The Town Planning Appeal Board Secretariat will reduce the waiting time for new cases from 11 months to about six to seven months, the Business Facilitation Advisory Committee says.

At the committee's third meeting today, members were told the Town Planning Task Force had completed its review on the main planning processes and the Planning Department had taken most of its recommendations on board.

New initiatives

The committee also discussed a number of new initiatives to facilitate business. They include:

* setting up business liaison groups to enhance communication with the Government in resolving problems on regulatory and licensing issues;

* establishing and publishing performance pledges on all licensing activities;

* allowing applicants to ask about the status of their applications;

* promoting a business facilitation culture in the civil service; and,

* introducing more automation to speed up the licensing processes.

The committee backed the initiatives and the Government will shortly introduce the measures.

Licensing system

The committee also heard the Efficiency Unit and the Economic Analysis & Business Facilitation Unit have co-organised focus group meetings with the entertainment, food, hotel and club sectors to explore ways to streamline the licensing system and break down other regulatory barriers.

The Food Business Task Force has completed a regulatory review on outside seating accommodation for restaurants. The Government will implement eight major recommendations from the review, which will reduce application processing time significantly. A regulatory review on liquor licences is in progress.

Both the Consultancy Study on Private Certification of Building Submissions and the Consultancy Study to Review the Processing of Lease Modification & Land Exchange Applications are near completion. Their findings and recommendations will be finalised in December. Papers for the committee meeting will be uploaded here.