I attended the FIG Working Week, 2012, in Rome from 6 to 10 May 2012. The theme of the Working Week was “Knowing how to manage the territory, protect the environment, and evaluate the cultural heritage”.

 

Apart from attending the various sessions on planning and development topics, I was also one of the speakers for a session under the Task Force on Property and Housing. The topic of my presentation was “Making Land for Development – Lessons Learnt”. I talked about the history of the development of the new towns in Hong Kong and the lessons learnt from it.

 

On 9th May 2012, I chaired a session on property and housing with speakers from Norway, Greece, Lithuania, and Lebanon. Everyone shared the latest developments in their countries, such as the effect of new legislation and the economic crisis on land transactions in Greece and the housing and property market in Lithuania.

 

As mentioned earlier in the previous issue of Surveyors Times, I ran for the position of Chair-elect of the Commission 8. In the election held on the last day of the work week, I lost to the other candidate, Mr Kwame Tenadu, from Ghana.

 

I have been invited as a guest speaker to the joint Forum to be held from 17 to 19 June 2012 in Chongqing.

 

This is the 15th Forum jointly organized by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the Development Bureau since 1997. The theme this year is “Sustainable Urban Form: City Land Use and Town Planning.

 

I shall deliver a speech on the topic, “現代城市人對生活空間的合理期望”. This will be a talk on the analysis of the reasonable expectations of people living in cities.