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Town planners to get training Institute aids in training

The Young Reporter (1979, April 01), 11(10), pp. 1, 3.
Author: Patrick Chan.
Permanent URL - https://sys01.lib.hkbu.edu.hk/bujspa/purl.php?&did=bujspa0012946

By PATRICK CHAN

BADLY-NEEDED professional town planners are to be trained locally with the inception of the first institute of town planners here.

According to J. Eric Jackson, acting president of the Hong- kong Institute of Planners, any course of training and examination in town planning will have to be approved by the Institute in order to be recognised by the Government.

The Institute is to hold its first annual meeting on April 20.

Jackson said at present all town planners have to be trained abroad where the physical and social environment are different to that of Hongkong.

“We therefore aim to establish codes of practice, provide local training and act as an examination body setting up standards related to the conditions in Hongkong and the Asian region,” he said.

Jackson attributed the need for such establishment to the differing planning standards in other overseas institutes.

“Planning standards which are applicable to Western countries may not apply locally. This is because Hongkong has a high density of living and the occupancy rate here s so high that, for example, planning for water, transport or city management must be different,” he said.

The acting president said Hongkong is the best place in the world to establish a centre for urban environmental studies.

“Every aspect of urban development is manifested here, and because of the fast pace of development and urban changes, effects brought about by such changes can be studied more readily,” he added.

As revealed by Jackson, the Institute will work closely with the two universities and the Polytechnic in setting up courses and examinations.

“It will be easier and cheaper for the Government once local training is established,” he said. “Besides, local assistant town planners, who rarely have the chance to study abroad through Government scholarships, may eventually become qualified for senior positions and to accept higher responsibilities in town planning by means of our Institute.”

According to Barry Will, senior lecturer of the School of Architecture of the University of Hongkong, post-graduate studies on urban planning will be started within the next few years.

“With the support of the Institute we have proposed to the University to open a course on urban planning. But it is still in a negotiation stage,” Will said.

The Chinese University of Hongkong has not yet made any substantial plans for such a graduate programme.

“We have a semester course — City and Regional Planning — for the 4th year students of our Department or for those taking postgraduate studies in socio-economics,” said Dr. Y.Yeung, professor of the Geography Department of Chinese University.

“As for graduate programme on urban planning, there has only been talks about it,” he added.

Meanwhile, interviews with senior officials of the Public Works and Housing Departments show that Hongkong still lacks professionals with the right expertise and qualifications to fill vacancies as Government town planners.

And there has been a shortage of staff — both town planners and senior town planners — in the planning office of the two departments concerned.

A reliable Housing Department source described the recent recruitment of three expatriate planning officers as “inevitable” because there were no local applications.

“The only Chinese applying for the post is a Canadian citizen who wrote from abroad,” the source said.

The Chief Town Planner (New Territories) of PWD, A. F.T. Chan, agrees there is difficulty in recruiting qualified town planners here.

He said there are chances for assistant town planners to be cho sen for post-graduate studies in town planning, after which they will be qualified to become town planners.

The chances, however, are narrowed by the keen competition among civil servants striving for the, limited number of scholarships provided by the Government, he added.

He predicts there will be an increasing need for town planners due to the “accelerating rate of development” going on in urban areas as well as in the New Territories.

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