Cautious welcome to increased cash

CONTRACTING and engineering groups gave a cautious welcome to the $2.82 billion earmarked for infrastructure.

''Our immediate reaction is to welcome any increase in spending, especially if it benefits smaller and medium sized local contractors,'' said Patrick Chan Wing-tong of the Hong Kong Construction Association.

But Mr Chan also expressed concern about the amount of money earmarked for the airport core programme after the Government said it would spend $11.1 billion - 33.7 per cent of the capital works budget - on core projects during 1994-95.

Mr Chan believes such a huge amount unfairly favours large international companies and would like to see more construction won by local firms.

The Association of Consulting Engineers of Hong Kong hoped there would also be more assignments to carry out detailed design work.

''Over the last two years there has been a disproportionate balance towards survey and site investigation work which resulted in lower fees for our members,'' said chairman Francis Bong.

He said consultants should now see fees rise as a result of the increase in the number of design consultancies.