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Following is the speech by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, at the cocktail reception of Chartered Institute of Building (Hong Kong) today (December 6):
Dr (Billy) LEE, Director (Paul) Lynch, distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good evening. It is a great pleasure to be invited by the Hong Kong Branch of the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) to its 2013 cocktail reception. I am happy to see many friends and distinguished leaders from the building profession this evening. My congratulations to Professor Andrew Leung and Vincent (Lo), for the special fellowships you will receive later today.
Over the years, the CIOB has promoted the science and practice of building and construction in Hong Kong, raised the professionalism of local construction managers to among the highest in the world, and helped shape Hong Kong into a world-class city.
As the Secretary responsible for transport and housing policies, I am particularly aware of the key role construction professionals play in both sectors. Not only do facilities need to be well constructed, they also need to be delivered on time and within budget. Our achievements as a city over the years attest to the professionalism of our construction managers.
The Monday (December 2) just passed saw the end of the three-month public consultation on the Long Term Housing Strategy, during which the Long Term Housing Strategy Steering Committee, Marco (Wu) being one of the very dedicated members, and the Transport and Housing Bureau team have attended a total of 55 consultation meetings and listened to over 70 deputations at the Legislative Council. We have received 800 submissions so far.
All in all, the process has been very fruitful. We explained to our audiences what the Steering Committee saw as the root of the current housing problem – which is under-supply – and exchanged views on our vision of providing adequate and affordable housing to each and every family in Hong Kong. We believe the Government should be proactive in taking forward a supply-led strategy. We reckon that some 470 000 new housing units will need to be supplied in the next ten years. To help meet housing needs and to improve the living space of our population, we are talking about building a new town of the scale of Shatin every ten years.
Almost all the people I've met have shown deep concern about the many challenges we face in housing – the proliferation of subdivided units, under-supply of both public and private housing, rising property prices and rent beyond the affordability of the general public, and difficulties in achieving home ownership for our younger generation including young professionals. Many of them urged for more housing units to be built, and for the lead time in public housing construction to be further reduced.
This is a tall order. The Steering Committee's suggested supply target of 470 000, if adopted by Government, would mean we have to build significantly more above the pledged levels.
Identifying and securing land for the additional units is just one of the many issues we need to resolve. As I have mentioned at a conference of the Construction Industry Council last week, I can see that our construction industry is facing four major challenges: safety, both on-site and perception of safety by the affected local communities; time, particularly in the area of public rental housing where the waiting queue is getting longer day by day; environment, including the higher environmental requirements in our laws, as well as an increasing awareness amongst the general public of the environmental impacts; and manpower, referring to both the current manpower shortage as well as the challenge in attracting new and younger blood to the industry.
We have to face these challenges together, the government and professional bodies. CIOB has all along been playing an active role in supporting the professionals in the industry, and in promoting construction professionals’ networking and exchange on new projects, new technology and international experience sharing. It has brought about a strong and extensive network for builders and construction managers. No doubt the effective implementation of our Long Term Housing Strategy for Hong Kong will have to rely much on your participation and dedication.
While there is much debate about the number of new housing to be supplied, I would like to emphasise that we should not be delivering only the numbers, but rather homes within a caring neighbourhood. For public housing, the Housing Authority has all along taken the "R+C" approach, i.e. "residence plus community".
Policy, design, technology and management knowledge are all part of the larger construction equation. On top of hardware and software, we also need "heartware", if I may borrow a term from Singapore. An ethos with a caring heart is required throughout the whole planning and delivery process in order to deliver a liveable community and city. Housing, at the end of the day, is a people business (民生 and 人心工程).
With this remark, I wish everybody a happy evening and my congratulations again to the Special Fellows and the photo competition winners. Thank you.
Ends/Friday, December 6, 2013
Issued at HKT 20:32
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