The Government remains committed to building new infrastructure and improving existing facilities to meet the needs of economic development. It will spend about $27.6 billion on capital works projects in 2005-06. The projects will also provide employment opportunities for the construction industry.

Work on major infrastructure projects was on schedule in 2005. The supporting infrastructure for the Hong Kong Disneyland at Penny's Bay was completed in June and, by the end of the year, the Deep Bay Link and the Hong Kong section of the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Corridor — a new trunk road connection with Shenzhen — was near completion. Construction of Route 8 and the third phase of the Central Reclamation were in full swing.

In October, the Government announced the re-activation of the plan to rebuild the Central Government Offices and the Legislative Council Building on the Tamar site. The project, which was shelved following the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003 in light of the Government's financial position, was rescheduled to start in 2007. To enhance cross-boundary transport links, the governments of Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macao continued to work on feasibility studies for the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.

The Government is committed to the highest standards of slope safety. The Ten-Year Extended Landslip Preventive Measures Programme, which started in 2000 and will involve a total capital expenditure of $9 billion by 2010, progressed well during the year. Some 1 300 substandard government slopes have been upgraded and landscaped and over 1 500 private slopes safety-screened since 2000.

Construction site safety continued to improve. The accident rate for public works contracts in 2005 was 16 accidents per 1 000 workers, a decrease of 19 per cent over 2004. It was the sixth consecutive year to show a decrease. The construction design management system aiming at strengthening safe practice during construction and maintenance stages of a project by systematic consideration and documentation of the risk control measures at the design stage was implemented in 13 more projects during the year. This will become the norm in future for major public works projects.

In addition, a package of measures for controlling nuisances including air, noise and waste-water pollution in the construction process together with the incentive scheme, 'Pay for Environment', were developed for public works contracts to improve their environmental performance. To promote energy saving, a general policy was formulated for all new government projects and installations to adopt energy efficient features, and where applicable, renewable energy technologies in their designs.

The Government, working in close partnership with the Provisional Construction Industry Coordination Board (PCICB), has achieved notable progress on most recommendations made by the Construction Industry Review Committee. To strengthen communications with key stakeholders, the board has continued to publicise its latest achievements through various channels and circulated a quarterly leaflet to all interested parties complementing information on its website, www.pcicb.gov.hk.

New legislation that proposes to establish the Construction Industry Council as an umbrella organisation with statutory powers to exercise self-regulation and take ownership of industry reforms is being scrutinised by the Legislative Council.

The first phase of the voluntary subcontractor registration scheme (VSRS) launched in November 2003 has received an encouraging response. By the end of 2005, some 2 900 applications for registration were received and about 2 650 cases approved. The PCICB has started drawing up plans for implementing the next phase of the VSRS embracing a Premier Register with more stringent entry requirements and grading based on the capability of individual subcontractors.

After more than a year of preparation, the Construction Workers Registration Authority established under the Construction Workers Registration Ordinance started to register local construction workers on December 29, 2005. The objective is to ensure the quality of construction works through assessment of the skill levels of workers by an objective registration mechanism. The registration is expected to complete by August 2006. Subsequently, the relevant provisions in the ordinance will come into operation to prohibit unregistered workers from carrying out construction work on sites and the employment of unregistered workers to carry out such work. This will help combat the employment of illegal workers and resolve wage disputes between contractors and workers.

The Environment, Transport and Works Bureau (ETWB) continued discussions with stakeholders of the Hong Kong construction industry and the Ministry of Construction (MoC) on the third phase of the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA). Additional commitments — such as the recognition of project performance on both sides and the relaxation of the requirement on the number of Hong Kong professionals with Mainland qualifications needed to set up a business on the Mainland — were secured for the construction and related engineering services sector under the Supplement II to CEPA signed on 18 October 2005.

During the year, as part of its ongoing promotion of Hong Kong's construction industry and related services, the bureau jointly organised a conference on construction in Xian with the MoC and a seminar during the '2005 Hebei-Hong Kong Week' in Shijiazhang with the Hebei Construction Department. In Hong Kong, the 'Forum on the Exchange and Cooperation between the Construction Industry of the Mainland and Hong Kong' in December was jointly organised with the University of Hong Kong. Mr Huang Wei, the Vice-Minister of the MoC was invited as the guest of honour.

The ETWB continued to maintain close contact with the MoC and relevant local and Mainland professional bodies to facilitate mutual recognition of professional qualifications. After the successful signing of the mutual recognition agreements for estate surveyors, architects and structural engineers, planners and quantity surveyors from the Mainland and Hong Kong also signed similar agreements in May. Discussions have also started on mutual recognition for geotechnical engineers, electrical engineers, construction supervising engineers, building services engineers, land surveyors and landscape architects.

In April, the bureau signed a secondment training plan with the Shenzhen Construction Bureau and the Shenzhen Works Bureau to second some of its architectural and civil engineering graduates to participate in a three-month training programme in Shenzhen. This will not only improve their prospects in the future in both the Mainland and Hong Kong but also promote exchange and cooperation in the training of professionals. The first batch of graduates successfully completed their training in July. The bureau is planning to extend the programme to other disciplines as well as to other Mainland cities.