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Following is the transcript of remark by the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Wong Kam-sing, on restored landfills and waste management facilities after a visit to restored landfills with the members of the Steering Committee on Restored Landfill Revitalisation Funding Scheme today (June 19):
Reporter: The Finance Committee is still working on the North Eastern project, so are you worried that the expansion of landfills will need to be postponed for a longer time?
Secretary for the Environment: For the Government as a whole, we do have worries about this because you know filibustering is really affecting the normal operation of the Legco (Legislative Council). In the Finance Committee, there are lots of items that are affecting the normal living or the development in Hong Kong, including the landfill (landfills extension) and incinerator proposal. So we would like to urge the relevant people and also the public to understand the situation and would like the Council to return into a more normal operation.
Reporter: For the $40 million that you plan to ask in order to cover the starting costs and deficits for the two years for the facilities, what other long term plan do you have, like what happen after the two years?
Secretary for the Environment: When we are setting up a system through the advice of the Steering Committee, we would like to select projects that can demonstrate financial sustainability in the long run. So, when picking the projects, analysing the background of the organisations, we would like to see this kind of sustainability in the long run. We are on the one hand sponsoring the infrastructure at the initial stage, and at the same time, we are setting a system to subsidise their initial two years' operation deficit. So, when we are setting out the criteria and while the organisers are going to apply for the scheme, they have to consider these constraints or opportunities so that we can see sustainability in the long run. As you know, we can't subsidise the operation forever, so we have to draw a line for the scheme.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Thursday, June 19, 2014
Issued at HKT 20:32
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