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Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Wong Kam-sing, on the mandatory retirement of pre-Euro IV diesel commercial vehicles after attending a public event today (September 24):
Reporter: How do you feel about the phasing out of the diesel trucks? How do you feel about them planning to increase the subsidy since many of them were not happy with the original subsidy?
Secretary for the Environment: As I have said earlier, we have gone through a pretty long process to engage the stakeholders to understand their concerns. On one hand, we have to safeguard public health through air quality improvement, particularly roadside air quality that affects public health at large. We have set the target, including the new Air Quality Objectives (AQO) and also a kind of very clear timeline so that we can meet the new AQO by 2020 which is clearly set in our Clean Air Plan for Hong Kong. That is our bottom line in view of public health. At the same time, we understand that some of the stakeholders in the diesel vehicle trade are not very well-off, so we understand their concerns and needs. After going through a long engagement process, we confirmed that we would like to increase the subsidies and also provide more flexibility to them so that they can live with the system and, at the same time, safeguard the air quality target that we have set.
One thing I would like to stress is that, while providing more flexibility in terms of financial and time aspects, we would like the trade to phase out their cars (diesel commercial vehicles) as soon as possible. While we are extending some of the deadlines, it does not mean that we want all of them to phase out their cars (diesel commercial vehicles) by the last minute because we would like to improve our air quality. If possible, the trade should phase out their cars (diesel commercial vehicles) earlier so that we can enjoy better air quality. Some of them may need to phase out at a later date or near the deadline because of certain reasons, but we hope that these are not the majority so that we can have a balance between air quality, health and also the trade's livelihood.
Reporter: Is the Government increasing the subsidy if the trade doesn't accept the one you are offering?
Secretary for the Environment: As I have said earlier, after the Policy Address, we have gone through a very long engagement process with the stakeholders involving diesel commercial vehicles (DCVs). Actually, there are different trades involving the DCVs, so I and my colleagues had many meetings with them and try to understand their concerns, resulting in the current proposal. We feel that this should be a reasonable proposal, on the one hand balancing public health concern, and at the same time the trade's business concern. So it is a balanced approach. We hope the trade would accept it.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Issued at HKT 19:10
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