HONG KONG, June 9, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Following the First Reading and as the commencement of the Second Reading Debate regarding the "Property Management Services Bill" ("the Bill") on May 7th 2014, the property management licensing regime has started its official legislation procedures. In order to gauge practitioners' views on the Bill, The Hong Kong Institute of Housing ("HKIH") jointly organized the "Joint Forum on Property Management Services Bill" ("the Forum") with 6 other industry professional institutes at City University of Hong Kong on June 7th 2014. Through this Forum, the participating institutes could better understand practitioners' views on the Bill, and right after, a joint letter with the summarized feedbacks would be sent to relevant authorities to reflect the industry's general views. The Forum received great responses with approximately 300 participants.
The Forum was jointly organized by professional institutes including The Hong Kong Institute of Housing (HKIH), Chartered Institute of Housing Asian Pacific Branch (CIHAPB), The Hong Kong Association of Property Management Companies (HKAPMC), The Hong Kong Institute of Facility Management (HKIFM), The Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors, Property and Facility Management Division (HKIS, PFMD), Housing Managers Registration Board (HMRB) and Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
An array of industry elites gathered at the Forum. Mr. CHUNG Pui Lam, GBS, OBE, JP, the Guest Speaker of the Forum, gave an introduction on the Bill at the beginning of the Forum. Subsequently, the representatives of the various professional institutes, namely Mr. Ellis IP, President of HKIH; Prof YIP Ngai Ming, Chairman of CIHAPB; Mr. Ivan TAM, President of HKAPMC; Mr. LOW Hon Wah, President of HKIFM; Dr. Edmond CHENG, Chairman of Property and Facility Management Division of HKIS; Dr. Johnnie CHAN, Chairman of HMRB; Mr. Kendrew LEUNG, Chairman of Facility Management and Management Consultant Professional Group Committee of RICS and Ms. Cora YUEN, Immediate Past President of HKIH who was also the moderator for the sharing panel, exchanged their perspectives as major stakeholders of the profession. A range of valuable suggestions were received from the Forum attendees.
Representatives of the 7 professional institutes will later jointly send the collected feedbacks to Legislative Council and Home Affairs Department as to highlight practitioners' concerns and doubts before resumption of the Second Reading Debate and official enactment of the Bill.
Mr. Ellis IP, President of The Hong Kong Institute of Housing said, "The implementation of the new licensing regime will certainly raise the quality and professional standard of property management industry. However, this is the first time the industry has been introduced with such mechanism and its influence is substantial. Industry practitioners are showing great concern over the process. To address this, HKIH jointly organized the Forum with 6 other professional institutes for the purpose of understanding and collecting practitioners' views, queries and comments on the Bill, and then reflected them to relevant authorities. Through the collaboration of our industry, we hope that the Bill will be passed smoothly after all the concerns and doubts from our practitioners be addressed before commencement of the Third Reading and its enactment."
