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South China Morning Post – 14 June 2011

Development secretary Carrie Lam meets the Heung Yee Kuk and says that extra storeys added illegally to village houses will have to be demolished

South China Morning Post – 13 June 2011

The Law Reform Commission suggests a new group be created to oversee NGOs amid concerns the lack of a governing body could lead to abuse of donations

The Law Reform Commission this week will recommend a law to establish a Charities Commission to take charge of the registration and regulation of charitable organisations in Hong Kong.

This comes in response to widespread concerns about the lack of oversight of charities and the ease with which they can be set up and acquire tax-free status.

A person close to the Law Reform Commission subcommittee on charities said the proposal would be based on a similar body in Britain.

Under the proposed law all charities would have to register with the commission, open their accounts and be transparent in their activities and operations.

Registered groups would be given a licence number and be allowed to use the term “charity” in their operations, while the commission would monitor their work and make sure their operation fitted their mission.

“For example, a charity serving local communities should not invest in overseas properties,” the person said.

The commission would not, however, evaluate or regulate the effectiveness of their activities and campaigns, or issues such as their administration costs. “There are 7,000 NGOs in Hong Kong and to monitor them closely would be a huge task,” he said.

“The performance of a charitable organisation in promoting its cause should be decided by its donors and stakeholders,” he said.

“This new commission could become another Securities and Futures Commission if it had to work as a full regulator.” Britain’s Charities Act of 2006 defines a charity as a body or trust that performs one or more of 13 specified purposes that benefit the public. These include poverty relief and the advancement of education, health or religion.

The commission regulates the charities and has the power to check whether organisations are “fit and proper” to carry out public fund-raising, which must be licensed.

The proposed law for Hong Kong would adopt most of these rules, the person said. Groups calling themselves charities can apply to the Inland Revenue Department for tax exemption on charitable grounds. Last year the 6,380 registered groups raised HK$5.01 billion.

No single law governs charitable organisations and the use of the donations. There is also no law to regulate online fund-raising. The Social Welfare Department regulates flag selling, the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority regulates raffles, and the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department regulates other sales.

Tik Chi-yuen, a seasoned social worker and former executive director of the Society for the Aged, said the current arrangement opened the charitable institution status to abuse. Although the commission should not intervene in charities’ operations, it should compile a code of practice, such as for the composition of the board of directors, for them to follow.

“There should be some sort of standard on governance, so the public will know how well the charities are operating. It will make public monitoring more effective,” Tik said.

Peter Cheung Kwok-che, the social workers’ representative in the Legislative Council, welcomed the commission’s decision to leave monitoring of the charities to the public.

“The most important thing is transparency. As long as the charities show the public how they spend their money, we don’t need government regulation,” Cheung said.

In 2007, the chief justice and secretary for justice asked the Law Reform Commission to study whether a law governing charities was needed.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption, in 2009, announced guidelines for charities on how to plug fund-raising loopholes that could lead to corruption. These focus on how charities manage their accounts and encourage them to keep donors informed.

1 June 2011

A survey of over 2,000 passengers conducted earlier this year reveals high penetration rates at Hong Kong International airport

Airport Authority Hong Kong has unveiled the results of a comprehensive survey of its core duty-free customers ahead of the upcoming retail tender for those categories at Hong Kong International airport (HKIA). The research, which interviewed 2,093 passengers in January, revealed high penetration rates, average customer spending and cross-purchasing levels.

According to the survey, 47% of respondents had planned their purchases prior to their arrival at the airport, while the remaining 53% were unplanned shoppers. General merchandise has the highest penetration rate at 75%, followed by fragrances and cosmetics (50%) and liquor and tobacco (46%).

The research also revealed a high rate of cross-category shopping: purchasers of general merchandise tend to also buy beauty products (38%) or liquor and tobacco (31%), while buyers of fragrances and cosmetics are equally inclined to purchase general merchandise (23%) or liquor and tobacco (23%). About 30% of tobacco and liquor buyers also purchase general merchandise, while 25% also buy beauty products.

In terms of motivations, convenient locations are key browsing motivators to shoppers at HKIA, with general merchandise and liquor and tobacco products often purchased as gifts. Buyers of beauty products and general merchandise are driven by variety and prices, the survey added.

