Tsang wants 'clean and green' HK
Improving Hong Kong's environment was his top priority, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen told a regional forum yesterday.
'Improving the environment sits at the top of my policy agenda. If we want to compete for talent and brainpower, if we want to retain our homegrown human capital, if we want to develop our services sector, then providing a clean and green environment is vital,' he told the annual Boao Forum for Asia.
He said the city's greenhouse gas emissions were comparatively low. In 2005 they were about 6.5 tonnes per head, compared to 24 tonnes in the United States, 11 tonnes in Britain and Japan and 9 tonnes in Singapore.
The main reason, he said, was the widespread use of public transport, which accounted for more than 90 per cent of passenger trips in the city. Car ownership, at 80 vehicles per 1,000 people - against 180 per 1,000 in Singapore, 550 in Britain and 840 in the US - was among the lowest for a developed economy.
'If you asked people around the world to describe Hong Kong, I guess many would see it as a concrete jungle... Hong Kong is more jungle than concrete,' he said, referring to the 70 per cent of land that is covered by vegetation. He acknowledged that visibility had declined in spite of the government's efforts. This was mainly because of photochemical smog caused by emissions from power plants, factories and vehicles in the Pearl River Delta, he said. Hong Kong would continue to collaborate with Guangdong to reduce emissions in the region, he told the forum.
'Hong Kong and Guangdong have already created an economic role model that has helped to shape the course of China's economic development. We now share the same vision to become the cleanest, greenest region in China.'
He was confident Hong Kong would keep its position in Asia thanks to factors such as its common-law system, clean administration and low taxes. 'I can't see any city which can rival Hong Kong in the years to come,' the chief executive said.
