FIG Working Week in Rome, Italy
This year the conference will be held from 6 to 10 May. The theme is “Knowing to manage the territory, protect the environment, evaluate the cultural heritage”. To date, the organizers have received more than 700 papers from different countries which will be presented in 90 different technical sessions and forums.
GPD's attendance was discussed at recent council meetings. It was decided to send 2 representatives who would write and present papers at the forum. Edward Au and Francis Ng had prepared abstracts of presentations and were accepted.
The titles of their papers are:
(i) Re-vamping Land Usage to Meet Updated Needs
(ii) Re-vitalization of Industrial Premises
Construction Costs for Valuation Submission
In recent months, there are increasing concerns from practitioners that construction costs adopted by the government in land premium assessment have not been able to adequately reflect the actual construction costs of development projects. Such deficiency together with the time consuming appeal process has great impact on viability of the project. Furthermore, it is understood that certain items, like site formation works, deep foundation in reclamation area, external works etc are usually not fully reflected in the government's premium valuation.
As a results, the GPD council has agreed to set up a working group to take up this issue. The convenor is CK Lau. Charles Chan, Joseph Ho, Lawrence Poon and Tony Wan will serve as members.
