Following is a question by the Hon Ho Chung-tai and an oral reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, in the Legislative Council meeting today (November 26) :-
Question:
Will the Government inform this Council of the following in respect of the financial year 2002-03:
(a) the name and contract period of each infrastructure project for which contract has been awarded by the authorities, as well as whether the project concerned is Category A, B or C project;
(b) except for the contracts for the infrastructure projects contained in the quarterly reports on the contracts awarded by the authorities on major capital works projects, the price of each contract for the infrastructure projects mentioned in (a) above and the total contract prices; and
(c) the names and total estimated expenditure of the infrastructure projects that were shelved?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) & (b) In the 2002-03 financial year, the Government awarded the contracts for 137 Category A projects, with a total value of $26.2 billion. The titles, duration and prices of these contracts are set out in the Annex. Since a large number of items are listed in the Annexes, translating the title description requires a large amount of resources. To save such resources, we have, after obtaining the consent of Ir Dr Hon HO Chung-tai, provided only the English version of the Annexes for reference.
Category B and C projects are projects in the preliminary planning or design stage. The approval of the Finance Committee (FC) of this Council should be obtained for these projects to be upgraded to Category A and for funds to be approved before the construction works of these projects can commence. As such, the Government has not awarded any contract for Category B and C projects.
(c) According to the original forecast, the Government would have submitted 106 projects to the Public Works Subcommittee (PWSC) and FC of this Council for funding approval in the 2002-03 legislative session. However, owing to deviations between the actual and planned progress of certain projects, we have eventually submitted a total of 84 projects to this Council, of which 76 were included in the original forecast while 8 were not. Apart from the "Central Government Complex, Legislative Council Complex, exhibition gallery and civic place at Tamar, Central" project, the Government has no intention to shelve other projects. We expect that these projects will be submitted to this Council in the 2003-04 legislative session for funding approval. Overviews of the progress of these projects are already given in the information papers reference number PWSCI(2003-04) 11 and 28 submitted earlier to the PWSC by the Government.
I would like to reiterate that the Government attaches great importance to investing in infrastructure. In the 2002-03 financial year, our actual expenditure on works amounted to $28.3 billion, more than the annual average of $27 billion over the previous five years. Moreover, the Government has earmarked $143 billion in the 2003 Budget for works projects in the following five years or about $29 billion each year on average. The increase in expenditure clearly shows our commitment to invest in infrastructure.
End/Wednesday, November 26, 2003
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