The city's consumer watchdog yesterday urged the government to come out of its bureaucratic shell and talk to people on the street when making important laws.
The authorities have submitted two legislative proposals to lawmakers for consideration - one is an amendment on the Trade Descriptions Ordinance aimed at eradicating bad sales practices, and the other is a new competition law that prohibits back-door price fixing.
Chairman of the Consumer Council, Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, said few legislators were familiar with these issues. He said the government should also talk to industrial insiders and the public when making these legislative proposals.
'Over the past few months, the government just focused on [talking to] the bills committee [in the Legislative Council]. The public has not been briefed adequately,' he said.
Cheung said it was a systematic problem as the government seldom came out of its shell to engage the public when making important laws, causing unnecessary suspicion and worries from the affected parties.
He cited the example of the minimum wage law, which came into effect on Sunday. Cheung said most small and medium-sized businesses only heard the argument put forward by trade chambers or commentators and seldom directly from the government. As a result, many became worried about the new law.