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Following is a question by Dr the Hon Kenneth Chan and a written reply by the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Lau Kong-wah, in the Legislative Council today (April 27):
Question:
According to the Hong Kong Arts Development Council Ordinance (Cap. 472), except for the three official members, the Chairman, Vice-chairman and not more than 22 other members of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) shall be appointed by the Chief Executive (CE) for a term not exceeding three years. Of the 22 members, CE may appoint up to ten members who have been nominated by specified arts interests. The authorities are conducting an exercise to nominate representatives of arts interests for the new term of office of HKADC (nomination exercise). In view of the widespread controversies which have aroused over the mechanism and procedures for the nomination exercise for the last term of office, quite a number of members of the arts sector consider that the authorities should improve the mechanism and procedures for the nomination exercise for the new term of office. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it knows the number of registered voters in each arts interest in the nomination exercise for each of the past three terms of office;
(2) given that the Home Affairs Bureau (HAB) submitted a paper on the review of the mechanism and arrangements for the nomination exercise to this Council early this year, of the latest progress of the follow-up actions taken by HAB and HKADC in respect of the tasks set out in the paper; for those tasks the follow-up actions for which have not been taken or are uncompleted, whether the authorities have a specific timetable for their completion; whether HAB and HKADC will review afresh the mechanism concerned and its operation upon completion of the nomination exercise for the new term of office; if they will, of the specific contents of the review; if not, the reasons for that;
(3) given that HAB has appointed an agent for the nomination exercise for the new term of office through tendering procedures, of the number of bidding documents received by HAB; the estimated expenditure to be incurred for the nomination exercise for the new term of office, with a breakdown by major expenditure item; and
(4) how the Government and HKADC will encourage eligible persons to register as voters for and actively participate in the nomination exercise; of the details of the relevant work?
Reply:
President,
(1) The number of registered voters for the last three exercises for nominating representatives of arts interests for the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) (the nomination exercise) is listed in the annex.
(2) and (3) Following our briefing for the Legislative Council Panel on Home Affairs on the recommendations and way forward for the 2016 nomination exercise in January this year, the Home Affairs Bureau (HAB) has taken forward the relevant follow-up actions including:
(i) appointment of a nomination agent through the established tendering procedures to handle the administrative and promotional arrangements of the nomination exercise. Two bidding proposals had been received by HAB, and Instinctif Partners (Hong Kong) Limited was appointed as the nomination agent for the 2016 nomination exercise in December 2015;
(ii) commencement of Phase 1 of the nomination exercise. Applications from arts organisations and individual arts workers to register as voters (Arts organisations successfully registered under this phase may register their eligible members/employees as voters during Phase 2 of the nomination exercise) are accepted from March 29 to the closing date on May 27 this year;
(iii) publicity of the nomination exercise through various channels (see part (4) of the reply). Briefing sessions were also arranged on April 15 and 17 this year respectively to brief the arts sector and the public on the arrangements of the nomination exercise; and
(iv) following up on the planning and administrative arrangements for subsequent phases of the nomination exercise.
After vetting all registration applications received during Phase 1 of the nomination exercise and informing the relevant arts organisations and individual arts workers of the results of their applications, we expect to launch Phase 2 of the nomination exercise (i.e. voter registration by arts organisations) in August this year. Candidate nomination, electioneering and polling phases will be conducted in the fourth quarter of this year.
The estimated total expenditure for the 2016 nomination exercise is around $4.2 million. Major expenditure items include the expenses for appointing the nomination agent and hiring extra manpower required by HAB (around $2.3 million in total), publicity expenses (around $1.1 million) and other costs on printing, mailing and computer systems, etc. (around $0.8 million in total).
In accordance with prevailing practices, we will review the arrangements of the nomination exercise and examine areas for improvement with HKADC upon the completion of the 2016 nomination exercise and before the launch of the next nomination exercise. We will continue to consult the arts sector and stakeholders in the process.
(4) Various publicity efforts will be implemented during the nomination exercise to encourage participation of the arts sector. Such efforts include:
(i) organising briefing sessions for the public to introduce the arrangements of the nomination exercise and the work of HKADC;
(ii) publicising the nomination exercise through press releases, radio broadcast, letters, emails, SMS, phone contacts etc., and placing advertisements in newspapers and arts magazines;
(iii) distributing promotional leaflets to arts organisations and individual arts workers to inform them of the arrangements of the nomination exercise and encourage them to register as voters;
(iv) setting up a dedicated website to provide up-to-date information on the nomination exercise; and
(v) displaying posters and publicity leaflets at major arts and cultural venues including HAB, HKADC, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre, the Fringe Club, Cattle Depot Artist Village as well as civic centres, museums and major libraries of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and Public Enquiry Service Centres of the various District Offices.
Ends/Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Issued at HKT 11:26
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