Question "LCQ7: Jobs create for West Kowloon Cultural District" by the Hon Lau Ping-cheung and a written reply by the Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands, Mr Michael Suen, in the Legislative Council

 

Following is a question by the Hon Lau Ping-cheung and a written reply by the Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands, Mr Michael Suen, in the Legislative Council today (May 12):

 

Question:

 

The Administration is now inviting proposals for the development of the West Kowloon Cultural District. The Administration has estimated that the development project will create 500 professional jobs. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

 

(a) whether it will adopt measures to ensure that these jobs will be taken up by local professionals as far as possible; if it will, of the details of such measures; if it will not, the reasons for that;

 

(b) given that the Government does not prohibit developers from forming consortia to bid for the development project, whether it has assessed if the number of these professional jobs will be affected if the successful proponent is a consortium of several developers; if it has, of the assessment outcome;

 

(c) of the measures it will adopt (such as imposing restrictive clauses in the invitation of tenders) to ensure that the number of jobs for local professionals (including those in building design, construction and supervision) provided at the time of project implementation will match the original estimate; and

 

(d) whether it will consider splitting the development project into several smaller ones to enable participation by more than one consortium, so as to increase the overall social and economic benefits as well as the number of local professional jobs; if it will not, of the reasons for that?

 

Reply:

 

President,

 

My response to the four parts of the question is as follows:

 

(a) The Government estimates that the West Kowloon Cultural District development project will create about 500 professional/technical jobs. In line with the usual practice, the Government will not adopt any measures to ensure that these jobs will be taken up by local professionals. Depending on the requirements of the development project, recruitment arrangements are to be decided by the selected developer. However, the Government believes that based on practical needs, the developer will certainly employ a large number of local professionals to ensure smooth implementation of the construction works.

 

(b) Although the Government's Invitation for Proposals does not prohibit developers from forming consortia to bid for the development project, the number of professional jobs to be created mainly depends on the scale and requirements of the development project, rather than on the number of developers participating in the project. The Government therefore does not consider that the number of those professional jobs will be significantly affected if the successful proponent is a consortium of several developers.

 

(c) In the Invitation for Proposals, the Government requires proponents to provide detailed specifications regarding the architectural and building designs of all the facilities, completion dates, operation, management and maintenance of facilities, etc. These requirements will be included in a Project Agreement to be signed between the Government and the selected developer. After commencement of the construction works, the Government will monitor closely the progress of the works to meet the specified requirements. However, since recruitment of professional staff depends on the requirements of the final design and facilities of the project as well as market supply and demand, and is to be decided by the developer, it is difficult at this stage for the Government to ensure that the number of professional jobs provided at the time of project implementation will match the original estimate. We believe that the professionals in the relevant sectors will understand this.

 

(d) The West Kowloon Cultural District is conceived as an integrated development of arts, cultural, entertainment and commercial facilities to be designed, built and operated by the private sector. Dividing the project into smaller packages and inviting tenders would first require the Government to draw up a master layout plan based on uncertain assumptions of what would be commercially viable. At the same time, as the Government cannot fund construction of the arts and cultural facilities, they would have to be distributed among different packages, thereby losing the opportunity for integrated and complementary design of these facilities. Also, the Government would have to design the canopy, the automated people mover and other infrastructural features that serve the whole development without knowing how they would interface with the design of buildings in the district. Conducting multiple tender exercises would also leave us with the extremely difficult task of drawing up multiple sets of complex interlocking land leases, which may lead us into costly litigation in future. And the Government would have to allocate substantial additional resources to project management and, in due course, venue operation.

 

The Government is satisfied that dividing the project into multiple packages is an undesirable way of implementing it. The result would simply be a cacophony of separate facilities, and serious delay for them to come into operation which will risk our objective of creating a new architectural icon for Hong Kong. The prospect of securing public funds of the size required for providing these arts and cultural facilities is remote given the many other competing claims. Splitting the development project into several smaller ones will not increase the overall social and economic benefits. Neither will it increase the number of local professional jobs. The Government therefore considers that the single package approach is the optimal way forward and in the wider public interests of Hong Kong.

 

Ends/Wednesday, May 12, 2004

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