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Following is a question by the Hon Audrey Eu and a written reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Edward Yau, in the Legislative Council today (December 17):
Question:
Recently, I have received complaints from a number of members of owners' corporations that they are inundated with letters, publicity materials and annual reports sent by various government departments through the post, which they consider a substantial waste of paper. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective quantities and weights of printed annual reports posted by various government departments and public organisations in the last financial year;
(b) whether it plans to gradually replace the mailing of printed publications by issuing electronic copies of such publications as the major means of communication with owners' corporations; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(c) whether it has compiled statistics on the current numbers of government departments and public organisations which no longer produce printed versions of annual reports and issue electronic copies of such publications instead; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
My reply to the three parts of the question is as follows:
(a) In the financial year 2007/08, Government departments sent by post a total of about 19,300 printed annual reports with a total weight of about 12,200 kg. For details, please refer to Annex 1. Regarding public organisations, according to the information provided by bureaux, the figures concerning the annual reports sent by post by some 40 major public organisations in the financial year 2007/08 are at Annex 2.
(b) The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer issued a set of guidelines in 2008, and requested bureaux and departments to, as far as possible, also provide their services in electronic mode when delivering public service, so that members of the public may have more alternative. Separately, the Home Affairs Bureau also issued a set of guidelines to bureaux and departments in 2008 to encourage the use of government homepages as an effective means to disseminate information. These measures can help reduce the need of sending printed publications by post.
(c) The Director of Administration issued a circular at the end of 2003 to all bureaux and departments advising them to maximise the use of internet or CD-ROMs for the issue of annual reports and departmental newsletters and minimise the use of paper for printing such documents in order to reduce paper consumption.
Government departments currently publish about a total of 30 plus different annual reports, all of which are available in electronic version, and amongst which 17 are no longer published in printed version and only provide electronic version. As for public organisations, the vast majority of the some 40 public organisations listed in Annex 2 provide their annual reports in both printed and electronic versions.
Ends/Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Issued at HKT 16:46
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