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Following is the full text of the speech (English only) by the Acting Financial Secretary, Miss Denise Yue, at the 9th Annual Business and Industry Environment Conference today (June 15):
Mr Chairman, Vice-Minister Wang, Mr Anderson, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thank you for the invitation to speak today on a subject that is vitally important to our future as a world-class, international city. I thought I would share with you an observation about the environment that I came across the other day.
Quote:
"We are all passengers aboard one ship, the Earth, and we must not allow it to be wrecked. There will be no second Noah's Ark."
End Quote.
So, where are we with the Good Ship Hong Kong? I am most certain that nobody here would like to see our great city wrecked by pollution. The government is determined, at the very top levels, to make sure that those living here will never need to run for a lifeboat because of environmental concerns. But we can not do it alone. We need the help of business and industry to achieve our goals. We must galvanise community support for all of our efforts to make Hong Kong a better place to live. This is an issue which involves everyone, from top to bottom, in Hong Kong.
The Private Sector Committee on the Environment has selected an innovative and challenging theme for this year's conference. "Finance, cross-border co-operation, and the environment" are in themselves very significant and difficult issues. Together they represent an almost herculean task.
But I am pleased to see that the Committee has partitioned the theme into manageable chunks. An encouraging sign is the diversity of speakers lined up for this two-day event.
We have speakers covering a multitude of sectors such as power generation, aviation, bus transport, environmental technology, construction, legal issues, the media, commerce and banking. We are joined by speakers representing the Mainland authorities and academia, who will provide us with a valuable insight into the issues and problems they face which in turn will help us to view our problems and approach in a wider, regional context. Apart from myself, I notice there are two other civil servants speaking on specific topics.
It is encouraging to see such unity of purpose. Indeed, I take the level of participation in this conference, both in terms of speakers and audience, as an indication of just how seriously the community in Hong Kong is concerned about environmental issues. You can be assured that the government shares your concern.
The Chief Executive's Policy Address last year was effectively a 'green speech'. It set out the aims and objectives of how we intend to go about tackling the worst of our pollution problems. The raft of measures announced recently by our Chief Executive and Secretary for Environment and Food has, I believe, demonstrated that the government means business.
I do not want to repeat the ream of initiatives that the government is putting in place to improve the environment in Hong Kong. I am sure most of you are already very well informed about them anyway. But I would like to mention just a few to illustrate how we are moving ahead in setting a green example for the region.
The first is diesel taxis. Tomorrow, we will be applying to the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council a sum of $725 million in order to provide a one-off grant of $40,000 for each diesel taxi replaced by an LPG taxi. We are also ensuring that the pump-price of LPG is kept low enough, by not charging any duty on this type of fuel, in order to provide an added financial incentive for taxi drivers to switch to cleaner LPG vehicles. And we are working very very hard with the oil companies to provide enough LPG filling stations. Our target is to have a network of stations able to service the entire taxi fleet of 18,000 vehicles by the end of next year. We are also in the midst of trials of LPG and electric light buses and are examining the feasibility of introducing electric trolley-buses in Hong Kong.
Secondly, about 10 days from today on June 26 the government will ask the Legislative Council to approve a resolution that will make Ultra-Low Sulphur Diesel price competitive by reducing the duty paid on this type of fuel. We expect the competitive pump price will encourage a quick switch to this environmental-friendly fuel, which has 10-times less sulphur than the current diesel used in Hong Kong. We are also pushing ahead with the installation of particulate traps and catalytic converters on pre-Euro diesel vehicles such as buses and goods vehicles to further reduce the harmful emissions from the 150,000 diesel vehicles in Hong Kong.
Thirdly, in the longer term, the government is devoting considerable resources to expanding the railway network, the most environmental-friendly form of public transport. More than HK$100 billion will be spent over the next five years on six new railway lines servicing the northwest New Territories, the densely-populated New Towns at Ma On Shan and Tseung Kwan O and the boundary checkpoint at Lok Ma Chau. The recently-announced Railway Development Strategy 2000 has recommended a further HK$100 billion expansion of the railway network up to 2016. This will bring 70% of the population and 80% of jobs within one kilometre of a railway station. By then we expect about 45% of the travelling public to be taking the train, compared with the current level of 31%. That is a significant difference given that more than 10 million passenger journeys are made each day now on various types of transport in Hong Kong.
There should be little doubt about the role of the government in environmental causes. Yes, we need to be present and play an important role. Yes, we must communicate our policies and programmes and be prepared to defend and justify our approach. But No - as I mentioned earlier - we can't do it on our own. Not if we want to succeed.
For some time, there has been a tendency for some in the business community to see environmental protection in terms of how to win government contracts, or to comply with the minimum legislative requirements in order to obtain licences and statutory approvals.
I am glad there has been a marked change in attitude in the community at large, and in the business community in particular. Nowadays, environmental lobbying is no longer the privilege of green groups. Business people are joining the chorus, chanting for better air quality and for a cleanup of our most important natural asset, Victoria Harbour.
Fortunately, the business community is not just complaining and lobbying for government to take action. It is playing its part as well. The Private Sector Committee - formed as far back as 1989 - has been at the forefront of this, of course. So have many others. Many are in this room today. More and more enlightened companies are coming around to the view that a good environment is a plus, not a negative, for business. We are all aware now that clean air and water are essential for the health of our tourist industry and, literally, for our families and all those who live and work in Hong Kong.
It is also good for the bottom line. One well-known local hotel owner talks of saving about $1 million a year by adopting various measures to save water, electricity and so on. It takes a lot of extra business to make an addition million dollars profit!
Manufacturers are increasingly being questioned by their customers, both locally and overseas, about their environmental performance. It is getting to the stage, in some areas of activity, where a good environmental performance is no longer an advantage, it is a pre-requisite for staying in business.
Nonetheless, there are still many areas where those willing and able to embrace the environmental cause do have distinct advantages and can carve out lucrative market niches. Hong Kong is not at the cutting edge of high technology. It is, however, well placed to apply these new technologies here as well as to other cities in the region.
The financing of environmental improvements is inevitably a thorny issue. There is a legitimate role for the public purse. However, there is nothing quite like the discipline of the market place to ensure that a project or business venture is well planned, implemented and audited. An environmentally sound and economically viable activity is a far more sustainable prospect than a loss-making publicly funded initiative.
Equally if not more important than financing in the environmental area is of course cross-border co-operation, particularly between places within close proximity to each other. In the Hong Kong context, this means co-operation with our neighbour, the Guangdong Province in Mainland China. The importance of inter-governmental co-operation is underlined by the fact that the very water we drink is from Guangdong. The very air we breathe observes no administrative lines of demarcation.
This is why the government is working closely with the Guangdong Authority in a number of important areas. One of these is conducting a study on the air quality of the Pearl River Delta to assess the extent of regional air pollution and to analyse the sources of pollutants with a view to identifying improvement measures required. On completion of the study in the early part of the next year, there will be more information to help both governments to assess the impact of regional air pollution on their respective places' air quality. The Government of Hong Kong will continue to work hard to strengthen co-operation with the authorities across the border. I hope that in the not too distant future we shall see these efforts bearing tangible fruits.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will listen carefully to what you have to say over the next two days for, as I have stressed, the battle for a better environment is a partnership and involves the whole community.
Thank you.
End/Thursday, June 15, 2000
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