The average spend at HKIA’s core duty-free shops is HK$832 ($107), with perfumes and cosmetics buyers the biggest spenders at an average of HK$1,050 ($135) and liquor and tobacco purchasers spending the least—on average HK$608 ($78). Average browsing time at the stores is 52 minutes, according to the research

http://www.dfnionline.com/article/HKIA-unveils-duty-free-customer-research-1861152.html

12 May 2010

Sepa’s Extra Teeth A Small Step In The Right Direction, Analysts Say

Updated on Mar 14, 2008 – SCMP

In this second in a series of analyses on the State Council’s reform plan, Shi Jiangtao looks at the elevation of the State Environmental Protection Administration to a ministry

The proposed elevation of the State Environmental Protection Administration to ministry status has been widely applauded inside and outside the Great Hall of the People as a big boost for the beleaguered watchdog and the country’s uphill battle to clean its foul water and skies.

The move has followed growing calls at home and abroad in recent years for Sepa’s elevation to a full ministry, which many have said would better represent the environmental view in national decisions.

The much-anticipated move would also grant the green watchdog equal footing with other ministries in the cabinet and give it much-needed teeth in dealing with development-minded local authorities and industrial polluters, according to mainland officials and analysts.

But the promotion of the top watchdog – falling short of overhauling the nation’s fractured environmental system, which left power scattered among various government agencies – could hardly make a big difference in reversing widespread pollution and appalling degradation, they said.

“It is a step in the right direction,” said Wang Shucheng , a former water resources minister. “It will give the green watchdog a bigger say in the State Council and help involve it in decisions at the state level.”

Apart from a bigger budget and more staff, the new environmental protection ministry is expected to see its power boosted modestly, according to Wu Xiaoqing , deputy chief of Sepa.

“The growing clout of the environmental authorities over the past decades has shown an increasing green awareness in the leadership.”

The environmental watchdog did not become a separate member of the State Council until 1987, when it split from the Ministry of Construction. It was upgraded to a ministerial-level administration in the last round of government restructuring in 1998.

“The fact that Sepa was the only administration in the State Council that got promoted this time highlights enormous government support for the environmental protection mission,” said Mr Wu.

Wang Canfa , an environmental law professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, said the move would also give local green watchdogs more bite.

But the plan unveiled on Tuesday failed to provide details about how local environmental offices would be affected. Instead, the State Council document said “apart from necessary changes requested by the party central in line with the government revamp”, local governments could decide by themselves if a similar bureaucratic shake-up was needed.

According to Mr Wu, Beijing will release a separate directive that provides instructions on local government restructuring.

Environmental officials have often attributed the stalled campaigns to curb pollution and crack down on industrial polluters to rampant local resistance and that power is scattered across various departments and ministries.

Professor Wang said the increased clout would be far from enough for the watchdog to check local authorities’ pursuit of economic growth, which often comes at the expense of the environment.

“The elevation will not automatically make Sepa’s decision more powerful and effective at the grass-roots level, given the fact that local green watchdogs are predominantly controlled by their respective governments. It is just like a cat-and-mouse game,” he said, referring to the relationship between local governments and environmental offices.

Deputy Sepa director Pan Yue complained last week that the lack of legal support and administrative power had hampered the watchdog’s efforts to block many large environmentally sensitive projects.

Another case in point is the much-criticised campaign to control water pollution. Sepa shared such water pollution control responsibilities with at least five other government agencies, including ministries of agriculture, construction and water resources and the State Oceanic Administration.

Some scholars and officials, including Mr Wu, have called for an environmental “mega ministry” aimed at revamping the fractured system, combining scattered power and cutting bureaucratic overlap.

But the former water resources minister Mr Wang rejected the idea. “It is not necessary, and it is impossible,” he said, noting that environmental protection goals could not be achieved until “every government department is fully involved”.

“Rather than dreaming about a super ministry, Sepa should try to enlist support of other ministries to make real efforts to protect ecology.” Many experts also pointed out that the elevation of Sepa to a ministry would not bring an end to bureaucratic wrangling, an inherent problem with the overstaffed and inefficient government.

Reuters in Washington – Updated on Mar 14, 2008The US Environmental Protection Agency has toughened smog standards for the first time in a decade – but the new requirements are still more lax than the agency’s own scientists recommended.

