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The following is issued on behalf of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority:
The Board of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority announced that starting from the fourth board meeting, sessions of board meetings that do not involve sensitive and commercial information will be open to the public.
The fourth board meeting will be held at the Government Secretariat at 3pm tomorrow (March 17). The session concerning the engagement of consultancy firms to conduct market studies for the core arts and cultural facilities of the West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD) will be open to the public through live webcast.
A spokesman for the Authority said that the decision to open the board meetings to the public fully reflects the Authorityˇ¦s principle of operating in a highly transparent manner and its spirit of being responsible to the public.
The spokesman said: ˇ§We believe opening up board meetings to the maximum degree can help the public understand more about the work of the Authority, facilitating the public to discuss the development of the WKCD.ˇ¨
In future, board meetings will be open to the public, with the following exceptions:
(1) when any of the following information or matters is discussed or considered:
(a) personnel matters;
(b) personal data and information concerning the personal life of individuals;
(c) commercial and sensitive information of the Authority, any person or any other organisations;
(d) information concerning any financial matter or investment of the Authority the premature release of which may prejudice the Authority;
(e) information the disclosure of which may result in a breach of any law, order or direction of a court or tribunal, duty of confidentiality, or other legal obligation or duty; or
(2) when the Board, having regard to all the circumstances of a particular case, reasonably considers that a meeting or part of a meeting should not be open to the public.
The spokesman added that the live webcast would provide the greatest convenience to the public, who can watch the proceedings without being restricted by considerations over the venue and can have a review anytime after the meetings.
The public may access the website of the Authority (www.wkcdauthority.hk) to watch the live webcast at 3pm tomorrow (March 17). They may also visit the website later on the same day for a review. The agenda and papers of the open session of the fourth board meeting will be uploaded to the website of the Authority later today (March 16).
Ends/Monday, March 16, 2009
Issued at HKT 19:18
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