with the problem of Hong Kong’s declining competitiveness, including raising questions on many occasions to understand the measures the government is adopting to improve the business environment. Finally the government responded to my questions, citing it would amend the Inland Revenue Ordinance (CAP 112) to allow deductions for interest payments of corporate treasury centres, as well as reducing profits tax for related businesses by 50%, so as to attract multinational and mainland enterprises to establish corporate treasury centres in Hong Kong. I will follow developments closely and will push for the authorities to continue implementing measures beneficial to Hong Kong developing as a headquarters economy.
Passing the “Property Management Services Bill”
I have all along been concerned with the problem of property management and have raised queries with the government many times. I had been a member of the committee for the “Property Management Services Bill” to follow up on amendments to the bill since 2014. The Bill seeks to introduce a licensing regime for property management companies. The Administration originally proposed that OCs and other forms of owners’ organizations, which manage their own properties, could be exempted from the licensing regime. In fact, it may create loopholes for large estates to circumvent the licensing regime. Therefore, I proposed that owners’ organizations or owners should not be permitted to self manage properties with 1,500 units or more. After much striving, the government finally accepted the proposal and the bill was passed to establish a licensing system to regulate property management companies and thus increase the transparency of property management.