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you're
looking for. 1.
Construction Output for the Fourth Quarter and the
whole year of 2002 2.
Chief executive must let Antony Leung go 3.
The Financial Secretary must pass tests of integrity
4.
Leaving a lucrative post does not justify action 5.
Wheeler 6.
S*A*R with Tom Hilditch 7.
I love Hong Kong but I wish ...
1. Construction Output for the Fourth Quarter and the whole year of 2002
Hong
Kong Government, 18 March 2003 1.
In 2002, the total gross value of construction work performed by main contractors
decreased by 7.4% in nominal terms compared with 2001 to $105.5 billion, according
to the preliminary results of the Quarterly Survey of Construction Output released
today (March 18) by the Census and Statistics Department. 2.
After discounting price changes, the total gross value of construction work performed
by main contractors decreased by 2.9% in real terms over the same period. 3.
Gross value of construction work in real terms is derived by deflating the corresponding
nominal value with an appropriate price index to the 2000 price level. 4.
Analysed by type of construction work, the gross value of construction work performed
at private sector sites totalled $41.9 billion in 2002, representing an increase
of 3.5% in nominal terms over 2001. In real terms, it rose by 9.5%. The increase
was mainly contributable to an intensification of work at some residential and
commercial building sites. 5.
On the other hand, the gross value of construction work performed at public sector
sites amounted to $32.0 billion in 2002, representing a decrease of 23.5% in nominal
terms compared with 2001. In real terms, it fell by 18.6%. Decreases in output
occurred at both building sites and civil engineering sites, upon continued scale-back
in the Public Housing Programme and tapering off of work on some public infrastructure
projects. 6.
The gross value of construction work performed by contractors at locations other
than construction sites amounted to $31.6 billion in 2002, representing a slight
decrease of 0.3% in nominal terms compared with 2001. Yet, it increased by 1.9%
in real terms. Works at locations other than construction sites included minor
new construction activities and renovation work at erected buildings and structures;
and electrical and mechanical fitting work. 7.
Analysed by end-use category, residential building projects accounted for the
largest share in the gross value of construction work performed at construction
sites in 2002. The gross value of construction work performed for these projects
amounted to $36.1 billion, representing a decrease of 13.6% in nominal terms compared
with 2001. 8.
Transport projects constituted the second largest category of construction site
work. The gross value of construction work performed for these projects totalled
$13.5 billion in 2002, representing a decrease of 16.1% in nominal terms compared
with 2001. 9.
Commercial building projects represented the third largest category of construction
site work. The gross value of construction work performed for these projects was
$9.0 billion in 2002, representing an increase of 25.0% in nominal terms over
2001. 10. Comparing
the fourth quarter of 2002 with the fourth quarter of 2001, the gross value of
construction work performed by main contractors decreased by 16.6% in nominal
terms. In real terms, the decrease was 11.8%. 11.
Within this total, the gross value of construction work performed at private sector
sites decreased by 17.1% in nominal terms in the fourth quarter of 2002 over a
year earlier. The gross value of construction work performed at public sector
sites decreased by 29.9%. The gross value of construction work performed by contractors
at locations other than construction sites nevertheless increased slightly by
1.5%. 12. In
real terms, the gross value of construction work performed at private sector sites
decreased by 11.3% in the fourth quarter of 2002 over a year earlier. For public
sector sites, the gross value of construction work decreased by 25.5%. Yet the
gross value of construction work performed by contractors at locations other than
construction sites increased by 5.2%. 13.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the gross value of construction work performed
by main contractors decreased by 7.2% in nominal terms in the fourth quarter of
2002 compared with the third quarter of 2002. In real terms, the decrease was
5.9%. 14. Table
1 (text version
of table 1) and 2
(text version of table 2) show the gross value of construction work performed
by main contractors in the fourth quarter and the whole year of 2002 respectively.
Table 3 (text
version of table 3) shows the revised figures for the third quarter of 2002.
15. Owing to
the widespread sub-contracting practices in the construction industry, a construction
establishment can be a main contractor for one contract and a sub-contractor for
another contract at the same time. The gross value of construction work performed
by main contractors covers only those projects in which the construction establishment
takes the role of a main contractor, but not projects in which it takes only the
role of a sub-contractor. However, sub-contractors' contribution to projects should
have been included in the gross value of construction work performed by main contractors
for whom they worked. 16.
More detailed statistics are given in the "Report on the Quarterly Survey
of Construction Output, 4th Quarter 2002". The report is now on sale at $11
per copy. It can be purchased in person from : (i)
Government Publications Centre, Ground Floor, Low Block, Queensway Government
Offices, 66 Queensway, Hong Kong (Tel.: 2537 1910); or (ii)
Publications Unit of the Census and Statistics Department, 19th Floor, Wanchai
Tower, 12 Harbour Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong (Tel.: 2582 3025). 17.
