8 March 2004
Mr Frederick Ma Si-hang
Secretary for Financial Services and Treasury
Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau
8/F., West Wing
Central Government Offices
Hong Kong
Dear Fred,
Implementation of paragraph 38 of the 2004 Policy Address
I write to inquire the progress in executing the initiatives regarding public
works as stated in the paragraph 38 of the Chief Executive¡¦s 2004 Policy
Address.
The paragraph 38 of the 2004 Policy Address reads, ¡§the government plans to
earmark an average of $29 billion per year for capital works projects for the
next five years¡K. Apart from providing funding for the preliminary feasibility
studies of these projects, we have also secured recurrent funding for their
operation.¡¨ According to my understanding, the Chief Executive¡¦s initiative is
to reverse the policy as laid down in a circular issued in August 2002 by
yourself calling for suspension and cancellation of some infrastructure projects
and maintenance works and requiring all Works Group departments to find their
own funding for the recurrent expenditure of any project they intend to
undertake. However, no new directive has so far been issued by your office or
the Administration to the Works Group departments to put the new policy into
effect.
Apart from this, I see no signs that the government is going to put up more
Category B (design) and Category C (planning) items to the Public Works
Subcommittee and the Finance Committee. All these indications give me the
impression that the government is not going to live up to its promises made in
paragraph 38 of the Policy Address.
As stated in the paragraph 38, on average 4,200 professional and technical
employment opportunities per annum are at stake. I believe that your office owe
us an explanation as to what has happened to the delivery of the initiatives as
suggested in paragraph 38.
I look forward to receiving your prompt response.
(signed)
Ir Dr Raymond Ho Chung-tai
cc: Ir Charlton Wong ¡V Chairman, The Association of Consulting Engineers of
Hong Kong
Ir Billy Wong ¡V President, The Hong Kong Construction Association Ltd
Ir James Chiu ¡V President, The Hong Kong Federation of E & M
Contractors Ltd
¡@