Stephen Johnson, the agency’s chief, said he had complied with the Clean Air Act and with scientific data in setting the new ozone standard at a strict 75 parts per billion in ambient air in the US. The previous standard was 80 parts per billion, but since results were rounded down, this was effectively 84 parts per billion.

The agency’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee had, however, recommended a standard of 60 to 70 parts per billion, with the lower level suggested for children who were more vulnerable to ozone pollution, the prime component of smog.

Counties that cannot meet the standard face the threat of limits on the construction of new highways and industries.

Industries had urged the government to retain the higher standard, citing the high cost of meeting the new requirement.

“The regulation I signed today is compelled by the Clean Air Act and the most recent scientific data on the effects of ozone on human health,” Mr Johnson said in a telephone briefing. “Since the EPA last updated ozone standards … scientific studies have indicated ozone’s health impacts are more significant and certain than we previously understood.”

Unlike stratospheric ozone, which forms a protective layer high above Earth’s surface, ground-level ozone can make it hard to breathe and aggravate asthma and other respiratory conditions.

It can also damage plants, making disease and reduced crop yields more likely.

“The EPA has taken a baby step instead of the strong action doctors say is needed to protect our lungs,” said David Baron of the environmental group Earthjustice.

The new standards came in response to a court-ordered deadline in a lawsuit filed by Earthjustice in 2003 on behalf of the American Lung Association, Environmental Defence, the Natural Resources Defence Council, and other conservation groups.

It’s ‘on yer bike’ as transport gurus switch focus to two wheels

Tim Bryan – Updated on Mar 05, 2008 – SCMP

Two wheels good, four wheels bad. So say London’s transport gurus. After years of criticism, delay, and seemingly endless consultation, transport chiefs have come up with sweeping new cycle plans – backed by £400 million (HK$6.18 billion) of public money – to transform some of London’s main routes into bike-only superhighways.

No more green-asphalt cycle lanes that start suddenly and end mysteriously 50 metres later. Out with cycle lanes that pit cyclists against oncoming one-way traffic. An end to bike lanes blocked by parked cars or invaded by buses. So dangerous is cycling in London that some bike riders wear cameras on their helmets and post dangerous drivers on the internet.

The 12 new cycle-only routes are to hail from known cyclist-heavy residential areas such as Clapham, in the south-west, Greenwich in the south-east, Hackney in the east, and Kilburn, in the north-west.

The superhighways will also link suburban centres such as Croydon, Kingston and Richmond, with local networks, and dedicated lanes linking parks, schools and train stations. “Integrated transport”, say planners – a novel idea for London, which has developed for centuries in an organic (read chaotic) fashion.

The plans fit snugly with greener tenets of transport wisdom. The successful congestion charge has been expanded, fees raised for high-polluting cars, while parking is becoming more and more pricey.

There’s also the planned London-wide launch of a scheme pioneered in Paris, in which thousands of free bikes are offered to commuters for a minimal charge.

Overall, planners hope to lift the current 500,000 cycling trips made per day to 1.9 million, double even the best forecasts, by 2025.

The London Cycling Campaign hailed the superhighways as a watershed. A spokeswoman told The Guardian newspaper: “This proposal will transform London, making cycling more visible.” The really interesting thing, she continued, was that “cycling is now associated with a modern cosmopolitan city that is in control and at ease with itself”.

Even the motoring group AA backs the plans, albeit cautiously, saying the system of haphazard provision for cyclists was no good for cyclists or other road users.

The Freight Transport Association also welcomed the move only if it was aligned with more education for cyclists “so they obey the rules of the road”.

The FTA has a point. Cycling in London may be the most efficient, cheap and timesaving way to get about, but it is fraught with danger, not least because of the higgledy-piggledy nature of cycling provision. Cyclists do ride down one-way streets, on pavements and jump lights. However, they do so knowing they are at the bottom of the transport chain. Cyclists often need to be aggressive and far from law-abiding to survive.

Cycling deaths are on the increase, largely because more people are taking to two wheels, but also because those who do obey the rules are forgotten. The major cause of death involves trucks and buses turning left at junctions and crushing cyclists against railings. The cyclists are where the Highway Code says they should be, but until proposed European legislation makes mandatory a longer wing mirror on British trucks, drivers cannot see them.

