Q5 – Making good use of government properties and lands
MR CHAN CHUN-YING (in Cantonese):
Deputy President, government properties are managed by GPA but the major duty of GPA is to meet the in-house demand of the Government for offices and staff quarters and the department also sets out eight performance pledges on its web page. However, all these pledges are linked to the internal needs of the Government. At present, NGOs have started to lease vacant government properties under STTs, including the school premises and non-school premises mentioned by the Secretary just now. To tie in with this change, will the Government formulate extra-departmental work indicators, so that it can offer the properties to outside parties more actively or enhance its efficiency in vetting applications, with a view to optimizing the use of these vacant properties?
SECRETARY FOR FINANCIAL SERVICES AND THE TREASURY (in Cantonese):
Deputy President, in fact, regarding the issue of releasing vacant government sites for use by outside parties, the information on vacant sites has been uploaded onto LandsD’s web page, so that NGOs or social enterprises may apply to use such sites under STTs for community, institutional or non-profit-making uses. I also browsed the relevant web page this morning and there are over 800 properties available for lease by community groups or social enterprises. As regards the issue of how work indicators can be formulated more proactively with the departments concerned, so that they can utilize the sites more effectively, we will refer this view to the Development Bureau for consideration