Ning Hanhao, director of the Development Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, said when meeting reporters on the 11th that the Special Administrative Region Government has announced a new system for supervising the external wall shed network. In the future, the contractor must provide the certificate of fire-retardant efficiency of the shed net and test documents, and after the goods are delivered, the shed net shall be sampled in a specified manner as required by the government, and the whole process shall be recorded on video and submitted to the Government Laboratory for analysis, only after passing can be on the shelf; the department will be in charge of random sampling review.
Ning Hanhao indicated that the new system is not only suitable for the maintenance project use shed net, also applies to the new construction, the demolition building project. Taking into account the fact that the new building is unoccupied or occupied, the risk is relatively low and appropriate flexibility will be provided. In addition, the HKSAR Government will set up a sufficient number of designated testing centres to ensure that the test results can be obtained within one week. At present, the SAR government is looking for more testing centers, testing centers are expected to be released next week list.
Ning said that considering that some of the building maintenance sites don’t have much space for shed nets, some of the sampling and storage procedures have to be done off-site, the HKSAR Government Development Bureau has already identified some suitable government sites for the trade and hopes to open them next week for off-site sampling.
Ning said that the construction industry council had provided assistance, including collective purchasing and co-ordinating testing services, with a view to putting up eligible sheds within a month. In addition, the construction industry council will provide 5,000 training places for the industry during the transitional period and workers will receive a subsidy of HK $14,000 to HK $19,000.
Cheng ting-ning, executive director of the Hong Kong Construction Industry Council, said that he supported the decision of the HKSAR Government. He had already started contacts with suppliers, and would also set up a source-tracking labeling system to record the site location of the shed network from manufacturing to testing to application, standardize the work of the trade.