Hong Kong to enhance heritage conservation
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-04-26 22:36 Hong Kong Secretary for Home Affairs Patrick Ho
told lawmakers on Wednesday the government is formulating the strategy and
proposed improvement measures for heritage conservation and will take into
account the views collected from the public consultation.
He said at a Legislative Council meeting that the government will form a
holistic approach that enables Hong Kong to take a comprehensive view on what,
and how many, heritage items to conserve.
Ho said proposed improvements include: innovative and sustainable adaptive
re-use of conserved built heritage, better coordination of heritage conservation
work, formulation of assessment criteria, different methods of conservation, and
strategy for enhancing community participation.
He said the proposed improvements also include the strengthening of heritage
education and introduction of appropriate planning tools and economic incentives
to encourage private property owners to conserve built heritage.
"Since the improvement measures involve land use and town planning, ownership
and development rights of private properties, and deployment of public
resources, we need considerable time to assess the feasibility of different
measures and sort out the implementation details and seek legal advice as
necessary," Ho said.
"We hope to complete the work as soon as possible on the proposed improvement
measures for consultation with the Legislative Council, the concerned parties
and the public as appropriate."
|