Today is the ninth day of the Lunar New Year and the festive atmosphere still pervades everywhere. Apart from visiting your relatives and friends, there is a place I would like to recommend you to go. Presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and organised by the Antiquities and Monuments Office (AMO), the “Reminiscences: Life in Hong Kong’s Built Heritage” exhibition is being held at the Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centre in Kowloon Park in Tsim Sha Tsui. Members of the public are welcome to visit the exhibition and know more about the historic buildings in Hong Kong and the city’s experiences in built heritage conservation. With the thriving development of the Hong Kong economy in the 1970s, skyscrapers have become the distinctive urban landscape of the city. Nonetheless, a number of nostalgic historic buildings have been well preserved amid rapid modernisation. Historic buildings are carriers of history and culture, which contain myriad messages and reflect our social development. They are also the collective memories of the community and witnesses to our history......

As the Year of the Rooster begins, I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone in Hong Kong good health and harmony. I would also like to wish Hong Kong and the Mainland prosperity and stability. The Lunar New Year is an important traditional Chinese festival. I know that many of you visit your relatives and friends during the public holidays, while some make wishes at the Wong Tai Sin Temple, Che Kung Temple or Lam Tsuen Wishing Tree according to tradition, hoping that everything will go smooth in the coming year. As the Acting Secretary for Development, I have special new year wishes for this year too. I hope that all the public works projects will be launched smoothly, the progress of housing construction be expedited, and public facilities be commissioned for public enjoyment as soon as possible. I also hope that we can further strengthen the cost control of public works projects, so that social resources can be used more effectively……

The Chief Executive has recently announced the 2017 Policy Address entitled “Make Best Use of Opportunities, Develop the Economy, Improve People’s Livelihood, Build an Inclusive Society“. As top priority of the current-term Government’s policy agenda, housing and land supply continues to be the foci of the annual policy address. I believe we all agree that land supply is vital to the sustainable development of housing, economy and society. For this reason, the policy priority of the Government over the past few years has always been adopting a multi-pronged approach to provide sufficient short-, medium- and long-term land supply to meet the ever increasing housing demand, to support the sustainable and diversified economic growth, and to ensure that Hong Kong has the essential infrastructural facilities to enhance the city’s overall competitiveness and improve Hong Kong people’s quality of life......