TNAG-1980-FCO40-2813-Pollution-in-Hong-Kong-1989 — Page 14

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