MR CHAN KIN-POR (in Cantonese): Deputy President, the housing problem has long plagued Hong Kong and it is our foremost deep-seated problem. At present, Hong Kong has improved the electoral system. Everything is now back on track and the Government can implement the executive-led system. So, it is time for us to make up our mind to thoroughly solve the problem at root so that members of the public can truly live and work in peace and contentment.
The proposals of Mr WONG Kwok-kin’s original motion include developing sites on the periphery of country parks and taking forward the project of artificial islands in the Central Waters. I support all these proposals. Due to time constraints, I particularly want to talk about the proposals in Mr Tony TSE’s amendment, such as streamlining and expediting the land development, planning and approval procedures.
The Legislative Council has recently discussed the New Territories North development project and the Government intends to apply for funding this year. If the funding application is approved, the investigation study and detailed design for the works of the San Tin/Lok Ma Chau Development Node will commence. The construction works will commence in 2025 with full intake of population by 2034. In other words, the overall planning will take more than 10 years. Our pace of development is no longer comparable to that of China, and has lagged far behind that before the return of sovereignty. Back then, the planning and construction of the new airport, the Airport Express, Route 3 and the Tung Chung New Town all took less than 10 years.
There are institutional problems at present. During the grand debate on land supply conducted a few years ago, someone made an analogy: Turning land into housing units for occupation is just like turning flour into bread. He remarked that if the bread maker is out of order, it would take very long time to bake the bread regardless of how much flour we obtain. So long as the bread maker is not fixed, the problem will basically remain unsolved.
The land issue stems from the planning and approval procedures. Land and housing planning in Hong Kong involves two Policy Bureaux and multiple departments and there is fragmentation of responsibilities. Each department has its own responsibilities and is not subordinate to one another, and all officials have to work in accordance with the laws and procedures. Worse still, there are more regulations and the relevant procedures are much more complicated and time-consuming than before the return of sovereignty. All applications must go through overlapping formalities of different departments, which is a serious waste of time.
As a few Members have pointed out just now, removing red tape is the solution. Now that an executive-led system can be implemented, the Government should therefore show its courage and establish a new planning system to drastically remove unnecessary procedures in the future. I suggest that all departments should simply merge together to consolidate the fragmented responsibilities under the coordination of one director of bureau. Even if we cannot merge all the departments, they should fully cooperate and perform their own duties. After all, officials should know best what to do and how to merge. I hope that they can weigh this up seriously.
The Government must fix the bread maker; otherwise, even if flour is found, nothing can be done but wait. Thank you, Deputy President.