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The following is issued on behalf of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority:
Following is the transcript of remarks (English portion) by the Chairman of the Board of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, Mr Henry Tang, at the media session after the first meeting of the Board of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority today (October 28):
I will say a few words in English.
Today, the Board of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority held our first meeting. This is a major step to take forward the West Kowloon Cultural District initiative.
I am deeply honoured to have this opportunity to work with a truly remarkable team for the benefit of Hong Kong through this ambitious and stunning project.
The board today established six committees. Joining me now are five of the chairmen:
- Mr Paul Chan of the Audit Committee. Mr Chan has to attend a Legco meeting, so he left early.
- Chairman of the Investment Committee, Mr Tsang Tak-sing
- Chairman of the Remuneration Committee, Mr Sin Chung-kai
- Chairman of the Development Committee, Mr Ron Arculli
- Chairman of the Museum Committee, Mr Victor Lo
- Performing Arts Committee is chaired by Mr Allan Zeman
I am grateful to all six of them for their willingness to spare their precious time to take up these important duties.
Three of those committees, namely, development, museum and performing arts, will soon co-opt members from the community with the relevant expertise and commitment. They will bring different views and perspectives into the deliberation of those committees and help forge broad-based consensus on the development plan, the planning of visual arts and performing arts facilities, and also the necessary supporting software for the Cultural District.
We are acutely aware of the community's wish to press ahead with the project in full swing. The Authority's first and foremost task is to map out a development plan that lays out the whole district and sets apart land for the various functional and supporting facilities.
The development plan will also crystalise our concepts and our vision for the cultural district that belongs to Hong Kong. In short it is the soul of the whole project. It should be a world-class blueprint and therefore we will invite, through open tender, top-notch local and overseas experts to help us draw up a plan and take it through the statutory town-planning process.
We put a lot of emphasis on openness and on transparency. The public will have ample opportunities to discuss and participate in these plans and in our work.
We will soon launch a multi-stage consultation exercise to engage the public in drawing up this development plan.
First, we will consult stakeholders in the arts and culture sector.
Then, we will propose three conceptual development options and engage the public to ascertain their preferred features of these options.
Finally, we will be into the final stage where we will propose a more detailed development plan for further public engagement. This detailed, long and broad public engagement exercise is designed to engage the public and communicate with the public as much as possible, to ensure public participation is widely and fully reflected, as well as to ensure community buy-in of the whole project.
We have also decided to recruit an executive director to assist the board in pushing ahead with many tasks in the coming months.
We have put in place today corporate governance and operation arrangements, including standing orders, declaration of interest, code of conduct, as well as procurement guidelines.
We will issue a detailed press release.
Thank you.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
(To be continued)
Ends/Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Issued at HKT 20:00
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