Banks Warned Against Developers, Polluting Borrowers

CBRC wary over loans guaranteed by local governments

Reuters in Beijing – Updated on Feb 28, 2008

The mainland’s banking regulator on Thursday warned big lenders of the risks of lending to real-estate developers and highly polluting or energy-intensive firms, ordering them to step up controls to prevent a rebound in bad loans.

Despite a drop in their non-performing loan ratio last year, banks should not be complacent because they faced stiff challenges ahead, China Banking Regulatory Commission vice-chairman Jiang Dingzhi told executives from the big lenders.

“Banks should carefully implement the government’s macro control policies and effectively prevent various dangers,” he said, according to the watchdog’s website.

As well as singling out property developers and industries that consumed a lot of energy and caused pollution, Mr Jiang told banks to keep a close eye on manufacturers with obsolete plants and firms whose loans are guaranteed by local governments.

Highlighting the risks of real-estate lending, figures from the Shanghai banking regulator show two billion yuan (HK$2.18 billion) in property loans went sour last year, twice as much as in 2006, according to state media.

More than one quarter of the new loans extended by domestic banks in Shanghai last year went to real estate, and by the end of last year the sector accounted for about 32 per cent of their outstanding loans, the 21st Century Herald reported on Thursday.

The National Audit Office issued a separate warning that banks were lending too much to finance road construction – their exposure was 800 billion yuan at the end of 2005.

Bad management of some roads and insufficient toll collections meant many banks were finding it hard to recoup their loans, state media said.

The bank regulator said the four banks among the Big Five that are listed on the stock market – Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of China and Bank of Communications – had an average non-performing loan ratio of 2.87 per cent last year, down from 3.6 per cent a year earlier.

The quartet improved their return on assets to 1.11 per cent last year from 0.88 per cent in 2006.

The other member of the Big Five, Agricultural Bank of China, is still burdened by a high NPL ratio because the state has yet to carve out its bad loans and recapitalise the bank.

Including ABC, the five largest banks had a NPL ratio of 8.05 per cent at the end of last year, down 0.55 percentage point from a year earlier.

Eco-Friendly Budget Will Be Good For HK

Updated on Feb 27, 2008 – SCMP

Given the size of the government’s surplus – estimated by some experts to be as high as HK$120 billion – many people have been asking that the financial secretary hands out rebates of various kinds in today’s budget.

However, I would like to see some of the surplus being spent on programmes that will help to improve the quality of our living environment, where air pollution is still the top priority. Friends of the Earth has drafted a “green” wish list for the budget:

* Change street lights to high-energy-efficient LED light bulbs. These have a lifespan of at least 10 years, yet use less than one third of the electricity consumed by conventional bulbs, which have a much shorter lifespan. This will reduce energy wastage and reduce power plant emissions;

* Add “green” rooftops to all government buildings whenever practical. This will help to absorb the ambient heat of the city and lower the “heat island” effect;

* Plant more trees around government buildings and on our streets. Trees absorb roadside pollutants;

* Regulate the tunnel tolls for the three cross-harbour tunnels. Traffic congestion, especially at the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, creates more pollution and wastes precious time. With less congestion and a shorter waiting period, workers can be more productive;

* Offer subsidies to operators of pre-Euro and Euro-1 heavy-diesel vehicles. Existing government subsidies should be reviewed and possibly increased to quicken the pace of phasing out those highly polluting vehicles. The government must uphold the polluter pays principle and make owners of those vehicles bear a large part of the cost of getting the latest Euro-standard diesel vehicles for their businesses;

* Improve the city’s recycling bin facilities. More accessible and user-friendly recycling bins could be placed around the whole territory, both in public venues and in every appropriate building to induce more frequent use; and

* The government could provide job opportunities for unemployed locals by using organic fertiliser made from our food waste to enrich the topsoil of the many barren landscapes along highways and country parks in the New Territories so shrubs or trees could be grown and help absorb pollutants and greenhouse gases and improve air quality.

The government should not waste time on lengthy consultations. It should put in place the right policies for the environment without delay.

Edwin Lau Che-feng, director, Friends of the Earth (HK)