We have supported the construction industry during the dramatic financial crisis of late 2008 and have supported government policy in the creation of additional job opportunities through speeding up the project commencement time.
evitalising Historic Buildings Through Partnership Scheme (RHBTP Scheme) This scheme was introduced in February 2008 to promote adaptive re-use of government-owned historic buildings and so allows the public to participate in heritage conservation.
This sum was invested in our green building features and greening works as well as in environmental building research studies.
Economic Conditions
We manage the Capital Works Reserve Fund for facilities development and upkeep, and consultancy contracts, and aim to maximise the value of our buildings and the utilisation of our resources. We use our departmental funds for internal personnel related expenses. The Legislative Council, LegCo, is the statutory body for approving, monitoring and reviewing all public funds including our departmental funds.
During 2008, we worked on 37 new projects. With the dramatic increase in the cost of construction materials, such as cement and reinforcing bars, the cost of projects under construction rose by more than 15%. As a result, we had to apply for additional funding for some of the underestimated projects. Learning from this experience, we will endeavour to take more account of the variables in our future project planning.
In 2008, both global and local economic conditions behaved like a roller-coaster and in October that year, following a period of inflation, the worldwide financial crisis hit Hong Kong. In order to support the construction industry, we proactively supported government policy in the creation of construction related job opportunities through speeding up project commencement time. This was done in two ways; one was by shortening the frequency of planned maintenance and the other one was streamlining the consultancy screening process for simple projects. The result is an approximate 10% increase in the number of projects underway.
As a result, our overall expenditure in fiscal year 2008-09 was 5% higher than fiscal year 2007-08 as outlined in the summary breakdown below. This information is drawn from the Controlling Officer's Report of the 2008-09 Estimates of the Government of the HKSAR. Further information is available in www.budget.gov.hk.
Since we only develop public buildings and facilities, we have not generated any direct economic value which can be quantified.
Remarks: Other charges refer to the maintenance of government buildings.
This sum was invested in our green building features and greening works as well as in environmental building research studies.
Ref Link: