The government will continue to review and optimise its cooperation with the city’s six integrated resort (IR) enterprises in revitalising the city’s historic quarters, in view of bringing about greater benefits for civil society, Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U said yesterday.
Ao Ieong made the remarks during an oral interpellation plenary session yesterday in the legislature’s hemicycle, adding that the mode of cooperation between the government and the six IR operators was a brand new concept.
According to Ao Ieong, the government has set up a cross-departmental coordination group led by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) to strengthen coordination regarding the six IR operators’ revitalisation projects in the city’s old quarters as far as cultural heritage, land use planning, engineering, traffic measures, crowd management and fire safety regulations are concerned.
In the case that the fire service facilities and evacuation plans do not meet the current fire safety technical requirements during the revitalisation of heritage buildings, the Cultural Affairs Bureau and other public entities should work together to formulate appropriate measures to tackle the issue, Ao Ieong said.
‘Street of Bliss’ pedestrian zone may become permanent
During yesterday’s plenary session, Ao Ieong also said that since the launch of the Rua da Felicidade (福隆新街 – the “Street of Bliss” known in Cantonese as Fok Long San Kai) pedestrian zone, 12 new businesses have already moved or are preparing to move into the area.
Apart from organising activities during festive seasons and holidays, long-term measures will be implemented in the pedestranised street between the middle and the end of this year, including subsidising the renewal of the shops’ awnings, encouraging the permanent beautification of the street, and exploring a mechanism for turning the currently still temporary pedestrian zone into a permanent one.
Fok Long San Kai started as a temporary pedestrian zone in September. The street is closed to vehicular traffic daily from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m.
Lawmakers yesterday raised concerns about the pedestrian zone staying open until 1 a.m. Ao Ieong responded that the government hoped to create a “night-time economy”, adding that as she visited the pedestrian zone last week, she found that the pedestrian flow at night had increased compared to that in the past.
Ao Ieong also said she found that the public lighting in the surrounding streets has become brighter, and she described it as a gratifying phenomenon that the entire San Ma Lou (Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro, the city’s main thoroughfare) is “already open”.
Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U looks on during yesterday’s oral interpellation plenary session in the legislature’s hemicycle. – Photo courtesy of TDM
