President, this year's Policy Address touches more upon housing but it talks relatively less about proposals aimed at economic development. The coverage concerning tourism is just three short paragraphs. There are two new projects, namely Phase 2 development of Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and the construction of a new convention centre on the Shatin to Central Link. The above proposals will help Hong Kong's tourism industry and exhibition industry in the long term, and the industry welcomes them. Nevertheless, in the Policy Address, we cannot see any concrete measures to be implemented in one or two years to solve tourism-related problems. Specific proposals on transportation, infrastructures, conservation and regulation are very few. This is unsatisfactory as it gives the public an impression that the Government's economic poly is a slow remedy, which can never meet an urgency.

As to short-term measures, nothing has been mentioned in the Policy Address about post-Occupy movement support to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). After the Occupy movement, we issued a questionnaire to travel agencies in end October. Of all the respondents, 78% said they were affected by the Occupy movement, which had caused losses to their business and interruption to their original income and expenditure estimate, while 46% expressed that they suffered from a significant decline in turnover when compared with last year's figures and thus hoped for some government help. I believe SMEs affected by the Occupy movement are not limited to travel agencies; they also include the catering industry, retailing industry, transportation industry and so on. However, the Policy Address has not mentioned ways to help them tide over this difficult time, which has disappointed many SMEs. I hope this year's Budget can address the aspirations of these SMEs by introducing subsidizing measures such as special subsidy scheme or low interest loan scheme for SMEs affected by the Occupy Central movement, so as to mitigate the difficulties faced by SMEs in the coming year.

President, the nuisance to residents caused by visitors in various districts, as well as the issue of how to divert visitors, have not been mentioned in this year's Policy Address. According to the statistics announced by the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB), in 2014, a total of 60.8 million visitors were recorded, in which 46% were day trippers from the Mainland, and many of them were parallel traders. The problem with the daily life of New Territories' residents being disrupted by parallel traders has not been resolved for some time, and there are signs that the problem is extending to other districts. I hope the Government can face the issue squarely. Besides enhancing law-enforcement efforts in collaboration with relevant Mainland authorities to combat parallel trading activities, it should also allocate lands for the development of a shopping centre in the border area to separate the shopping district from residents so that local economy can be promoted and more job opportunities can be created without affecting the residents in the New Territories. A recent report indicates that some enterprises are intending to invest in the development of a shopping centre in the border area which will receive 30 000 visitors a day. It is a positive measure that can bring about the diverting effect. I hope the Government will give appropriate support, and at the same time, it should keep on identifying land for that purpose and look into the feasibility of establishing shopping centres in the vicinity of various land border control points.

With regards to overnight arrivals, we find that in recent years, most inbound tour groups from the Mainland stay in districts such as To Kwa Wan, Hung Hom, North Point, Aberdeen, and so on. To a certain extent, they affect the daily life of local residents. Yesterday I attended a joint meeting to discuss ways to solve the problem caused by a large number of tour groups. Those who have attended the meeting included representatives of the residents in To Kwa Wan and Hung Hom, representatives of various trades, the Police, District Council members, and so on. It was generally considered that in addition to enhancements of law-enforcement efforts and relevant organizational work mong various sectors, a common aspiration was that the Government should  recruit and pay for tourism ambassadors who will provide consultation service to visitors. The cost of this service will be minimal, but it can solve the problems faced by the residents in their daily-life. I hope the relevant district will actively follow up the matter.

President, the Policy Address mentions that the Government will continue to give full support to the Airport Authority to implement the three-runway system project at the Hong Kong International Airport, and retail facilities and land will soon be added for logistic purpose in the North Commercial District of the airport. The tourism and aviation sector welcome the extension projects of the airport, as it is a matter relating to Hong Kong's status as a regional and international aviation hub. However, according to recent news report, the Airport Authority has completed the study on the financing arrangements of the three-runway system and proposed to raise fund for the three-runway system by increasing fees and charges, which included levying tax for airport construction from passengers and increasing parking charges for airlines. A lot of companies in the travel industry, including airlines, travel agencies and hotel operators show concerns upon learning the news. They fear that the increase in fees and charges would affect the desire of in-bound and out-bound passengers. Moreover, if the Administration makes a hefty one-off increase in the parking charge of planes, it would add to the operating cost of airlines and the cost would very likely be shifted to ticket prices. I hope the authorities will communicate with all parties and see if there is any better financing arrangement, so as to avoid levies as far as possible and minimize the impact.

