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Written by: Commentary Editing Room
2021-05-27 06:30
Last update date: 2021-05-27 06:30
The staff of the FEHD met with the shopkeepers and district councilors of the Fo Tan East and West Cooked Food Market on May 10, and officially announced that they would clean up the development community complex there.
Although the bureau has put forward a compensation plan, some file owners still hope to obtain the original district relocation arrangement in order to preserve community connections and business networks.
With the modernization of old-style markets and cooked food markets in recent years, and the completion of new public markets and community complexes in multiple districts, the government should take the opportunity to develop the community economy. One possible way is to expand the scale of the cooked food market. The owners of small stalls provide more opportunities for earning a living and allow local residents to have cheaper meal options.
In the "Budget" announced last year, Chen Maobo announced that the government would include three government lands in the "single-site, multiple-use" development project, including the Anderson Road former quarry, Tseung Kwan O city center and Fo Tan Shan Mei Street Cooked Food Market. .
After meeting with a number of big-name stall owners and district councilors earlier, the FEHD officially announced that the Fo Tan East and West Cooked Food Market will be demolished by 2024 at the latest, and the original site will be converted into a community complex to cater for the entertainment of the moving population. Facilities requirements.
Affected stall owners can choose to receive a lump-sum compensation of about 200,000 yuan per stall (up to a maximum of 800,000 yuan), or relocate to vacant stalls in other markets under the condition of receiving 24-month rent compensation. The stall owner is dissatisfied with the "one size fits all" decision made by the authorities this time and asked for a third option for resettlement in the original area.
Fo Tan cooked food market will be cleared by 2024 at the latest
With the successive occupancy of Junyang Village, Choi Wo Court and Xu Wo Court in Fotan, the population in the area has increased rapidly, and cultural and recreational facilities are seriously insufficient. Therefore, it is necessary to construct a community complex, but this is in line with the original district suggested by the stall owner. The placement plan is not contradictory.
Fotan’s big brand stalls have been established for nearly 40 years, and have long been a place where neighborhoods gather to eat and eat. Its semi-open space is also a symbol of local food culture.
However, the options of the authorities to go or move not only destroyed the original community connections, but also reduced the choices of diners, and forced them to flow to chain restaurants in shopping malls.
Since the government intends to build a community complex on the original site, why not set aside a floor as a cooked food center to house stall owners?
After all, this move can balance the needs of community development while minimizing the scope of affected people. In addition, the civilian consumption patterns of other cooked food centers in Hong Kong are also full of fans. I believe that the resistance will definitely be lower than the existing one-size-fits-all solution.
Public markets can also have new economic vitality
However, the Fo Tan Cooked Food Centre is only one part of the renewal of the entire community. With the modernization of the old public markets and cooked food markets, the government should also consider injecting more new economic impetus into the reconstruction and renovation, and make good use of idle resources.
As of October 2019, the FEHD manages a total of 74 public markets, 35 of which are independent wet markets, and the remaining 39 are wet markets plus cooked food centres. However, since most markets were completed before the 1990s, the government has A modernization plan was announced in 2017, hoping to improve the efficiency of market operations.
The problem is that the attractiveness of old public markets is gradually diminishing under the influence of old facilities and competition from supermarkets. It is necessary for the government to re-plan the use and configuration of public markets. One of the feasible solutions is to repackage them into a small-scale stall owner’s business base. .
Among the more than 12,000 stalls in public markets, more than 60 are fresh food stalls, and another two are non-food dry goods. However, cooked food stalls account for less than 10%, so the total vacancy rate in recent years is about 13%. Under the circumstances, the government may expand the range of cooked food stalls when planning the redevelopment of the market in the future, and even try to develop into a "night market economy" like Taiwan.
After all, most public market stalls have rent levels below 10,000 yuan per month, which is not only much lower than that in the private market, but also allows citizens interested in developing the catering industry to try their best, and the lower rental costs of stalls are also indirectly affected. Help local residents get cheap meal options.
Similarly, in the new public markets and community complexes planned and under construction in various districts, the government may consider adding elements of cooked food markets.
In the past few years, the government has announced its intention to build new public markets in Tin Shui Wai, Tung Chung City Centre, Tseung Kwan O and Kwu Tung North New Development Area. The aforementioned "multiple use" development plans will also build more community complexes and these public facilities In fact, the purpose of is not only to meet the needs of local residents for cultural and recreational activities, but also to become the driving force of the community’s economic development.
As long as the government can accurately estimate the needs of the two, the survival of the community complex and the cooked land market does not necessarily have to choose one or the other. Instead, a compromise solution that balances the needs of all parties can be drawn like the stall owners in Fotan's cooked food center.
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