Hong Kong Secretary for Home Affairs Patrick Ho told lawmakers on Wednesday the government is formulating the strategy and proposed improvement measures for cultural heritage conservation and will take into account the views collected from the public consultation.

He said at a Legislative Council meeting that the government will form a holistic approach that enables Hong Kong to take a comprehensive view on what, and how many, heritage items to conserve.

Ho said proposed improvements include: innovative and sustainable adaptive re-use of conserved built heritage, better coordination of heritage conservation work, formulation of assessment criteria, different methods of conservation, and strategy for enhancing community participation.

He said the proposed improvements also include the strengthening of heritage education and introduction of appropriate planning tools and economic incentives to encourage private property owners to conserve built heritage.

"Since the improvement measures involve land use and town planning, ownership and development rights of private properties, and deployment of public resources, we need considerable time to assess the feasibility of different measures and sort out the implementation details and seek legal advice as necessary," Ho said.

"We hope to complete the work as soon as possible on the proposed improvement measures for consultation with the Legislative Council, the concerned parties and the public as appropriate."

(Xinhua News Agency April 27, 2006)