An opening ceremony for the Sham Shui Po District Council (SSPDC) Po Leung Kuk Shek Kip Mei Community Services Centre under the Sham Shui Po District Signature Project Scheme (SPS) was held today (September 25), marking the official commissioning of the centre.
The Government earmarked a provision of $100 million for each District Council to implement large-scale and sustainable projects – either one project or two in each district – to address local needs under the SPS. All projects have to be proposed, discussed and agreed on by District Councils before they are put to implementation.
The SSPDC decided to build the Centre at the Shek Kip Mei Estate Phase 3 housing development. The Po Leung Kuk is the partner organisation of the project and will run the Centre on a self-financing basis.
The Centre provides a wide variety of services for the benefit of the community, including occasional child care services, after-school care services, affordable hot meal food assistance services and various medical services, including Chinese and Western medicine, dental services, physiotherapy and manipulative therapy.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Lau Kong-wah, thanked the SSPDC, the partner organisation Po Leung Kuk and various members of the community for their support, which enable the project to proceed smoothly.
He added that the Government is actively putting forward other developments in the district. A large-scale sports centre which can accommodate 1 000 spectators is under construction at Northwest Kowloon Reclamation Site 6 and will be completed next year. To strengthen the support for owners of "three-nil buildings", the Home Affairs Department has since 2011 implemented the Building Management Professional Advisory Service Scheme, which has reached 3 800 buildings in Hong Kong and facilitated the establishment or re-activation of nearly 500 owners' corporations. The department has visited 650 old buildings under the scheme and assisted in the formation or re-activation of 80 owners' corporations in Sham Shui Po. The Government will actively consider the opinion of some members of society to regularise the scheme.
Other officiating guests of the ceremony included the Chairman of the SSPDC, Mr Ambrose Cheung; the Chairman of the Po Leung Kuk, Mr Ma Ching-nam; Deputy Director of Home Affairs Miss Charmaine Wong; and the District Officer (Sham Shui Po), Mr Damian Lee.
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