The
Hong Kong Council of Social Service
Response
to Stage 3 Public Consultation on
Hong
Kong 2030: Planning Vision and Strategy
In Stage 3 consultation, the Hong Kong 2030
Study presents development options and scenarios for public’s views. Here below are Hong Kong Council of
Social Service’s views on the consultation paper, focusing especially on the
link between the vision of sustainable development and the planning choices /
options.
1.1
In
Stage I Public Consultation, seven planning objectives were identified and
sustainable development is one of them.
After consulting public’s views, sustainable development is accepted as an
overarching goal. This reflects
that public adheres much weight to sustainable development. HKCSS welcomes this stance which
is in line with the global development and takes a responsible role in planning
for future development.
1.2
It
is recommended that the following three broad principles which promote
sustainable development should be observed in the planning and reviewing public
policies / plans including the land use and development:
i)
Promoting
the integration of economic and social development and environmental protection
– as interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars;
ii)
Government,
business sector, NGOs and the community should take part in and act as driving
force for sustainable development.
iii)
Everyone,
including men and women, elderly, the young and the next generation should
share the yields of sustainable development;
2. Coherence
between the Goal and Planning Choices / Options to be strengthened
2.1 While sustainable development is pointed
out as the fundamental guiding principle / overarching goal, one can see little
linkage in the Consultation Paper between the goal and subsequent proposals on
planning options etc. There is
little signs showing how social, economic and environmental needs for present
and future generations are balanced; how is sustainable development considered
in proposing the development options and how all the planning and development
process / options help to materialize this ultimate goals. What is more, the Consultation Paper is
weak in addressing the social aspect of sustainable development and its
integration with the economic and environmental aspects.
2.2. At the outset, we would like to
reiterate that the following planning approach which will help realize the
vision and goal of sustainable development to be adopted:
i)
building
“a society for all” – the needs of different population groups are addressed
including family with young children, youth, elderly, and people with
disabilities;
ii)
adopting
a family perspective – every effort is made to help build / rebuild family
cohesion and facilitate family functions; family perspective in planning will
be adopted to help preserve and enhance family functioning;
iii)
adopting
community planning approach – a bottom-up community planning approach and
involvement of community residents are adopted in the planning process and will
be encouraged in the implementation;
2.3 We would like to cite several examples
to illustrate the linkage between the goal of sustainable development and the
consideration of different planning choices. For instance:
i)
Caring
of our seniors - ageing population is becoming more and more pressing, by 2031,
24% of population is elderly aged 65 and above. When land use and facilities are planned, the needs of this
quarter of population and their carers should be borne in mind so as to
contribute to the building up of a caring society. The public should be informed that for instance the
decentralization pattern may affect the integration of different generations
and hence the caring of the elderly as the new generation may move to the newly
developed areas which are farther away from the urban areas where their elder
parents live.
ii)
Social
and recreational facilities - adequate social and recreational facilities
should be provided for different ages, so as to enhance residents' quality of
life. However, different planning
options have different chances of developing such facilities. For instance, lower-density development
offers opportunities for more spacious living environment and will hence be
able to provide space and community facilities tailor-made for different target
groups like dancing square for youth to develop their talent and like health
care facilities for the elderly and the family etc.
iii)
Employment
- the land use planning should bear in mind the need to enhance employment so
as to help reduce / eradicate poverty which is an important agenda of
sustainable development in the 21st century. The consolidation pattern of
development may facilitate more jobs closer to homes and this will save time in
traveling and enables e.g. the carers to take up both job and caring work at
home. On the other hand, if the
size of residents working in the mainland grows, these mobile residents will
prefer to live nearer to the border areas; in this case, decentrailisation
pattern will have an advantage to them.
2.4 It
is recommended that sustainable development impact analysis on various
development choices be carried out and results be released to the public. This will enhance public’s
consideration of the choice to be taken.
3. Population Forecast could be more
accurate
It is understood that it is
difficult to have accurate population estimation. However, in view of the importance of the population factor
in the planning of land use and facilities, the population forecast should be
carefully monitored. During the
consultation period, there were already concerns (e.g. that expressed by Dr.
Paul Yip of HKU) on the over-estimation of the population growth for Hong Kong
2030. Statistics released recently
by Census and Statistics Department (see release on March 28, 2004) also showed
that the birth rate was extremely low.
While there are possibilities that government will revise the population
policy to encourage population growth, a too modest assumption in population
growth will result in unrealistic plans and wastage of resources.
4. Concluding
remark
While appreciating
the adoption of sustainable development as an overarching goal in planning, how
such vision is realized in the formulation of planning choices / options etc.
has to be further strengthened.
This task has to be consolidated before moving on to the next stage of
formulating development strategies.
April 15, 2004