The Government would continue its efforts on various fronts, including its planning and land policies, to promote and help local trade and industrial development, the Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands, Mr Michael Suen, said today (January 25).
Speaking at the General Committee Dinner of the Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hong Kong, Mr Suen said it was hoped to open up new scope for development and identify Hong Kong's repositioning in the international market jointly with the industries.
"In formulating and improving planning and land policies, we will adhere to the principle of free market and create a just, fair and open environment for competition to ensure a high degree of flexibility for our system of operation so that the industry can adapt better to new market trends and needs," he said.
He said the Government would endeavour to make the relevant policies capable of:
* Timely supply of land to meet different market needs, including prime offices, general purpose commercial premises as well as special purposes, i.e. purposes for which there are specific demands, such as logistic parks, industrial parks and convention and exhibition facilities;
* Promoting the effective conversion of industrial land and buildings rendered obsolete by economic transformation to other uses;
* Ensuring the availability of adequate supporting facilities including transport and utility facilities to support these land uses, and,
* Streamlining the approval process for property development as a whole including planning permission and lease modification to reduce duplication of procedures and enhance the efficiency in making approvals.
"The Government will streamline the regulation of development to match business operation. The Government and the Town Planning Board (TPB) will make positive efforts to perfect the planning system to help business development," Mr Suen said.
"The TPB actively amends statutory plans in recent years to reduce the need for planning applications so that development and redevelopment can be speeded up."
"To streamline procedures and facilitate amendments to approved developments, new provisions are added into the 2004 Town Planning (Amendment) Ordinance to enable the TPB to specialise the categories of amendment which can be exempted from further application and those which can be handled by public officers under fast-tracked procedures. This saves time and resources at the planning stage and allows developments to respond more easily to market changes."
He noted that the Government had taken dual measures in dealing with the problem of surplus industrial land.
"First, restrictions on the use of industrial areas and buildings are gradually relaxed with the support and agreement of the TPB. By relaxing land use restrictions, it is hoped to provide a better environment to promote business development and create more job opportunities in the community," Mr Suen said.
"The Government also rezones surplus industrial land at suitable locations. In further studying the conversion of industrial buildings to other uses, we will balance the views of various sectors and handle the matter with caution."
In addition, the Lands Department in 2003 introduced simplified procedures to speed up the processing of applications for waivers from owners seeking the conversion of idle industrial premises to permitted uses. Under the new procedures, owners were certain about the waiver fees required if their applications were approved.
Mr Suen said the Housing, Planning and Lands Bureau and its departments were committed to helping the industries to improve the business environment.
"We are conducting a review which includes a feasibility study on simplifying lease conditions and procedures for lease modification. On simplification of lease conditions, we are looking at promoting the business environment by drafting the conditions in simpler language, or redrafting or combining certain conditions," he said.
"Participation by the industry was particularly important in Government's promotion of sound planning and development process. We very much encourage developers to handle well the basic planning, land and construction matters of proposed developments at the early stage so that they may proceed with the developments confidently and avoid wasting efforts that have been made."
"To help developers solve these basic matters early, developers can make use of services provided by the Planning Department, Lands Department and Buildings Department, and can meet with or make enquiries with staff of these departments before formal submission of development plans. The three departments have pledged to handle such enquiries in an active manner and provide the enquirers with timely and clear answers."
Mr Suen said that while the Government was committed to improving the business environment, it would also ensure that there would be a just, fair and open environment for competition.
"The Planning Department will start a new round of strategic planning review: Stage 4 of the Hong Kong 2030 Study. The study is expected to be completed in the second half of this year, whereupon the public will be extensively consulted again. It is believed the data and findings of the Study will help trade and industrial development," Mr Suen added.
Ends/Tuesday, January 25, 2005
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