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The new partnership to improve built environment (Eng.
only)
1. The new partnership to improve built environment (Eng. only)
The following is the key-note speech given by the Secretary for Planning and Lands,
Mr John Tsang, at the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors' Annual Conference 2001
today (October 20):
The New Partnership
-------------------
Ladies
and Gentlemen,
Good morning. I am delighted to join you today at the 2001
Annual Conference of the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors. The theme "Managing
Social and Cultural Changes - Challenges and Opportunities" is particularly
relevant at this time when we are experiencing fundamental structural changes
to our economy as well as changes in expectation towards the role of Government
among our people. We, as Government, are responding to these changes with a "paradigm
shift" of our own, both administratively and attitudinally. I would like
to share with you this morning some of the changes that we are making to turn
the challenges confronting us into opportunities. I will use the example of one
of Planning and Lands Bureau's principal priorities in developing a safe and decent
built environment for everyone in our community. In the area of building maintenance,
the challenges are quite easily recognizable. Over the years, the problems of
prematurely aging buildings and unauthorized building works are multiplying fast
and they are there for everyone to see. Walk down one of the older districts and
you will quickly sense the magnitude of the problem. There are some 11,000 private
buildings that are over 20 years of age and some 800,000 unauthorized building
works scattered around Hong Kong. If we do not act fast to deal with these issues,
the deterioration of our built environment today will become "time bombs"
of tomorrow. This has stimulated our thinking beyond the current constraints to
find suitable solutions. We recognize that solutions to these problems are essential
to the well-being of our people and we had, indeed, begun to effect changes in
our mode of operation. But the public is not happy with our pace, and with the
many accidents and nuisances caused by dilapidated buildings, the public has called
upon the Government to redouble our efforts. This is wholly understandable. Members
of our community deserve a decent and safe living environment, and we have the
responsibility to ensure that they live as comfortably as possible. The daunting
task facing us is how to make the best use of the limited resources available
to us to deal with the issues at hand and how to re-position Government as regulator
in the new partnership with the owners and the profession. Owners' responsibilities
in building maintenance It is our belief that owners must play an active role
in the maintenance of their buildings. Timely maintenance work is absolutely essential.
Without proper maintenance, many of our buildings are already plagued with unauthorized
building works, illegal rooftop structures, water seepage, and the list goes on.
In order to prevent these buildings from aging prematurely, we are urging and
assisting building owners to take care of their own buildings. Taking advantage
of the public's increasing awareness of their civic responsibility and willingness
to take part in community affairs, we are seeking to redefine the role of building
owners in building maintenance. Last year, we introduced a pilot Coordinated Maintenance
of Buildings Scheme to provide a "one-stop" service for building owners
to facilitate the maintenance of their own buildings. To enable building owners
to do a proper job and to lend them the proper support in the process, we have
designated an officer from the Buildings Department to coordinate all the activities
that have to do with building safety in the buildings included in the Scheme.
This officer will coordinate actions of all the Government departments concerned
to ensure efficiency and cost-effectiveness, with minimal inconvenience to owners
and Owners' Corporations in carrying out their work. Through this Scheme, we are
encouraging more and more building owners to take the initiative to maintain their
own buildings properly. Building safety, as a result, will be enhanced and the
quality of life for people in Hong Kong will be improved. We have seen some very
encouraging results so far and we are planning to increase the number of target
buildings next year. Profession's role in clearing unauthorized building works
The profession is also playing a major role in keeping our built environment safe.
In the past two years, we have been working hard to demonstrate our resolve to
eliminate unauthorized building works. We have broken the back of the problem
with "blitz" operations requiring owners to remove illegal works on
the external walls of a building in one go. In addition, we are setting up a dedicated
task force to clamp down on new illegal works before their completion. These efforts
are essential if we want to win the war against illegal works, but they also consume
a disproportionate amount of our scarce resources. The outlay is necessary at
the start of the campaign, but to sustain its effectiveness, we need help from
the profession to accomplish our mission. This year, we have begun to out-source
projects to clear unauthorized building works on external walls. The results so
far are highly promising, and we are considering expanding the scope of our mission
to employ more private practitioners to expedite our enforcement actions. Modernizing
building rules and regulations To complement our efforts in maintaining our buildings
and clearing unauthorized building works, we have also embarked on a progrmame
to modernize building rules and regulations. In this connection, we have launched
a comprehensive review of the Buildings Ordinance earlier this year. So far, we
have identified a number of items to be included in the first tranche of legislative
amendments to the Buildings Ordinance. These items include (a) the introduction
of a "minor works" category on top of the existing "building works"
and "exempted works" in order to improve the quality of control over
minor works and to allow professionals and contractors to have greater authority
and responsibility over their work; (b) transforming a number of prescriptive
standards in Building (Planning) Regulations to performance-based requirements
in order to remove barriers to and to enlarge the scope for the adoption of innovative
technologies; and (c) deleting a number of obsolete provisions. Minimizing bureaucracy
In modernizing building regulations, we have a vision of a vastly improved built
environment in the years to come. Buildings will be properly designed, properly
managed and properly maintained. Our built forms will be creative, people-oriented
and functional. We are relying on the profession to successfully achieve this
goal. In addition, we are relying on the profession to help minimize bureaucracy
and to enhance administrative efficiency. We are now critically examining the
role of Government in the regulatory process in order to identify more room to
entrust greater responsibility to the building profession. The Government has
always been acting as the "inspector" in the construction process. We
used to check every last detail in the building plans submitted by professionals
to ensure that requirements laid down in the laws are met. The Government has
been so diligent that the industry has become reliant on our comprehensive feedback
to ensure that their designs comply with the required standards. This takes up
an inordinate amount of time and resources going back and forth. As rules and
regulations multiply, so has our bureaucracy, and it has become so complicated
that it really needs the service of a seasoned professional just to guide applicants
through the course. This is not acceptable. From time to time, we hear building
professionals complaining about the difficulties in securing approval for their
submissions. In my short tenure as Secretary for Planning and Lands, I have heard
repeated calls to simplify our vetting process. I am sympathetic to these urgings,
and I believe that as Government, we need to change our role from an enforcer
to a facilitator. There is a clear need for us to simplify the vetting process
without compromising building safety. My colleagues in the Buildings Departments
are currently formulating proposals to do just that. We intend to reduce the number
of items to be checked by Government, giving the private practitioner responsibility
to verify compliance for the rest. In principle, the practitioner will need only
provide a "concept plan" to Government to demonstrate the strategy to
be adopted for the key issues to satisfy the legal requirements. The practitioner
will have to verify the rest according to his professional standards. This will
save time and resources for all concerned. We will return the steer to the practitioner
and that is where it belongs. We have been collaborating with the profession in
developing a blueprint for such a "concept plan". We believe that this
arrangement would enhance the partnership between private practitioners and Government.
Building practitioners can act as the extended "Building Authority"
and Government as the auditor. We are also looking into the feasibility of accepting
computer calculations on floor area in substitution for a separate set of hard
copy calculations prepared by authorized persons. When established, this will
be another big step towards having our plan submission and checking process conducted
through electronic means.
Conclusion These are only some of the examples
of the initiatives that we are seeking to implement, but I hope the underlying
intentions are clear. We want to be market friendly. We want to be facilitating.
We want to minimize bureaucracy. We want to be a constructive partner to the public
and to the profession so that we, as Government, will be able to manage the changes
and meet the challenges in achieving our objective to provide a better environment
and improved standards of living to our community. Thank you. End/Saturday, October
20, 2001. [Source:
Hong Kong Government, 20 October 2001] |  |
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