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Following is a question by the Hon Fred Li and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (December 3):
Question:
The auctions of 2009 Lunar New Year Fair stalls at the Victoria Park were held last month. This year, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) introduced for the first time eight thematic stalls, each of which was double the size of a dry goods stall. However, only one of such stalls was let at the opening price, while the rest could only be successfully let when put up for auction as smaller stalls. It has been learnt that the opening prices of various stalls this year are the same as those of last year and, hence, some people who took part in the auctions criticised FEHD for not adjusting the opening prices downwards in the light of the financial tsunami. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether FEHD had publicised the thematic stalls before the auctions; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(b) whether it has looked into the reasons for the poor response in the auction for the thematic stalls; if so; of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(c) what mechanism is presently in place to ensure that the opening prices of New Year Fair stalls in the auctions reflect the actual economic conditions, so as to avoid the situation of having no one participating in the auctions because the opening prices have been set too high?
Reply:
President,
On the three-part question raised by Member, our response is as follows:
(a) The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) issued a public notice on the open auction of Lunar New Year (LNY) Fair stalls on October 29, 2008. The public notice has set out the time and place of auction as well as details of the new thematic stalls. The notice has been uploaded onto FEHD's website and posted at district offices of FEHD and the Home Affairs Department. In addition, an announcement on the open auction of stalls was published in a number of newspapers from October 29 to November 11 and broadcast on the radio from November 3 to November 11.
(b) This year FEHD proposed to launch, on a trial basis, eight thematic stalls in the Victoria Park LNY Fair with a view to enhancing the characteristics of the Fair and spicing up the festive atmosphere. These thematic stalls, located at the centre of the Fair site, are intended for selling festive goods like New Year food, scrolls, paintings, paper cuttings, lucky string knots and chinaware. The main reason for the unfavourable response to these stalls during the auction is that the present economic condition may have dampened the enthusiasm of potential bidders for thematic stalls with bigger sizes and higher upset prices. In general, the number of stalls let out and the total auction amount this year were lower than that in the past year.
(c) As an established practice, FEHD determines upset prices of LNY Fair stalls by making adjustments based on the bid prices of the previous year with reference to the prevailing Consumer Price Indices (CPI) to keep track of the price movements in the past 12 months. From August 2007 to August 2008, there was an increase of 4.5% in local CPI(A). In view of the current economic situation, FEHD decided that the upset prices of 2009 LNY Fair stalls be maintained at the level of 2008. In fact, about 90% of the stalls in Victoria Park LNY Fair were successfully let out in the auction. All the remaining thematic stalls were also successfully let out after splitting into smaller dry goods stalls.
Ends/Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Issued at HKT 12:31
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