Bettina Wassener, The New York Times 31 Mar 10;
HONG KONG — Top business leaders in Asia’s financial hub are sounding a bit like environmental activists these days, taking a stand against the persistently unhealthy levels of air pollution gripping this city.
“I ran a half-marathon recently, and I was coughing,” William Fung, managing director of one of Hong Kong’s largest firms, the giant trading company Li & Fung.
“Hong Kong has to do as much as it can to clean up the local environment,” he said at its earnings news conference last week. So far, he added, the government has been “too timid on almost every move they have made.”
Mr. Fung’s remarks reflected a growing frustration here with the perpetually poor air quality and the commercial implications for a city that prides itself on being one of Asia’s most forward-looking centers of international finance.
Mr. Fung made his comments two days after pollution levels had streaked past the upper 500-point end of a government index, more than doubling the previous record of 202, set in 2008. The authorities warned people to avoid outdoor activities, and many schools canceled sports activities.
Pollution levels have since subsided. On Wednesday, the index registered about 60, although even that is classified as high. The levels of March 22, however, thrust the issue into the public eye at home and abroad, and raised pressure on the authorities to do more to contain homegrown pollution.
The Clean Air Network and Civic Exchange, a public policy group, say that the air breathed by Hong Kong’s seven million residents is three times more polluted than New York’s and more than twice as bad as London’s. And when one applies the standards of the World Health Organization, Hong Kong’s air is healthy only 41 days a year, they say.
For Hong Kong, pollution is not just about poor visibility and canceled school athletics. Many analysts and business people say the failure to push ahead on controlling emissions also risks tarnishing Hong Kong’s reputation of being one of Asia’s most advanced cities.
“If Hong Kong is to maintain its status as a world city, it has to show it is adopting standards of the highest order including in managing its own pollution,” said Richard Vuylsteke, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, which has long been vocal on the issue. “There are a lot of smart people in this town, so you have to ask yourself: How come this has not been addressed more so far? It’s a matter of political will and public support.”
The interest by business leaders is giving activists new hope that some action finally may be taken.
“In my opinion, it’s an opening salvo for business to advocate visibly, even loudly, for more aggressive air cleanup measures,” said Joanne Ooi, chief executive of the Clean Air Network, a nongovernmental organization set up last July.
Not all of Hong Kong’s pollution is generated by local traffic or power stations. Much blows in from factories in the neighboring mainland Chinese province of Guangdong, where many of China’s exports are manufactured, and from vessels moving cargo through one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. A sandstorm sweeping in from the mainland aggravated the situation March 22.
But environmental campaigners like the Clean Air Network estimate that more than half the time, the bad air quality here can be attributed to local sources, rather than to fumes from across the Chinese border.
“If half the pollution you can see here in Hong Kong is Hong Kong-generated, then there is a great deal that can be done domestically to reduce pollution,” said Jonathan Slone, chief executive of CLSA, a brokerage firm based in Hong Kong, echoing Mr. Fung’s comments. “Air pollution needs to be a top fiscal policy.”
Hong Kong’s government has pledged to “leave no stone unturned” to achieve better air quality and said in an e-mailed statement Wednesday that it was also working with Guangdong on reducing emissions in the Pearl River Delta region. Still, environmentalists argue that a current review that aims to improve official air quality objectives is not ambitious enough.
In a twist, Hong Kong risks being put to shame by mainland China, many of whose cities suffer even worse air quality but which has been pushing ahead with fairly aggressive efforts to clean up its environmental act.
Mainland China, estimates CLSA, is earmarking more than $450 billion for environmental protection and cleanup in the five years from 2011 to 2015 — more than double what was spent during the previous five-year period.
Hong Kong’s proximity to China ensures that it will remain a crucial business location even if Singapore is a constant rival for the title of top Asian financial center, and has a greener and more family-friendly environment.
But studies show that environmental issues play an important role in businesses’ ability to attract and retain top staff, and that they need to be taken seriously.
A survey conducted in 2008 by the American Chamber of Commerce found that about 40 percent of companies in Hong Kong had experienced difficulty recruiting professionals to come and work in the city. Many more said they knew of people who had turned down job opportunities here or were thinking of leaving because of the environment.
Similarly, a 2006 study by the recruitment firm Hudson found that Hong Kong companies often had to offer potential overseas employees much higher salary packages as a direct result of pollution.
And ECA International, which advises companies on posting staff abroad, said in a report last week that “air pollution continued to be the dominant factor that makes Hong Kong a harder location for international assignees to adapt to.”
This, said Lee Quane, regional director for ECA, could affect Hong Kong's "competitive edge with other countries in the region."
To be sure, the current economic backdrop means that "clean air is certainly not a key issue on job seekers' minds right now," said James Carss, general manager of the Hong Kong office of Hudson, whose 2006 survey was conducted well before the global financial crisis.
But, propelled by growing local concern, the issue is likely to reemerge as the recruitment market gains traction.
"Give it another year, and pollution will be top of the agenda again," Mr. Carss said.