Internet users may purchase publications online at the "Statistical Bookstore,
Hong Kong" (Address: http://www.statisticalbookstore.gov.hk)
with payment made instantly. Softcopies of the publications purchased are available
for immediate downloading while hardcopies purchased will be delivered by mail.
Subscription to regular publications and advance ordering of up coming releases
are also available. The Statistical Bookstore is hosted on the ESD portal (Address:
http://www.esd.gov.hk) together with other
public services. 18.
A mail order form for ordering or arranging subscription to hardcopies of publications
is available in most publications of the Census and Statistics Department. It
may be completed and sent back together with a cheque or bank draft covering all
necessary cost and postage. The order form is also available for downloading from
the website of the Department (Address: http://www.info.gov.hk/censtatd/eng/service_desk/forms_index.html).
19. For enquiries
about the survey results, please contact the Building, Construction and Real Estate
Statistics Section of the Census and Statistics Department at telephone no. 2805
6426 or email building@censtatd.gov.hk.
2. Chief executive must let Antony Leung go
SCMP,
19 March 2003 If
a week is a long time in politics, as the old saying goes, then little more than
two days appears enough for Financial Secretary Antony Leung Kam-chung. As positive
as it would be to see the scandal over his Lexus car disappear from the public
agenda in place of more vital issues, sadly the affair looks set to linger - and
even fester - for some time yet. For that, we should look at his boss, Chief Executive
Tung Chee-hwa, and not Mr Leung himself. At
the weekend, it looked as though Mr Tung had made the right decision not to accept
Mr Leung's resignation over his purchase of the luxury car shortly before his
announcement of the Budget - and the steep rise in vehicle registration taxes.
Now, however, it appears that decision was wrong. He simply should have let Mr
Leung go. That
would have been the only sensible decision. As the government reluctantly confirmed
last night, Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Yeoh Eng-kiong declared his
own recent car purchase at the Executive Council meeting on the Budget on March
5. Mr Leung, the man ultimately responsible for the Budget, remained silent throughout
the same meeting. As moving as his explanations for his repeated reticence - centred
on his high-profile marriage and child's birth - may be, they stretch the imagination
beyond credible bounds. Before
these reports, it was clear that Mr Leung was sailing close to the wind but was
still within sight of the safe shore of explanations such as naivete and oversight.
The latest revelation, however, put him in a much more treacherous position. The
issue now is dishonesty. It is now hard to see how his public standing can recover.
This, naturally, casts Mr Tung's entire accountability system in a new light.
If it was only oversight, Mr Tung's actions may have had some justification. Talented,
suitable replacements are difficult for the Hong Kong government to attract in
the current climate. Mr Leung has only just made the transition to public life
after a long career in the private sector. This was only his second Budget, delivered
in the toughest of times, and a difficult selling job lies ahead. Once
a senior official's integrity is under clear question, however, it is another
matter. Good governance becomes an issue. For the accountability system to work,
clear standards must be firmly enforced. Unfortunately,
Mr Tung's move has allowed the matter to grow far more complex than it should
be, fuelling an increasingly messy political debate. Mr Leung was this week placed
in the invidious position of facing a Legislative Council grilling over a matter
for which he had already offered to resign. Reassurance was vital if the matter
was to be firmly laid to rest yet from the earliest stages of Monday's session
it was clear Mr Leung's performance was raising more questions than answers. Mr
Leung looked deeply uncomfortable - with himself and the situation. In
fact, it should have been Mr Tung in the hot seat, explaining why he decided to
keep Mr Leung on despite the March 5 affair. It
is now even more important to deal with this scandal quickly so the business of
government can find its equilibrium. Only firm leadership from Mr Tung can do
it. He must accept Mr Leung's resignation. The search must start for a new financial
secretary.
3. The Financial Secretary must pass tests of integrity
SCMP,
19 March 2003 Can
Hong Kong's Principal Officials Accountability System (POAS) meet the requirements
of integrity and principle? The controversy over the incident, in which Financial
Secretary Antony Leung Kam-chung purchased a luxury car a few weeks before he
raised the vehicle registration tax in his Budget, could prove to be a litmus
test for this. A
noted work argues that accountability depends very much on the integrity of the
minister concerned and the extent to which the acceptance of responsibility is
a matter of principle rather than expediency. There
is no question that what Mr Leung did was wrong, though he explained that he needed
the car for his new-born daughter and family. While
Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa believes that the financial secretary did not do
it for personal gain, and Mr Leung promptly donated twice the amount of the difference
in tax to a charity, it appears that he has clearly violated the government's
code for POAS, in which policymakers are required to ensure that no actual or
potential conflict arises between their public duties and their private interests
and that they should avoid putting themselves in a position where they might arouse
any suspicion of this. Unlike
the "penny stocks" incident, which relates to departmental ministerial
responsibility, the present incident is about the personal responsibility of a
minister over his own action. In
the UK, there is a relatively well established convention for ministerial responsibility
and acceptance that in cases of serious error or misjudgment, they should resign.
