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The following is issued on behalf of the Housing Authority:
An exhibition titled "Growing Up with Public Housing", jointly organised by the Hong Kong Housing Authority, the Antiquities and Monuments Office and the Chinese University of Hong Kong to mark the 60th anniversary of public housing development in Hong Kong, will be held at the Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centre from tomorrow (September 27) to March 2, 2014.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the exhibition today (September 26), the Chairman of the Hong Kong Housing Authority, Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, said that in its early days public housing was mainly to provide shelter for people in imminent need. Nowadays, public housing has evolved to provide pleasant accommodation with modern facilities at affordable rents or prices for many families in Hong Kong.
"Public housing has been modernised and marked improvements have been made in design and estate management over the years. It has gone from providing flats to building homes for the people of Hong Kong," said Professsor Cheung.
"Hong Kong people have benefited from our public housing programme over the past 60 years. Public housing has laid a solid foundation for the city's social and economic development. It has improved the living conditions of many of our families and facilitated upward social mobility. It has also helped spur the development of our new towns and driven Hong Kong's growth. Public housing has been one of Hong Kong's success stories and is a collective achievement that Hong Kong people are proud of."
At present about half of our population live in either public rental housing or subsidised home ownership flats of some form. One-third of the population, or over two million people, live in some 730 000 public rental housing flats provided by the Hong Kong Housing Authority. Over one million people live in self-owned units acquired with government subsidy.
The exhibition is divided into five zones, namely, milestones in public housing development, transformation of public housing design, evolution of public housing estate management, new town development - urbanisation and public housing planning, and memories of public housing. Through the display of historic photos, artefacts and models, the public will learn about the evolution and development of public housing over the past six decades. Admission is free.
The exhibition is also one of the programmes under the "Hong Kong: Our Home" Campaign.
The Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centre is located inside Kowloon Park, Haiphong Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. It is open from 10am to 6pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and from 10am to 7pm on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays (closed at 5pm on Christmas Eve and Chinese New Year's Eve). It is closed on Thursdays (except public holidays) and the first two days of the Chinese New Year.
Ends/Thursday, September 26, 2013
Issued at HKT 19:42
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