Hong Kong air pollution threatens business

Hong Kong's polluted air is driving away foreign professionals and threatening international investment, according to a survey released today by the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.

The poll of 140 executives with the group's member companies found almost four out of five business leaders knew someone who was thinking of leaving or had left the territory because of the poor quality of the environment.

Hong Kong's worsening air pollution has become a growing source of concern in recent years. But until now, most evidence suggesting an economic impact was anecdotal.

Both local coal-fired power plants and thousands of Hong Kong owned factories in the Pearl River Delta have been blamed for the regular bad-air days plaguing the city.

The ability to attract foreign executives is key for Hong Kong's economy because it competes with Singapore and other cities to be the Asian hub for global banks, money managers and other international firms.

"Air pollution not only threatens our health, but Hong Kong's pre-eminent position as the financial services capital of Asia," Alan Seigrist, chair of the group's environment committee, said in a statement.

"This is especially true when many leaders in financial services have young families -- the main concern of being based in Hong Kong is their own children's health."

The survey said 95 per cent of respondents were personally worried, or very worried, about the air quality in Hong Kong and the potential long term effects on the health of themselves and their children.

And more than half of respondents personally knew of professionals who declined to move to Hong Kong because of environmental concerns.

The survey found 79 per cent of respondents felt that based on environmental trends, Hong Kong's level of attractiveness to foreign investors is decreasing, and 59 per cent thought a worsening environment might eventually cause their companies to invest more money elsewhere.

But 56 per cent believed their companies would invest more money in Hong Kong rather than other parts of Asia if Hong Kong had a cleaner environment and better air quality.

The business group said its member companies collectively employ some 250,000 people in Hong Kong.

About 39 per cent of those surveyed said the most important thing Hong Kong's government could do is work with mainland authorities to encourage a cleanup of mainland industry.

The survey was conducted by AC Nielsen, with questionnaires collected between June 19 and 30.

- REUTERS