Streamlining structure necessary

I refer to Harvey Stockwin's article Beijing snuffs out HK's piece of democracy of Dec. 8, 1999. Let me explain our position.

On the passage of the Provision of Municipal Services (Reorganization) Bill, the sole objective of the government in the organization is to improve the provision of the municipal services to the public. This covers environmental hygiene, food safety, library services, museum management and cultural, leisure and sports services. In all these areas, we wish to upgrade our services.

We believe the new structure will provide strong and clear leadership in the coordination and direction on food safety and environmental hygiene matters, facilitate coordination over environmental issues, strengthen professional and community input and facilitate the formulation and implementation of overall arts and sports policies.

Under the new structure, the government will strengthen communication and cooperation with the District Councils to enrich community life and to increase community participation.

The government's decision to dissolve the Provincial Municipal Councils after the terms of office of the incumbent members expired on Dec. 31, 1999, and to set up a new structure for the delivery of municipal services was made after extensive public consultation and debate on the review of district organizations during 1998.

With the development of representative government in the past decades, part of the functions of the three-tier representative institutions overlapped. There were no strong reasons to maintain the three-tier structure in a compact city like Hong Kong, and a reorganization exercise to streamline the structure was necessary.

Nevertheless, streamlining will not weaken public participation in community affairs as they can take part in municipal services through the Legislative Council and the 18 District Councils.

Indeed, the election to the District Councils held on Nov. 28, 1999, attracted over 810,000 voters, equivalent to 35.82 percent. Both in terms of absolute numbers and the percentage of voters who participated, the turnout rate exceeded that in 1994. This demonstrates that Hong Kong people are increasingly getting accustomed to exercising their civic right to choose their political representatives.

CLEMENT CHEUNG

Director

Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office

Singapore