President, in order to develop Lantau Island, it was announced in last year's Policy Address that the Lantau Development Advisory Committee would be set up. In my capacity as one of its members, I attended a number of meetings and made a lot of constructive proposals jointly with other members. In this year's Policy Address, quite a number of chapters have touched on Lantau development. Lantau development is a sizable project that span over a long period. It has been discussed for many years. This time around, the Government has restarted this development project. Viewing from the present status, its attitude is positive and aggressive, and what follows next should be the specific project planning stage of all proposals. I hope that officials of all government departments and bureaux will be bold enough to strike a reasonable balance among the interests of all stakeholders according to the content of the Policy Address, and implement the proposals one after another, instead of bogging them down on paperwork only.

President, it was mentioned in the Policy Address that the Government would continue its earnest efforts to seek further market liberalization in the Mainland. In December 2014, the HKSAR Government and the Ministry of Commerce signed the Agreement between the Mainland and Hong Kong on Achieving Basic Liberalization of Trade in Services in Guangdong, ushering in the liberalization of trade in services between Guangdong and Hong Kong. It made Hong Kong's trade and service industries the first to be liberalized under the CEPA framework, and the travelling, banking, security, law and accounting industries will enjoy liberation of different extent. The further opening-up of local sole-proprietorship for tour operators to directly solicit Mainland customers in Guangdong for outbound tours other than Hong Kong and Macao tours by increasing the number of operators from one to five is indeed a good news to Hong Kong's tourism industry. In order to tie in with the change in this new policy, we also hope the Hong Kong Government can help Hong Kong escorts to obtain professional qualification issued the Mainland authorities under the existing framework and take into account the actual situation of travel agencies and escorts in Hong Kong. Under CEPA, Hong Kong escorts may apply for the qualifications for Mainland escorts. However, our educational background, spoken language and written characters are different from those of the Mainland, it is rather difficult for them to obtain the licence. I hope the Government will make some special arrangements in examination and training for Hong Kong escorts … by discussing the matter with the Mainland, so that they can obtain the licence without too much difficulty. After the five travel agencies have started their operation, people in the trade can have better job opportunity and our younger generation can have one more way out.

The Policy Address has also mentioned that the Economic and Trade Offices (ETOs) network in the Mainland would be further expanded after the establishment of the Wuhan ETO and a liaison unit in Liaoning Province, more liaison units would be set up in Shandong Province and the central region. At present, Hong Kong and HKTB have set up a number of offices in various places on the Mainland. The two should have a better defined division of labour in tourism and trade promotion. I suggest that when the HKSAR Government sets up other ETOs in the Mainland, it should communicate with HKTB and look into ways to optimize the offices of both parties with a view to avoiding a waste in resources.

President, there is tourism authority in Hong Kong, but the new Travel Industry Authority (TIA) will be established to replace the regulatory and licensing functions of the Travel Industry Council. The trade hopes that the new TIA will not smother the room for development of travel agencies by just staying at the stage of drafting and enacting laws. It is more important to enhance the communication with the tourism industry in order to jointly create a better business environment to allow the tourism industry to contribute more to Hong Kong's economy in its capacity as one of the four pillar industries of Hong Kong. President, the Occupy Central movement has ended, but we still have concerns about its impact on the people's livelihood and economy. Let us take last year's out-bound tour figures of Hong Kong as an example. The stamp duty received from organized tour groups has decreased by 1.8% year-on-year. During the Occupy Central movement in October, out-bound tour revenues decreased by 20%. If we factor in inflation and natural growth, the value of decrease should be over 1.8%. One can see that the Occupy movement has caused direct impact on the spending of Hong Kong people. At the same time, Members of the opposition initiated the non-cooperation movement within the legislature, and the impact is far more significant. The estimated capital cost approved in the last financial year by the Legislative Council was $3.6 billion, which was even less than 5% of that in the 2012-2013 financial year. Affected by the filibustering, the funding proposals of 27 projects in the previous session were not approved. A number of projects were delayed for half year, causing an increase in the project costs by $2.5 billion. Due to the delay in the approval of funding proposals for infrastructure projects, it will cause a hike in the construction cost and the underemployment of workers, thereby adding uncertainty to the prospect of Hong Kong. 

In this connection, I urge Members of the opposition to return to the right track as soon as possible and deal with issues concerning the people's livelihood and Hong Kong's economy in a rational way, stop the non-cooperation movement, stop the filibustering, and not to add troubles under the uncertain economic environment, and not to sacrifice Hong Kong by making all these their political bargaining chips.

With these remarks, President, I support the motion of thanks.