Respect the due process

Local environmental groups opposed to the government's plan to build a man-made beach in Lung Mei, Tai Po, held a protest rally outside the Government Complex in Admiralty on Sunday, to express their objection to the project. The SAR government reiterated last week that the project had gone through all studies, consultations and assessments according to due process as required by law, and will proceed as planned.

It is understandable that some local residents are concerned about the environmental impact on marine life at Lung Mei by the artificial beach, and the authorities should respond to such opinions with educated answers. However, the project has completed all the elements of due process and been approved by the Tai Po District Council and the Legislative Council (LegCo). Therefore it must not be halted so freely.

Hong Kong has seen a wave of objections against development projects already approved under due process and demands for a re-start of each process. Such demands show no respect for our due processes and will seriously hamper the city's development.

Hong Kong has a due process that has been in effect for many years on public consultation about infrastructure development, beginning with local authorities' proposals based on popular demand, followed by extensive and in depth consultation by related departments of government, the drafting of policies based on feedback from the public, approval of the policies by the Executive Council and finally the approval of related funding requests by the LegCo that will allow these departments to proceed with the plans. The "bottom-up" consultation process ensures that every project is planned with the broadest possible public opinion in mind and refined as much as possible through all the required stages of public consultation.

It is inappropriate for environmental groups to demand the start-over of the Lung Mei beach project consultation when the plan has already been approved and is now open for public tender, simply because they have new suspicions about its environmental impact. This is a show of disrespect for the two pillars of society that Hong Kong cherishes dearly, due process and procedural justice.

This is an excerpted translation of a Wen Wei Po editorial published on Nov 5.

Regulation not intervention

Market opinions on the SAR government's tough measures to regulate the housing market have been mostly favorable, but there are also detractors who have labeled the move as "intervening in market operation". Secretary for Finance John Tsang responded to such accusation in his official blog on Sunday in defense of the new policy.

There is no doubt the government's new measures aim to regulate the market instead of intervening in it. Market intervention restricts buying and selling of properties by order; while regulation attempts to rein in market speculation by temporary tax hikes to increase the cost of short-term speculation without limiting the freedom to buy and sell.

The government has discouraged speculators and overseas capital to enter Hong Kong's residential housing market with temporary tax increases, which do not violate the principle of market freedom and fairness while saving residential units for local residents, as well as preventing prices from soaring higher. The measures are apparently necessary.

If the government does not step in to regulate the market when necessary, the balance of supply and demand usually tilts past the critical point and causes widespread business closures and unemployment as a result of a market collapse. It will take the market a long time to recover and find its balance again.

Absolute market freedom has long been deemed unacceptable in modern economic management philosophy. The conventional practice around the world nowadays is that the government takes steps to rein in excessive investment to minimize the damage when prices fall; when the economy is weak, the government helps increase employment and consumption with heavy investment in infrastructure development, to reduce the impact of the economic downturn on people's daily lives until the economy recovers. The SAR government's anti-speculation measures follow the common practice around the world, and therefore cannot be labeled as "market intervention".

The new measures have achieved a temporary market cool-down, as the top 10 housing estates reported just 10 transactions over the weekend, a new low in nine months, but prices have dipped only slightly and are unlikely to fall significantly under the current low-interest and high-liquidity situation. That means the temporary measures cannot solve the problem of market imbalance, which only adequate supply can correct.

This is an excerpted translation of a Hong Kong Commercial Daily editorial published on Nov 5.

(HK Edition 11/06/2012 page3)