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Following is a question by the Dr Hon David Li Kwok-po and a written reply by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Henry Tang, in the Legislative Council today (July 14):
Question:
In recent years, the authorities have encouraged government departments and public organisations to publish their annual reports by electronic and digital means, including CD-ROMs. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the total number of government departments and public organisations which at present publish annual reports and, among them, the respective numbers of those which publish both electronic and paper reports, and those which publish electronic reports only;
(b) of the quantity of paper saved in the 2009-2010 financial year as a result of publishing annual reports in electronic version instead of paper version when compared to the quantity of paper used for that purpose in each of the past five financial years;
(c) whether the Government will implement additional measures to further reduce paper usage and make a commitment to entirely eliminate annual reports published in paper version; and
(d) of the actual cost saved in the 2009-2010 financial year from publishing annual reports in electronic version instead of paper version?
Reply:
My reply to the four parts of the question is as follows:
(a) Currently, 84 government departments and public organisations publish annual reports. Fifty-eight of them issue both electronic and paper reports while 23 of them only issue electronic reports.
(b) and (d) The quantity of paper saved as a result of publishing annual reports in electronic, instead of paper, version in the past six years is as follows -
Financial Year 2009-10 2008-09 2007-08
Quantity of 1,227,450 1,043,020 901,120
paper saved
(No. of sheets)
(Note)
Financial Year 2006-07 2005-06 2004-05
Quantity of 593,600 672,800 494,830
paper saved
(No. of sheets)
(Note)
(Note: Government departments/public organisations started publishing annual reports in electronic version at different times over the years.)
The Government does not have any statistics on the actual cost saved in 2009-2010 financial year from publishing annual reports in electronic version instead of paper version.
(c) Protecting the environment is one of the Government's top priority policies. We have been encouraging departments to use resources more effectively particularly on reducing paper usage. While the publication of paper annual reports is still necessary at present to meet public demand and departments' operational needs, concerned departments will continue to review the need for paper annual reports and keep them to a minimum as far as possible.
Ends/Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Issued at HKT 14:28
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