Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ14: Lunar New Year Fair stalls auction
Following is a question by the Hon Fred Li and a written reply by the Secretary
for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (December
3):
Question:
The auctions of 2009 Lunar New Year Fair stalls at the Victoria Park were held
last month. This year, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD)
introduced for the first time eight thematic stalls, each of which was double
the size of a dry goods stall. However, only one of such stalls was let at the
opening price, while the rest could only be successfully let when put up for
auction as smaller stalls. It has been learnt that the opening prices of various
stalls this year are the same as those of last year and, hence, some people who
took part in the auctions criticised FEHD for not adjusting the opening prices
downwards in the light of the financial tsunami. In this connection, will the
Government inform this Council:
(a) whether FEHD had publicised the thematic stalls before the auctions; if so,
of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(b) whether it has looked into the reasons for the poor response in the auction
for the thematic stalls; if so; of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
and
(c) what mechanism is presently in place to ensure that the opening prices of
New Year Fair stalls in the auctions reflect the actual economic conditions, so
as to avoid the situation of having no one participating in the auctions because
the opening prices have been set too high?
Reply:
President,
On the three-part question raised by Member, our response is as follows:
(a) The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) issued a public notice
on the open auction of Lunar New Year (LNY) Fair stalls on October 29, 2008. The
public notice has set out the time and place of auction as well as details of
the new thematic stalls. The notice has been uploaded onto FEHD's website and
posted at district offices of FEHD and the Home Affairs Department. In addition,
an announcement on the open auction of stalls was published in a number of
newspapers from October 29 to November 11 and broadcast on the radio from
November 3 to November 11.
(b) This year FEHD proposed to launch, on a trial basis, eight thematic stalls
in the Victoria Park LNY Fair with a view to enhancing the characteristics of
the Fair and spicing up the festive atmosphere. These thematic stalls, located
at the centre of the Fair site, are intended for selling festive goods like New
Year food, scrolls, paintings, paper cuttings, lucky string knots and chinaware.
The main reason for the unfavourable response to these stalls during the auction
is that the present economic condition may have dampened the enthusiasm of
potential bidders for thematic stalls with bigger sizes and higher upset prices.
In general, the number of stalls let out and the total auction amount this year
were lower than that in the past year.
(c) As an established practice, FEHD determines upset prices of LNY Fair stalls
by making adjustments based on the bid prices of the previous year with
reference to the prevailing Consumer Price Indices (CPI) to keep track of the
price movements in the past 12 months. From August 2007 to August 2008, there
was an increase of 4.5% in local CPI(A). In view of the current economic
situation, FEHD decided that the upset prices of 2009 LNY Fair stalls be
maintained at the level of 2008. In fact, about 90% of the stalls in Victoria
Park LNY Fair were successfully let out in the auction. All the remaining
thematic stalls were also successfully let out after splitting into smaller dry
goods stalls.
Ends/Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Issued at HKT 12:31
NNNN