Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism, Mr Kevin Yeung, and the Chairman of the Board of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, Mr Henry Tang, at a media session on relaxation of Enhanced Financial Arrangement for the West Kowloon Cultural District to take forward residential development today (July 17):
 
Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism: The Chief Executive in Council yesterday (July 16) agreed to relax the Enhanced Financial Arrangement (EFA) for the West Kowloon Cultural District approved back in 2016, with a view to helping the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority to tide over the financial challenges in the short and medium term.
 
     The Authority is a statutory body established in 2008.With a one-off upfront endowment of $21.6 billion, the Authority develops and operates the West Kowloon Cultural District on a financially self-sustaining basis.

     With the completion of major cultural facilities in recent years, the West Kowloon Cultural District has become a cultural landmark in Hong Kong. The Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau has all along maintained close liaison with the Authority, not only providing support for the development of arts and culture, but also closely liaising with the Authority on its financial situation and challenges.

     The EFA was approved in 2016 for allowing the Authority to take forward hotel, office and residential development in the District under the Build-Operate-Transfer model, also known as the BOT model, enabling the Authority to maintain financial sustainability with additional stream of recurrent income from the hotel, office and residential development.
 
     Nevertheless, market response to the BOT model was more lukewarm than expected. The Authority is now facing financial challenges as a result of the significant resources required to operate the arts and cultural facilities in the District. The mismatch with the revenue-generating commercial development and the pandemic in 2020 to 2022.

     The Chief Executive in Council approved the sales of the residential developments within Zone 2 of the District by lifting the “BOT only” restriction for the residential developments. The maximum total residential gross floor area of 170 280 square metres permitted under the West Kowloon Cultural District Development Plan remains unchanged.
 
     The commitment of the Authority to operate the West Kowloon Cultural District project on a self-financing basis also remains unchanged. In agreeing to the Authority’s proposal, the Government will impose the following conditions, (a) a triennial cap on operating deficits and a cap on the percentage of staff cost to the total annual operating expenditure; (b) the requirement to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Government the reasonableness of the cost estimates for any new capital projects before commitment; and (c) the requirement to consult the Development Bureau on tender schedules, setting the reserve price of the residential components of such tender and the tender award recommendations.
 
     With the relaxation, the Authority will have sufficient funding to sustain 10 years of operation. During this period, the Authority will leverage its experience, expertise and assets accumulated over time to develop and implement revenue-generating and commercialisation measures. At the same time, the Authority will exercise strict control over operating costs, fulfilling its commitment to operate the West Kowloon Cultural District project on a self-financing basis.
 
Reporter: Firstly, for the Secretary, to what extent would the residential sale proposal help ease the financial crisis at the West Kowloon Cultural District? And what steps would the Government takes to ensure the hub’s financial stability and independence? And for Mr Tang, does the Authority still plan to reduce the number of opening days or raise ticket prices with the new funding option? And also, what KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and control mechanisms are you looking for? Thank you.
 
Chairman of the Board of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority: Sorry, what opening dates are you referring to?
 
Reporter: Because you earlier mentioned that the hub would consider to reduce the number of opening days of the museums if the funding proposal is not allowed. So would you still consider to do that? And also what kind of KPIs are you looking for at the moment? Thank you.
 
Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism: I would never say it’s a financial crisis. I would say we are facing some financial challenges in the operation of the West Kowloon Cultural District. And as I explained in my opening remarks, with the relaxation, the West Kowloon Cultural District, the residential development now in the West Kowloon Cultural District could be disposed on a sales mode instead of the BOT. In 2016, when we decided that under the enhanced financial arrangement, there were some 170 odd thousand square metres residential development already given to the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, to generate an additional stream of income. But in the past few years, with very great effort of the Authority, the BOT tender did not seem to meet with the appetites of the contractors or developers in Hong Kong. So the current proposal is still making use of the 170 000 square metres residential property, but in a different way. Instead of having a constant stream of income in future, we are now cashing in for a lump sum upfront, which could help release the financial challenges or the requirement at present, which I think will be able to sufficiently, as I said in the opening remarks, sufficient to sustain the Authority’s operation for at least 10 years, which will provide ample time for us to, as the Chairman has said, for them to develop further on the various commercialisation as well as industrialisation of the arts and cultural activities that the Authority has been doing in the past two or three years, which we are confident that the Authority will be able to come up with more proposals in the coming years.
 
Chairman of the Board of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority: When I said, If the Government does not approve our plan, then we will have to think of more drastic measures in order to control our costs, including, but not exclusive to, closing certain number of dates in our museums. And that was a worst-case scenario. So therefore, considering that the Government has been very kind, and we have both agreed to the certain KPIs that we adhere to, we won’t have to take any of those drastic measures. We will be able to continue to operate, but we will continue to operate as we have always done under a discipline that we only spend what we need to spend, and we will control our cost diligently and very seriously.

     At the same time, we will continue to look for ways to increase our revenue, such as we will review some of the cost recovery measures that we are now charging, such as our charging scheme. And secondly, we will also think of new ways to make money. For example, in M+ there are a whole bunch of ways to make money. Let’s say the screen in the front, we will consider whether we want to rent it out for rental income, for arts and culture-related materials.

