HONG KONG: Chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen has brushed off allegations that the plan of giving every household HK$100 cash coupons for buying energy-saving bulbs involves conflicts of interest.

His comment came after media reports had revealed that the father-in-law of his eldest son runs a light bulb business.

"I only aim to safeguard public interests when making any decision. There is no conflict of interest in this incident," Tsang said Friday. "I abide by the principle of confidentiality and all regulations when making government decisions."

He admitted that the father-in-law of his son has been running a lighting business for years, including the sale of energy-saving lamps and tungsten bulbs.

Tsang said the secretary for the environment proposed the coupon plan to him in a bid to save energy and that he gave the green light and put it into this year's policy address.

He stressed that light bulb retailers will have a fair chance of joining the coupon scheme.

But he did not say whether he had disclosed the family connection with the lighting industry to the Executive Council.

On another occasion, he said on an ATV World news program that he himself does not mind being suspected, but he feels embarrassed because his family has suffered a lot because of the incident.

He said that it must hurt his eldest son's father-in-law to suddenly discover that newspapers are implying that he (his eldest son's father-in-law) has fallen under suspicion of making a profit from public policy. "That hurts a lot," he said.

Secretary for the Environment Edward Yau Tang-wah told lawmakers Friday that the coupon scheme is "entirely a proposal by the Environment Bureau".

He said it aims to reduce domestic energy consumption and carbon emissions.

Yau said the proposed coupon scheme is open to any retailer that agrees to stop selling tungsten light bulbs in line with the government schedule.

But he did not say whether the government will rescind the plan.

Legislator Wong Kwok-hing said: "I don't think that the chief executive intends to benefit his in-laws. But this gives people the impression that the government is not very cautious."

Chief Secretary for Administration Henry Tang Ying-yen said there are a lot of suppliers of energy-saving bulbs in the market.

"It doesn't necessarily mean that the chief executive's in-laws will surely earn buckets of money thanks to the new policy. The supply is huge in the market. The whole policy is open and fair," he said.

Ip Kwok-him, a legislator of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, said he thinks there is no conflict of interests in the incident.

"To my knowledge, the existing mechanism concerning the declaration of interests does not apply to relatives by affinity. Otherwise, it could involve many people," he said.

The Chief Executive's Office said the chief executive and politically-appointed officials have to declare their properties and companies, but have no need to declare those owned by their parents or in-laws.

But it said those properties should also be declared if they notice any conflict of interest.

Anthony Mok, the father-in-law of Tsang's eldest son, has been found to be a director of the Supermoon Limited, which partly owns the Electric Fever Company, a dealer of Philips lighting products in Hong Kong.

A spokeswoman for the Electric Fever Company said it did not know about the coupon scheme until Tsang unveiled it Wednesday.

She added that she has not estimated whether the new policy will bring more business to the company.

(HK Edition 10/17/2009 page4)