Public-private plan will be extended
Controversial scheme to be used to finance cultural centre
The government is set to expand its controversial plan to adopt the public-private partnership model in public works projects.
The Home Affairs Bureau said it would use the new approach for the development of a cultural complex in Tai Po. Under the public-private partnership (PPP) model, a private business is allowed to build and operate public facilities and pocket the income generated for a set period.
According to a document the bureau submitted to the Legislative Council last week, Tai Po District Council was informed in July about the cultural complex project and consulted again last month.
The private sector will be invited to make expressions of interest in the project in the middle of this year.
Legco's home affairs panel will discuss the scheme on Friday.
The government has already planned to use the partnership model to build a leisure and cultural centre in Kwun Tong and an ice sports centre, a tenpin bowling centre and a park in Tseung Kwan O. It will also invite the private sector to participate in the $6 billion redevelopment of the Sha Tin water treatment plant.
The controversial West Kowloon cultural district project is not officially classified as a PPP project, although it is based on a similar developmental approach.
Legco's approval would not be required for PPP projects because such works do not involve public expenditure, Secretary for Financial Services and Treasury Frederick Ma Si-hang said last month.
This attitude concerns some lawmakers, such as independent legislator Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee, who says it would sideline the lawmaking body.
Further, it would prevent Legco from discharging its duty under the Basic Law of approving public expenditure.
Another concerned observer is Albert Lai Kwong-tak, chairman of the Hong Kong People's Council for Sustainable Development.
He said it was dangerous for the government to adopt the PPP model when there was no mechanism to regulate and govern it.
'Hong Kong needs very clear guidelines when it wants to let the private sector provide public services,' he said.
'There is nothing wrong with the PPP model. But those are public facilitates, [meant] to provide services to the public. Surely, it involves the public interest.'
The Home Affairs Bureau said in the document to Legco that developers interested in the projects in Kwun Tong and Tseung Kwan O were required to propose a pricing mechanism to ensure that the public was not charged at an unaffordable level.
