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10 May 2001

URA Board held its first meeting

The Board of the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) held its first meeting today (10 May 2001).

The URA Chairman, Dr Lau Wah-sum mapped out the Authority's mission which included the following five areas:

  1. To regenerate the run-down parts of Hong Kong through a combination of redevelopment, revitalisation and rehabilitation.
  2. To make sure that the affected owners and tenants are handled with sympathy, understanding and in a fair and equitable manner. Special care will be given to the elderly and handicapped.
  3. To conserve the cultural and built heritage.
  4. To pursue excellence in environmentally friendly and maintenance friendly building design and construction.
  5. To minimize the URA's dependence on public funding and to achieve a balance between costs and revenues in the long run.

Dr Lau reiterated that the URA would adopt a people-oriented approach while implementing urban renewal. To achieve this, the URA will actively engage the community through consultation on projects and set up District Advisory Committees. The Authority will also assess local community needs through conducting social impact assessments and establish Urban Renewal Social Services Teams to provide assistance and counselling to the affected residents.

During the meeting, the URA Board also discussed and approved the proposed URA logo, which reflected the people-oriented philosophy of the Authority. 

In order to enable key operational and policy matters to be discussed in sufficient details, the URA Board further discussed the setting up of six committees under the Board. These committees include:

  1. Strategic Committee;
  2. Audit Committee;
  3. Land, Rehousing and Compensation Committee;
  4. Finance and Administration Committee;
  5. Planning, Development and Conservation Committee; and
  6. Community Affairs and Public Relations Committee.

Besides, it is proposed to set up an Appeals Panel under the Board to consider and hear appeal cases relating to the acquisition of property, rehousing and compensation matters.

URA was set up on 1 May 2001 to replace the Land Development Corporation to undertake a massive urban renewal programme involving 200 new projects and 25 LDC announced projects in the next 20 years.

10 May 2001

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