'Govt Wasting Millions On Exhibition Centres'

A public spending monitoring group has urged the government to close down the seven exhibition spaces it runs, saying they cost millions of dollars but seem to serve only a handful of people.

Momentum 107 said during its trips to the centres, six out of seven hardly had any visitors.

They visited the venues run by the Civil Aviation Department, Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, Electrical and Mechanical Services Department, Environmental Protection Department, Observatory, Leisure and Cultural Services Department, and the Committee on the Promotion of Civic Education.

The group counted just six visitors at the Environmental Resources Centre run by the Environmental Protection Department in Fanling, but most of them were retirees and students who had come for the air-conditioning and computer facilities.

The group's convenor, Raymond Ho, noted that these exhibition centres were not user-friendly at all.

He said, for example, the centre run by the Civil Aviation Department is remotely located near the airport on Lantau, while the one run by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department in Cheung Sha Wan is only open from 2pm to 5pm on weekdays.

He told RTHK’s Candice Wong that the government should streamline the centres.

“Some unattractive exhibition centres should be closed permanently. Different government departments should work together to set up a co-exhibition centre, plan some term exhibitions, for example, three months, half year, for different departments to show their materials,” he said.