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HONG KONG, Jan. 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) held an international conference on heritage conservation today at the Hong Kong Jockey Club. With the theme of "Towards a Sustainable Model for Adaptive Re-use of Heritage Buildings", the conference featured a diverse array of speakers and projects from both Hong Kong and overseas. Speakers from the Government, the private sector, and academia shared their insights and inspired discussions on conservation with over 240 delegates, including business leaders and industry professionals.
The Conference highlighted heritage conservation projects in both Hong Kong and overseas. Following the presentations in the morning, four breakout sessions in the afternoon explored the financial sustainability, design concepts, interaction with governmental policies, and regulatory challenges of built heritage conservation in Hong Kong. Mr Paul Chan, MH, JP, Secretary for Development of the HKSAR Government and Guest of Honour of the Conference said: "There are three key success factors contributing to the success of projects showcased today which all have turned idle historic buildings into sustainable businesses. First, there must be a viable business case so that the proposed social enterprises can be self-sustaining, with profits reinvested for the pursuit of the social objectives that they pursue. Second, the projects should be able to attract the general public's interest in visiting them. Third, the project should be supported by the local community."
Discussions and case studies shared at the Conference reached an overall consensus that significant progress has already been made in Hong Kong, but many more opportunities and challenges still remain. Dr Daniel Ho, Chairman of the Organising Committee said: "Heritage doesn't only preserve the integrity of a nation or city, but also provides a natural sense of unity and belonging to a society and its people. Conservation in Hong Kong has a lot of opportunities for further development, and industry experts are always looking to attract creative minds to come up with solutions for conservation."
RICS regularly submits recommendations and reports to the Hong Kong SAR Government on a range of issues. As the RICS mission is to promote and enforce the highest professional qualifications and standards in the development and management of land, property, construction and infrastructure, following the completion of this conference, RICS will be submitting a report on heritage conservation to the Hong Kong SAR Government.
About RICS
Confidence through Professional Standards
RICS promotes and enforces the highest professional qualifications and standards in the development and management of land, real estate, construction and infrastructure. Our name promises the consistent delivery of standards -- bringing confidence to the markets we serve.
We accredit 118,000 professionals and any individual or firm registered with RICS is subject to our quality assurance. Their expertise covers property, asset valuation, real estate management; the development of infrastructure; and the management of natural resources, such as mining, farms and woodland. From environmental assessments and building controls to negotiating land rights in an emerging economy; if our members are involved the same professional standards and ethics apply.
We believe that standards underpin effective markets. With up to seventy per cent of the world's wealth bound up in land and real estate, our sector is vital to economic development, helping to support stable, sustainable investment and growth around the globe.
With offices covering the major political and financial centres of the world, our market presence means we are ideally placed to influence policy and embed professional standards. We work at a cross-governmental level, delivering international standards that will support a safe and vibrant marketplace in land, real estate, construction and infrastructure, for the benefit of all.
We are proud of our reputation and work hard to protect it, so clients who work with an RICS professional can have confidence in the quality and ethics of the services they receive.
About RICS Asia
RICS Asia supports a network of over 20,000 individual professionals across the Asia region with an objective to help develop the land, property and construction markets in these countries, by introducing professional standards, best practice education and training. We promote RICS and our members as the natural advisors on all property matters. We also ensure that services and career development opportunities are provided to members.
RICS Asia region serves local member associations locating in Brunei, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, The People's Republic of China, Hong Kong SAR, Taiwan and South Korea. It also has members working across the region such as Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Kiribati, Laos PDR, Macao SAR, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, The Maldives, The Philippines, Timor East and Vietnam. For more information, please visit: www.ricsasia.org.
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