The URA Re-organizes to Implement the Urban Renewal Strategy and to Strengthen the Relationships with Districts
The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) announced today (10 August
2001) that changes would be introduced to its organization
structure.
The organization change is a strategic move to ensure that the URA
will be in a strong position to implement the SAR Government's
urban renewal strategy in an efficient and effective manner.
The URA Board approved the new structure at its recent meeting.
"The new structure aims at delivering strong functional leadership
through a leaner and more efficient organization," explained the
URA Chairman Dr Lau Wah Sum.
The URA has to undertake a wider scope of work, which includes
urban redevelopment, revitalisation of old districts, building
rehabilitation, and preservation of district features and buildings
with historical value. Therefore, the main focuses of the URA's
work are:
- carrying out comprehensive planning in every district;
- concentrating on site assembly; and
- speeding up implementation of large-scale redevelopment projects.
The URA will further strengthen relationship with local
communities, work closely with the social services teams and set up
district advisory committees to ensure the adoption of the
"people-oriented" approach in urban renewal.
"The new structure has a strong 'district' focus, providing
clearer accountability and strengthening the relationships with the
local communities," Dr Lau added.
"We have a clear and challenging mandate to implement the SAR
Government's urban renewal strategy, which involves the undertaking
of about 200 redevelopment projects over 20 years. We need a very
efficient and effective organization structure to implement the
strategy," said Dr Lau.
A key feature of the URA's new structure is to establish the
District Development functions. They will ensure better
co-ordination of functional duties at the district and project
levels and clear accountability for the implementation of the
projects. The relationships between the URA and the local
communities will also be strengthened.
The headquarter functions of URA will be streamlined. Three of the
divisions under the former LDC structure - project management,
commercial, corporate services - will cease to exist in the new
structure.
Explaining the personnel implications of the organization change,
URA Managing Director Mr Canice Mak said: "The number of
experienced staff in planning and site assembly is expected to grow
as more and more redevelopment projects are implemented. This is
why we intend to retrain and redeploy all the existing middle and
junior staff to cope with the expected increase in volume of
work."
Mr Mak added: "There are, however, 24 staff members, ranging from
senior managers to Director levels, whose current
positions/functions will cease to exist in the new structure. The
URA has decided to terminate their employment and provide them with
reasonable compensation packages."
The affected staff will be given a severance package of one-month
salary for each year of service with a minimum of three months'
salary and a maximum of 12 months. Expenses in severance payment
are about $17 million, while the total outlay for staff made
redundant is $ 27 million, including salaries, cash allowances and
payment in lieu of notice, etc. Payment received by the affected
staff ranges from $330,000 to $2.69 million.
Mr Mak has met with all the affected staff members who worked
today and informed all the URA staff of the decision. The URA now
has no plan for further cut in the Authority's establishment.
10 August 2001