Payer-friendly waste fees

Ching Sze

The government has completed the first round of public consultation on the introduction of waste fees. Through the consultations, the government has found that more than 60 percent of residents support garbage collection fees, and about 57 percent favor a quantity-based system once fees are implemented. The second round of public consultation will be launched this year with focus on setting the standards and fees.

During the first round of consultation, there are two proposed methods of fee payment including one to let citizens use the designated garbage bags to be collected by Food and Environmental Hygiene Department staff and the other to ask the property management agency to buy and collect these garbage bags for the entire building, then collect waste charges from each household.

Although general consensus has been reached on this issue, the public should be given time to adapt to this brand-new fee collection system. Whether the fee is fairly assessed, whether recycling is convenient and how low-income households should be stabilized are among the chief concerns.

In fact, Hong Kong has yet to foster a strong culture of waste reduction. The government must help citizens get into the habit of reducing waste by way of education and guide them to separate waste before disposing of it. Another concern is the standard by which fees will be calculated, which should be set at an affordable level for all local households. There are also enquiries from the property management agencies as to whether the fee collection system will impose additional administrative costs. All these factors have to be addressed by the government with timely and pragmatic measures.

It is important for the government to work hand-in-hand with local environmental industries to enhance recycling efforts. The two parties can work together to help establish a healthy cycle by turning waste materials into useful resources, making the most of those recyclable wastes including wood, paper, plastic and food. The government can also make greater efforts to subsidizing local recycling industries by increasing land supply, enhancing complementary facilities and providing favorable economic conditions so as to help develop local environmental industry as a whole.

All in all, the government should establish a set of mechanisms to not only ensure smooth running of the fee collection system, but also encourage competition as to avoid market monopoly.

The author is a current affairs commentator. This is an excerpted translation of his article in Hong Kong Commercial Daily published on Jan 17.

Pragmatic PA with vision

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying on Wednesday delivered his maiden Policy Address titled "Seek Change, Maintain Stability, Serve the People with Pragmatism", spelling out a pragmatic and far-sighted blueprint that earned high praise from the general public. Although it takes time to address the host of unresolved and deep-rooted social issues, Hong Kong citizens should support our government in carrying out well-thought out measures to improve the local quality of life, inspiring hopes for a better Hong Kong.

One of the selling points of this year's address is the parallel strategy of developing the economy and boosting social livelihood, both of which are thought to be closely interrelated. As a way to enhance the economy, the chief executive is advised to adopt a ruling philosophy that is more interventionist with a long-term plan to diversify local economic structure. Only by improving the local economy can we move on to tackle other deep-seated social problems.

Another highlight of the address was the government's stronger stance on contentious issues such as housing and land supply. Such issues usually entail a conflict of interest among stakeholders, making it difficult to reach general consensus and thus resulting in many failures to come of a resolution. Moves to greatly increase land and housing supply prove Leung's determination to handle housing problems and ease the land shortage.

Regarding the development of political system, Leung pledges that the authority will launch public consultation on voting methods for both the 2016 LegCo Election and the 2017 CE Election. In fact, surveys show the majority are most concerned about economic and quality of life issues. The most pressing task for the government is not consulting the public on political reforms, but to handle such burning issues as economic development and improving the quality of life. They are advised not to put the cart before the horse.

This is an excerpted translation of a Wen Wei Po editorial published on Jan 17.

(HK Edition 01/18/2013 page3)