CONFIDENTIAL
2
1.3
At the opening of the 1988/89
Legislative Council on 12th October 1988,
stated
session of the
the Governor
pollution is an
that serious environmental
unfortunate by-product of Hong Kong's economic success and
population growth. One of our major priorities must be to
to do more to improve our
halt
this
environment.
the Executive
decline
and
Immediately afterwards, on 25th October 1988
Council advised that a White Paper should be
prepared on pollution.
1.4
This
White Paper is
an
outline
for
a
It
comprehensive ten year plan to tackle pollution.
1.5
The
ou t
sets
the Government's
policy objectives;
environmental
assesses the adequacy of current programmes;
explains, 'in the
way forward' sections of
steps Government intends
each chapter, the
to take to reduce pollution and improve the
environment; and
provides a summary
targets, at Chapter 9.
of main initiatives and
White Paper acknowledges that the main
main reason
why our en viron ment is now in an unsatisfactory state is
that in the past the Government and the community made
choices which gave too little emphasis to the needs of the
now have to recover lost ground.
Govern ment will therefore give greater emphasis to the
environment in future, and seek to allocate resources for
environment.
We
our
ma jor
infrastructural
projects.
CONFIDENTIAL
While detailed