On 2 April 2012, Kenneth Chan, Charles Hung and I had a very fruitful meeting with Ms Linda Leung, Assistant Director of Home Affairs Department (HAD). We had discussed and exchanged our views on the following issues:
The licensing of Property Management Companies and practitioners. We had stressed that our views should be heard loud and clear. Again, we took the opportunity to raise our concern of the pre-requisites on academic and professional qualifications for the registration of property management practitioners as it would have deep impact on the career development of PFM surveyors in the long run. A two-tier system i.e. general and professional grade is considered a suitable approach. The proposed exemption of The Owners Incorporation made us worry about lack of proper control under the management of Incorporated Owners Committee. Views from HKIS are welcomed to HAD before the bill legislation submission which is intended to introduce to LegCo in the first half of 2013.
Review of the execution of the Building Management Ordinance is still underway and is currently handled by a BMO review committee. We shall be invited to express our professional opinions in due course.
I had given Linda a very brief background of how we struggled for a mutual recognition of qualifications with the China Property Management Institute under the CEPA Agreement for the past few years and the hurdles of confusion created by the CEPA supplement agreement VI under clause III, sub-clause 3, item 2 that Members of Hong Kong Institute of Housing could also start technical exchanges on mutual recognition of qualifications of Certified Property Managers. We demanded for a closer collaboration between Development Bureau and HAD to clear our way forward in this respect. Linda had promised to follow up and get back to us on this. I shall report any updated progress in due course.
Gary Yeung, Edmond Cheng and I visited and met the programme team and students studying Bachelor of Arts in Housing Management by the HK PolyU, School of Professional Education and Executive Development (SPEED) on 28 March 2012. I made a brief presentation to around 35 students introducing the history and structure of HKIS and in particulars PFMD and the potential career prospects of being a professional PFM Surveyor. The visit is well received and our council will follow up with the possibility of taking up their graduates.
