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Social Aspect

Social Aspect

The Department has undertaken programmes and measures to promote public awareness

of sustainability and encourage the public to participate in the town planning process. The
Department has also strived hard to provide its staff with a safe, healthy and satisfactory
working environment, and provision of personal development opportunities to help them meet
future challenges.

Public Engagement

The Department and the Civil Engineering Development Department jointly commissioned
the Study on the Artificial Islands in the Central Waters in June 2021. A public engagement
(PE) on the preliminary proposals for the reclamation extent, broad land use, strategic

transport infrastructure and possible financing options of the Kau Yi Chau Artificial Islands was
undertaken from January to March 2023 with fixed and roving exhibitions at 10 locations, over
30 briefing sessions for various stakeholders (including relevant advisory and statutory bodies,
professional institutes, district councils, and commercial and business sector), and some
academic collaborations with the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong
Kong. In order to realise community participation in the planning of the project, a Task Force
with six professional institutes was also set up with a view to further developing planning and
design ideas on selected topics.

For the “Reimagining Public Spaces in Hong Kong—Feasibility Study”, a total of 9 meetings with
professional institutes, planning advisory bodies, stakeholder groups, district council and area
committee, local residents, etc. were held between March and July 2022 to collect views on the
open space planning standards, design guidelines, and/or pilot case proposals. The knowledge
sharing event in March also attracted 153 public participants to learn more about overseas and
local best practices in open space planning.

69 PLANNING DEPARTMENT | ANNUAL REPORT 2022/2023