     At the same time, right now, I can go to a major museum in London or in New York and rent a gallery for an event. But in Hong Kong, I can’t do that. So, there are ways that I can make more revenue without disrupting the operations of the museums, and I will look for ways to do that.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

     Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Chris Sun, on Social Workers Registration Board at a media session after attending a radio programme this morning (July 6):

Reporter: Mr Sun, can you talk more about the reformed Social Workers Registration Board? How would the appointment of Mr Herman Hui, who is a lawyer by practice, would help in leading the statutory body? Also, lawmakers said that the Board lacked members from smaller organisations. Do you agree with the view that the board should include more people from smaller organisations to make it more inclusive and representative? 

Secretary for Labour and Welfare: Thank you very much. The new Social Workers Registration Board was formed yesterday with the appointment of Mr Herman Hui as the new Chairperson. We believe the Board is going to carry out its duties in accordance with the law, including the four major tasks I have asked the Board to take in the coming year, including:

(1) setting up a mechanism to deal with social workers who have committed offenses relating to national security; 
(2) reviewing the Code of Practice for Registered Social Workers;
(3) reviewing the appointment of members to the Disciplinary Committee Panel; and 
(4) setting up a mechanism for continuing professional development. 

     Herman is well known in the welfare field. He has been serving the sector for more than 30 years. While he is not a registered social worker, for those in the welfare sector, Herman is so well known because of his dedication, commitment, and also his selfless services to the sector. I am sure he is going to command the respect of the sector. The deputy Chairperson, Miss Grace Chan, is a very capable, competent, and well-regarded social worker in the field. The two together is going to lead the Board forward. 

     The appointment to the Board is all ad personam. It is on a personal basis. They are requested to carry out their duties dutifully and not having regard to where they are coming from. There is no difference between those coming from larger, smaller or medium-sized welfare organisations. They are to look after the social workers from their individual points of view. The Social Workers Registration Board is only concerning the registration of individual social workers and not the welfare institutions. It is not relevant whether they are coming from larger or smaller organisations in the field. Thank you very much.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

     Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Transport and Logistics, Mr Lam Sai-hung, at a media session at Hong Kong West Kowloon Station before taking the inaugural sleeper train of the XRL (Express Rail Link) from Hong Kong to Beijing today (June 15)
 
Reporter: Will there be more sleeper train services to other parts of the mainland and how is the negotiation with the mainland going to be like?

Secretary for Transport and Logistics: The sleeper train is a breakthrough of the XRL service. We have operated the XRL service or the high speed service for about six years and the service was closed for nearly three years. In the past, the railway network usually had to undergo maintenance during the nighttime. The sleeper service will be welcomed by the public as it is an alternative mode of transport. You can get on board the train at around evening time and then get a good sleep. At around 7 in the morning, you will arrive at the destination. This will suit some of the travel purposes of the passengers. Now, we have sleeper train service four days per week. It depends on how it goes and if it is welcomed by the general public, we will push for more. We will do it.

(Please also refer to the Chinese version of the transcript.)

     Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Health, Professor Lo Chung-mau, on the outcome of public consultation on tobacco control strategies and the way forward at a media session after attending a radio programme this morning (June 9):
 
Reporter: A retail sector lawmaker said he is worried that the ban on flavoured cigarettes may stop tourists from coming to Hong Kong. Newspaper vendors also said they are worried that it might affect businesses. How would you respond to these concerns? Also, is there a risk of visitors being caught out by not knowing about the law?
 
Secretary for Health: I would categorically say that this would not affect visitors, tourists and business people coming to Hong Kong. First of all, taking the example of Singapore, Singapore has stricter measures on anti-smoking which do not really affect the tourists and visitors going to Singapore. The other thing is that, if you look at the overall percentage of smokers and non-smokers, there are far more non-smokers than smokers. People come to Hong Kong not for smoking. They come to Hong Kong for business opportunities, for our food, for all of the tourist attractions. They love to have a refreshing, lively, healthy city, rather than a city full of smoke and cigarette butts on the floor. I would categorically say that this is not an issue.
 
     For those newspaper vendors, I understand that this is part of their businesses, but they have other areas of businesses. Some of these people are talking about illicit cigarettes or “cheap whites”. I guess that these are illegal activities, and these vendors should not be performing such businesses.
 
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

     Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mrs Ingrid Yeung, at a media session on offers of the 2024-25 civil service pay adjustment at the Central Government Offices this afternoon (June 4):
 
Reporter: So can you recap in English why the salary increase is just three per cent, which is lower than the pay trend survey, and why the increase rates are the same for every rank of civil servants?
 
Secretary for the Civil Service: The Executive Council has, in accordance with the mechanism governing the adjustment of civil service pay, considered six factors, namely the state of Hong Kong’s economy, changes in the cost of living, the net pay trend indicators, the Government’s fiscal position, the pay claims of the staff side, as well as the morale of the civil servants. We believe that this is a balanced decision taking into account all those six factors and the specific circumstances of this year. We note that the pay offers are some way behind the net pay trend indicators, but given all the six factors taking into consideration as a whole, we believe that this is an appropriate decision for this year.
 
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)