The same standards
should apply to Hong Kong. The question is: How serious is the financial secretary's
blunder? In one
respect, what Mr Leung did appears to be related to insider dealing in the equities
markets, which Hong Kong has proscribed since 1978. Clearly,
Mr Leung would at some stage be in possession of relevant information in relation
to the possible tax increase for luxury cars. It
would be wrong for him to disclose or use this information for purposes other
than what was required by his public duties before the Budget speech. The
crucial point here is: Did this piece of information in any way affect his decision
in the car purchase? If
yes, then his integrity is at stake and the error is likely to be serious. If
no, then his political judgment is in question, for it is obvious that what he
did could be an issue of conflict of interest that would cause embarrassment to
the government. It
was politically naive for Mr Leung not to report his purchase to the chief executive
or seek his advice once a decision on a tax increase had been made in government,
even if the purchase had nothing to do with that piece of information. It
is not a good defence to say that Mr Leung did not do this for personal gain.
In August 1999,
the Commissioner of Inland Revenue was dismissed after the Director of Audit's
report said he had failed to avoid direct involvement in cases in which his wife's
firm acted as the tax representative of taxpayers and to avoid or report any possible
conflict of interest. It was made clear public money had not been put at risk.
If the POAS is
meant to enhance accountability, we should expect higher standards from our politicians.
The issue is
therefore not merely about personal gain. It is the financial secretary's integrity
and his political judgment that are at stake. His
action has already violated the code for the POAS. For this, he owes the community
a public apology. It
is imperative for the government and Mr Leung to clear his name and to restore
our confidence in him by putting forward evidence in a transparent manner about
his integrity and competence in making a judgment. Failure
to do so may warrant the dismissal of the financial secretary. Otherwise, the
POAS will fail the test of integrity and principle.
CHEUNG CHOR-YUNG, Senior
Lecturer, Division of Social Studies, City University of Hong Kong
4. Leaving a lucrative post does not justify action
SCMP,
19 March 2003 To
me, Antony Leung committed conflict of interest because he had thought about increasing
the car tax before the Budget was announced and he still went ahead and bought
a car. He should
have disclosed the matter, but he waited until it was revealed by the media. I
do not want to hear that Mr Leung has done us a favour by leaving a lucrative
position in the private sector for his present post and that Hong Kong people
should therefore show their appreciation. This
is wrong. In other countries, leaders and other politicians leave multi-billion-dollar
businesses for the honour of serving their country. Some even have to spend a
lot of money to get elected. If
Mr Leung thinks that he sacrificed his personal interest for the benefit of Hong
Kong, he should resign now. DAMON
K.K. CHENG, To Kwa Wan
5. Wheeler
SCMP,
19 March 2003 
6. S*A*R with Tom Hilditch
SCMP,
19 March 2003 What's
in a name? Many
readers have written in noting the spooky similarity between the acronyms for
superfly territory SAR and super-flu pestilence SARS. Of
course, they are totally different things. One stands for Special Administrative
Region (Hong Kong's political status until 2047) and the latter for severe acute
respiratory syndrome. But it does seem to be a bit of a branding disaster. Spotting
a conspiracy, reader Andrew Work e-mailed us saying: ''Why don't they just come
out and call it Hong Kong flu like they used to?'' SAR
(the column that can't decide what it stands for) thinks he may have a point.
The early signs of SARS as listed by the World Health Organisation are insomnia,
headaches, confusion, breathing difficulty and fever. All of which - except for
fever - most of us have come to accept as inevitable effects of daily life in
the Special Administrative Region. Send
all information, invitations and tips to us at: SAR@scmp.com;
fax: 2562 2485; telephone: 2565 2222
7. I love Hong Kong but I wish ...
SCMP, 19 March 2003 ''in
this time of recession, imminent war, unemployment, pollution and now a global
pestilence named SAR syndrome that there was just one politician we could trust''.
(Chow Yu-jing) ''that
ministerial accountability meant something''. (Peter Tsui) ''I
had a scratch - and scandal - resistant Lexus''. (L Lim)
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