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The following is the speech delivered by the Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa at the opening of Private Sector Committee on the Environment Annual Business and Environment Conference today (Monday):

Mr Lau, Lord Cranbrook, ladies and gentlemen,

This coming Saturday is the world environment day. This, the eighth annual business and environment conference organized by the Private Sector Committee on the Environment, makes an excellent precursor to that celebration. The theme that you have chosen, "From Adversity to Environmental Opportunity" makes clear the understanding that more and more leading companies in business are reaching the understanding that attention to the environment is not a cost for doing business, but a real opportunity to improve business. That is a message that I hope this conference will help to get out to every company in Hong Kong, and put across strongly in the run up to World Environment Day.

Protecting the environment isn't a marginal activity, something to be remembered once a year on some special festival. Nor is it something that can be left to one or two specialists - in the Private Sector to a group like the Private Sector Committee on the Environment; in Government to Planning Environment and Lands Bureau or the Environmental Protection Department; or in the community to the environmental NGOs. The quality of our environment affects everybody. It affects our health. It affects our business prospects. It affects the livability and attractiveness of the entire city. Attention to protecting the quality of the environment has to become part of the ingrained habits and pattern of thought of every citizen, every businessman, every government official.

As a community we have to face up to the problems that the way we now do things would impact on the environment, and must be ready to accept change in the way we approach things.

To help that process of change in thinking, practices and habits take place, it's my view that while 5th June is world environment day, every day has to be Hong Kong's environment day. Improving the environment is being put at the centre of my administration's policies in 1999, in 2000, in 2001, in 2002, and I intend to make sure that it stays that way for every year of the new millennium. I will do that because I am convinced that there is tremendous opportunity for Hong Kong in improving our environment.

Individual companies have found that opportunity in reducing their costs by greater efficiency in the use of power and materials, cutting down on waste and emissions and increasing productivity. They have found it in recognition for the quality of the management of their companies, in market access and in customer support.

For Hong Kong as a whole, the opportunities come through improving the quality of the living environment for every citizen. We can also be a showcase for solutions to the pressures of urban development - for innovative planning; for development of technology; for effective financing and institutional mechanisms. These solutions won't just raise Hong Kong's reputation as a world class city. They can also give us products and services that we can offer to other cities in the region as they address the same questions that we are facing, the questions of how to build sustaining and sustainable communities.

We don't have all the solutions, but we do have great strengths and accomplishments that we should not neglect. In the last fifty years, our population has increased four times. The area covered by woodland has increased over ten times and is now more than 20% of our land area. Over the last decade, total emissions of sulphur dioxide have fallen by nearly 60% and of Nitrogen Oxides by 45%. In 2000, our emissions of greenhouse gases will be lower than they were in 1990. Since 1989, the quality of our rivers has improved dramatically. Then over half had bad or very bad water quality, today only 15% remain in poor condition and 68% in good or excellent conditions. One of our largest infrastructure programmes is building the sewage treatment system that will clean up the harbour and protect our beaches.

But while much has been done, much more remains to be done. We need to improve our waste management system, develop our sewage system further and tackle problems with urban air pollution. We are devoting substantial resources to this, but it is clear that solutions often require much more than resources. They need changes of approach, changes of attitude and changes of organization. We also need understanding that many of the processes that give rise to pollution are integral to the economic and social functioning of the city. We can't achieve quick fixes to the pollution problem by stopping those processes. We have to use economic and planning instruments to change them over time.

As a Government, we have the primary responsibility to lead that process of change. I'm conscious that we haven't done that very effectively in the past, and we haven't set a good example for others to follow. We have to face up to the effects that our existing programmes and manner of working can have on the environment. I am now looking at the way the public service operates together. I want to make sure that every department and bureau delivers programmes and services that work together to achieve benefits for the environment, for the society and for our economy, not treating these as separate issues to be dealt with at different times by different people.

As we work to clean up our own act one of our most important tasks for the next decade is going to be building up institutions and programmes with our neighbours in Guangdong for regional co-operation to tackle common problems of pollution and environmental pressure.

But as well as establishing regional action against pollution, we also have to face up to the fact that most of the environmental pressures we face arise locally from our own economic and social activity. We need to increase public understanding and build more effective partnerships as a community to respond to these pressures successfully.

New partnerships are being developed to reduce waste and to improve the quality of buildings - efforts in which the Centre for Environmental Technology is closely involved. I understand that the Private Sector Committee on the Environment is spearheading a new partnership with the Marine Department to tackle the problem of floating refuse. In a few minutes, key members of Government and of the private sector are going to sign up to commitments on developing and promoting cleaner production methods.

I am especially pleased to see partnerships emerging to help tackle the problem we have with street level air pollution. This is the most pressing environmental issue that we face today . The easy actions have already been taken, but growth in demand for road transport has been outstripping the capacity of simple technical and legislative means to secure improvement. Changes in planning and transport systems to reshape patterns of demand are being worked on for the future. For the present, the task is to achieve much greater co-operation and co-ordination between transport operators, oil companies, the motor vehicle trade and the Government, so that best available technologies and practices are introduced rapidly. Later this week the Secretary for Planning Environment and Lands will be setting out the programme of immediate actions on air pollution and outlining how we intend to develop the air pollution control programme in the years ahead.

Actions today to address today's pollution problems, and partnerships to create a more sustainable city for the children of this city are the priorities on my agenda for 1999 and for the new millennium.

I thank the Private Sector Committee on the Environment for your support and engagement in these issues. I trust that everyone who attends this conference will find it stimulating, and that it will help to challenge and encourage the whole community to join in the work of creating more opportunities for themselves and for Hong Kong by respecting the environment that sustains all of us.

Thank you very much

Photo: The Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, officiated at the opening ceremony of the 8th Annual Business & Industry Environment Conference and Exhibition at the Jockey Club Environmental Building, Kowloon Tong. Photo shows Mr Tung viewing the exhibits before the opening ceremony.

End/Monday, May 31, 1999

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