Yuen Long To Get 15 New Welfare Facilities

Yuen Long will get at least another 15 welfare facilities in the next three years – the most of any of the city's 18 districts – under the government's plan to purchase properties and turn them into community service centres.

The HK$20 billion plan was unveiled by the Financial Secretary Paul Chan in his budget speech this year.

The government intends to spend the money over the next three years to purchase sites for NGOs to run about 160 welfare facilities.

They include 48 neighbourhood elderly centres, 28 childcare centres and 15 daycare centres for the elderly.

In a paper submitted to Legco, officials didn't say exactly how many properties will be bought, or where exactly they will be located.

But Yuen Long will have 15, and there will be 14 in each of the Sha Tin and Yau-Tsim-Mong districts.

Democratic Party lawmaker Andrew Wan said the government needs to make public the exact locations.

"The public will expect the government to expose the information of the sellers so as to prevent the transfer of benefits to the vested interests," he said.

Officials said priorities would be given to those districts where there's a shortage of welfare facilities at present.

They added that districts with more young families, like Yuen Long and Sai Kung, will have more childcare centres.

The Labour and Welfare Bureau stressed that the plan would not have a significant impact on the property market, because the premises will be bought over a period of three years.

Officials hope to begin buying the properties in the first quarter of next year.