Bilingual council websites feasible

In his policy address last month, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying announced a "one-off grant" of HK$100 million for each district in Hong Kong, or HK$1.8 billion in total for all districts, to be earmarked for district councils this year to "carry out signature projects in the current term".

With significant additional resources, these councils can no longer use the excuse that they do not have enough money to provide bilingual content on their websites.

Making such a provision would require just one additional staff member for each secretariat. Currently, of the 18 councils only two, Southern and Wong Tai Sin, provide access to council affairs in English.

This is despite that fact that while 95 per cent of the population is of Chinese descent, a lower proportion can read and write in that language.

The percentage of residents speaking English and other non-Chinese languages in some districts is more than 20 per cent.

Many residents who cannot read Chinese are significant taxpayers, and in view of the large amount of cash to be put at the disposal of their local council, they have every right to have access to information on how that money is to be spent.