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1. Hundreds demand an apology

2. Monitor

3. Project will bridge wealth gap, say supporters

1. Hundreds demand an apology
AMBROSE LEUNG, SCMP 13 March 2003

Hundreds of people yesterday signed a petition asking Mr Leung to apologise for buying his new car ahead of announcing tax increases for luxury vehicles.

In just 2.5 hours, more than 400 people put their names to the petition in Central. The signature campaign will continue in the next few days throughout Hong Kong.

The petition called on Mr Leung to make a public apology for his involvement in the incident, and called for the Legislative Council and the Independent Commission Against Corruption to investigate.

Some of those who signed questioned Mr Leung's integrity as a minister of Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa's cabinet, and accused him of breaching rules preventing a conflict of interest. Mr Leung is to donate $380,000 to charity after it was revealed that he had bought a Lexus 430 ahead of the Budget. He effectively paid $50,000 less than he would have before the Budget details were announced.

Mr Tung has criticised Mr Leung for being negligent and acting inappropriately over the incident.

The Legco constitutional affairs panel is to discuss the controversy on Monday at a meeting which Mr Leung has promised to attend.

2. Monitor
Jake van der Kamp, SCMP 13 March 2003

And here is another line you ought to recognise - all are created equal but some are created more equal than others. Yes, indeed, we have our own version of Animal Farm on Lower Albert Road.

Our most recent Budget was meant to cut costs (well, you know, sort of) and in particular, it featured pledges of trimming the civil service headcount. But, of course, numbers cannot go down in every department. We must be flexible. Guess which department showed the biggest percentage increase in headcount.

You got it. Staffing in the chief executive's office is to rise to 102 bodies this year from 86 last year.

What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, however, and we have a prize pair of ganders in Chief Secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen and Financial Secretary Antony Leung Kam-chung. If the boss can get away with it, why should they not be allowed to do so too?

They do. The expenditure estimate for the offices of the chief secretary for administration and the financial secretary has risen to HK$436.2 million for this year. Two years ago, the figure was HK$301.4 million.

Isn't it nice to be equal, I mean, really equal?

Email Jake van der Kamp at jakeva@scmp.com.

3. Project will bridge wealth gap, say supporters
JOSEPH LO, SCMP 13 March 2003

Some observers describe it as an economic no-brainer. But to others, the long-proposed bridge linking Hong Kong with the western shores of the Pearl River Delta is an engineering white elephant or, worse, a threat to the environment.

Few infrastructure projects in Hong Kong are undertaken without vigorous public debate over their economic feasibility.

However, proponents of the bridge say that too vigorous a debate may only help to serve the cause of vested interests set against the bridge's construction and, as a result, increase the ability of rival cities within the delta to compete with Hong Kong on an even footing.

"We have a fire-fighting concept in Hong Kong. When there's an issue, we think of a way to put out the fire. But we never plan to prevent the fire from happening in the first place," said Leo Leung Kwok-kee, a director of Hopewell Holdings, the company that resurrected the idea of the cross-delta bridge last year.

"This [bridge] doesn't go against the grain of Hong Kong's interests. But it may go against the grain of vested interests," he said.

Mr Leung said the long-term economic argument for the bridge was simple.

"Twenty years ago, the western side of the delta - places like Macau, Zhongshan and Zhuhai - was much more affluent than the cities on the eastern side, like Shenzhen and Dongguan."

However, he said since the opening of the Hong Kong-Shenzhen border, gross domestic product (GDP) on the eastern side had grown spectacularly. It was now 260 times greater than 22 years ago, while the western side's was just 47 times greater.

Hong Kong and mainland authorities are beginning to move forward seriously with negotiations on the need for the bridge. The discussions have shifted to the bridge's landing points. Observers argue that now, more than ever, there is a need to study carefully the arguments involved.

"The views of the various groups should be taken with a huge grain of salt and classified carefully," said one local public policy analyst.

Three main camps appear to have emerged. Hopewell boss Gordon Wu Ying-sheung and Macau casino tycoon Stanley Ho Hung-sun are the most vocal amongst those who want to see the bridge built. The city of Guangzhou and its allies are keen to protect their own interests at the northern end of the delta. And a third group of Hong Kong businessmen, including Hutchison Whampoa's Li Ka-shing, appears to be playing a game of wait-and-see.

For Mr Ho, the lack of a road linking Hong Kong to Macau has long been an obstacle to the former Portuguese enclave's economic development. Even now, with outbound tourism from the mainland growing, it is still hindered by a visa system that allows mainland visitors to Hong Kong to visit Macau, but not the other way around.

The intentions of Mr Wu are not easily explained, however. His company's executives argue that the bridge must be built for Hong Kong's future good, but not everyone is convinced of his egalitarian motives.

The public policy analyst said: "Frankly, Gordon Wu has long argued for the need to move forward with port infrastructure in Hong Kong that can accommodate future generations of big ships. And guess what? The proposed location of that port is exactly where they want to land this bridge."

Doubts also surfaced over Hopewell's last large infrastructure project in the delta, the Shenzhen-Guangzhou highway. But few people would now question how vital that road has become to the development of the industrial corridor between Hong Kong and Guangzhou.

Mr Leung denied that plans for the bridge were linked with the group's argument for port expansion.