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SCMP Reporter

Q How can tourists be protected from exploitation?

Tourists have a responsibility to protect themselves from being exploited.

Many travel agencies put pressure on tourists to shop. They have a captive audience. Tourists don't generally know their way around Hong Kong  and  are not able to get to the next location without their travel leaders. If the travel leaders keep exploiting them, tourists  will  stop coming to Hong Kong.  We don't want to see this happen.

There should be easy channels for tourists to file complaints, and the government should impose tougher penalties.

Katie Leung, Mei Foo Sun Chuen

Q What should be done to develop the city as a medical hub?

I find the reason given for not employing Filipino nurses (that they have US-style training)  quite strange considering that the UK has recruited many nurses directly from the Philippines.

Besides, when I worked in London hospitals there were British nurses employed who had trained in the US; the UK registration exams were what counted. Perhaps there is simply no shortage of nurses here?

Marnie Evans, Stanley

A proposal to develop Hong Kong into a medical hub? Doesn't it sound just like the Cyberport project years ago?

Both projects aim to portray Hong Kong as either an IT centre or a medical centre. Interestingly, they are also public-private partnership projects.

Given these  similarities, I could not help wondering if the proposed medical centre would suffer the same fate as the Cyberport.  We cannot  make the same errors again.

So what should be done?  To encourage research and invention of medicines, a research and development centre should be established. In Hong Kong, no  research centre is especially set up to develop new medicine. In places like Beijing, a Chinese medicine centre is particularly developed for medicine investigations. To develop into a medical hub, we should pay more attention to the study and development of medicines.

As Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said, the medical centres 'would become the focal points of expertise'. To achieve this, training for medical staff should be strengthened. International expertise should also be recruited to enhance the image of an international medical hub. And ties with other countries in the region should be reinforced, instead of always looking  to the north for guidance.

Novia Fong, Western

Hong Kong has  among the best  medical faculties and medical sectors in the region, with  breakthroughs in various  areas such as liver transplants and epidemic prevention. But not  everyone in Asia knows about these  achievements.  The tourism board has produced plenty of star-studded videos to promote  the city.  Has it ever thought of producing  clips showing the state-of-the-art medical equipment, professional medical staff and, most importantly, the love they show to their patients.

Ambrose Johnson, Tung Chung

Q How can Hong Kong promote safe cycling?

The topic of promoting cycling on Hong Kong's roads was hotly debated in the Letters to the Editor column in June 2004. Back then, as now,  the pro-cycling faction points fingers at all other drivers for being 'selfish' and says cyclists should be free to ride wherever they like, irrespective of  any danger  or inconvenience they cause other motorists.   But cyclists  pose a risk to  motorists, since their speed is usually much slower than other vehicles. Also, cyclists do not have to  do a road test - there is no guarantee that the cyclist in front of me won't suddenly cut across the road to make a turn or brake  without considering  other traffic.

I speak as a motorist and  a cyclist. When I was younger,  I used to spend  the weekends cycling from Sha Tin  to Tsim Sha Tsui  on dangerous Tai Po Road. Once on the flat roads of Kowloon, I was able to maintain the same speed as the rest of the traffic, posing minimal danger or inconvenience to motorists. But on the uphill climb of Tai Po Road, when I realised large vehicles were behind me, I pulled off onto the footpath to allow them safe passage.

I resent the suggestion that 'cyclists have equal rights to the road'. Should I have expected  the driver of a huge truck to suddenly slam on his brakes and spend the rest of the time slowly following me until he  could pass?  Cyclists must respect  other road users.  They cannot be allowed free access to the roads at the expense of other drivers. If they are,  then we should  also allow learner drivers on all  our roads - and then let's see how people would feel if they were stuck in a bus behind them for  miles on end.

G. Marques, Mei Foo Sun Chuen



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