Air Pollution Is Putting A Choke Hold on Hong Kong Business
Friday, June 23, 2006SUSIE GHARIB: Business is booming these days just about everywhere in Asia, but that boom is bringing with it some big problems. Take Hong Kong, for example. As Rob McBride reports, the city is facing a possible exodus of talent because of pollution.
ROB MCBRIDE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Hong Kong`s legendary skyline: on a good day it still looks like this. But more often than not, you get this. And in an ironic twist, the more beautiful the sunset, the more toxic the air. The Hawksworth family is packing up and leaving for good. They`ve lived here for 14 years and the children were born here.
IAN HAWKSWORTH: Our middle son seems to be allergic to something in the air here and that exacerbates his asthma.
McBRIDE: Ian is one of Hong Kong`s top businessmen, but his son, William, is on five different medications daily and sometimes has to be hospitalized. A short drive across the border into southern China and the reason for the problem quickly becomes evident. Factory chimneys seen billowing out smoke either side of the highway. Head of the American business community, Steve Marcopoto, counts himself lucky if he can see across Hong Kong`s harbor.
STEVE MARCOPOTO, CHAIRMAN OF AMCHAM, HONG KONG: We would like some of the big buyers out of the states to be aware that they`re doing business with people that are being very, very dangerously environmentally polluting around here and, as we all have read, a lot of these pollutants are actually making their way across the jet stream even into North America.
McBRIDE: LTK Cable is the sort of company that U.S. buyers could have a clear conscience about. In their factory, water curtains instead of air conditioning units skylights instead of strip lights. On the roof of the building where the workers live, solar panels supply up to 40 percent of the power.
THOMAS CHAUNG, LTK CABLE: Actually, we measures ourselves by triple bottom line, economy, the social responsibility and also environmental responsibility.
McBRIDE: But even with all its good intentions, the company cannot overcome China`s chronic power shortages, seen as the root of the pollution problem.
CHANUNG: The worst is like three days or four days short in one week. Most of the factory in China doing the same. We need to regroup (ph) our own generator in using (INAUDIBLE) diesel to turn it on. In China, the government doesn`t really come into the factory and look for environmental (INAUDIBLE)
McBRIDE: The evidence is still largely anecdotal, but everyone here knows of professionals who are leaving, are thinking of leaving, or have left already because of the pollution. And if the exodus continues, many here are predicting the potential death of Hong Kong as the region`s preeminent place to do business. MARCOPOTO: People on trading floors and brokerage houses, investment bankers, they can do their business from anywhere. They don`t necessarily have to be here. They can move on.
McBRIDE: Various remedies are in the pipeline, but an actual solution is still years away. Rob McBride, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Hong Kong.
