Legco FC To Hold Extra Meetings To Clear Backlog

The chairman of Legco's Finance Committee, Chan Kin-por, says he hopes to hold about 40 hours of extra meetings to clear a backlog of several dozen funding requests before the council breaks for summer recess in July.

Chan described the situation as "quite critical", saying there’re more than HK$70 billion worth of projects and initiatives that still require lawmakers’ approval.

He stressed that he would reserve adequate time for more controversial items - such as a HK$550 million request for a feasibility study to build a large artificial island off Lantau.

But he believed pushing the controversial items to the back of the agenda won't help speed up vetting - because all pending items are equally urgent.

“All these items really relate to the people of Hong Kong so that they can have all these hospitals and all these different livelihood issues”, he said.

The chairman of Legco’s Public Works Subcommittee, Lo Wai-kwok, meanwhile, said there’s a need to approve funding for major infrastructural projects as soon as possible to ensure the livelihoods of local construction workers.