Liberal exodus robs business of its voice

PUBLISHED SINCE 1903 VOLUME LXV NO. 236
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
see live updates at www.scmp.com
HK $7.00
Polarised politics seen as 60pc
quit city’s main pro-business party
Liberal exodus
robs business
of its voice
......................................................
Gary Cheung
Space race. South Korea’s first space rocket takes off off after an aborted attempt last week and just
from the launch pad at the Naro Space Centre, at a
months after rival North Korea drew international
beach in Goheung, south of Seoul. The rocket blasted ire for its own launch. Photo: AP
Full report A9
Yacht Club bids to host top race
......................................................
Chan Kin-wa
It’s the Formula One of yachting, and
Hong Kong wants a piece of it.
The Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club
hopes to bring America’s Cup-class
racing to Victoria Harbour. And the
government, having lost to Singapore and Qingdao
the chance
to host a leg of the world’s other topnotch yachting event, the 2008-09
Volvo Ocean Race, is behind the bid.
With the America’s Cup having
descended into farce with holder Alinghi and challenger Oracle embroiled in a messy legal dispute
ahead of their showdown in February
in Dubai, the Louis Vuitton World Series has been conceived to give the
rest of the world a chance to compete
in America’s Cup-class yachts.
The Yacht Club has not said how
much it would cost to stage the event
but has applied for help from the government’s Mega Events Fund towards the cost of hosting a seven-day
World Series regatta in November
next year. A person with knowledge
of the club’s application said it was
for HK$10 million.
Sailing superpowers New Zealand and the United States have
agreed to compete in the World Series, and the club is planning to enter
a joint Hong Kong-mainland team.
The regatta, which would be the
biggest sailing race held in Hong
Kong, meets the requirements of the
HK$100 million fund, which include
attracting visitors to the city and
bringing economic benefits.
Chan Pak-ling, the Yacht Club’s
public relations and communications manager, said one of the pre-
Central
Star Ferry
Victoria
piers H a r b o u r
Pier 10
Central post office
Conn
augh
t Rd
Proposed site
of boat village
City Hall
Cen
tral
50m
SCMP GRAPHIC
requisites for applying the fund was
to have attendance of at least 10,000
for the regatta. The club is confident
thousands of Hongkongers would
turn out. It has proposed the regatta
village be set up at Central’s Pier 10,
now under construction on reclaimed land in front of City Hall.
“This is like the Formula One of
yachting and it is an honour for Hong
Kong to host such a race,” Ms Chan
said. “New Zealand and the United
States have already agreed to come
with their top sailors, who have
America’s Cup experience.” The club
was hoping teams from Australia,
South Africa, Italy, France and Britain
would also take part, she said.
Asenior Home Affairs Bureau official with responsibility for sport said
the government welcomed the proposal as an opportunity to host
world-class competition.
“We are still studying the proposal, but a race like the America’s Cup in
Hong Kong has plenty of merit,” he
said. The club’s funding application
will be assessed next month.
From flawed shot at survival to cult camera
......................................................
Ben Sin
It was meant to be a cheap toy camera for the mainland market. Yet,
more than two decades after it was
conceived in a Hung Hom factory,
the Holga has gained a cult following
worldwide rather like that for the
Russian-made Lomo cameras.
In today’s digital age, where portability and convenience are primary
considerations, the Holga is selling
better than ever despite its clunky
size and primitive design.
Even its creator admits he was just
trying to make a quick buck when he
came up with the idea for the plastic
camera. “I was looking to make
something simple and cheap,” says
79-year-old Lee Ting-mo, founder of
Universal Electronics Industries. “I
wasn’t too ambitious then.”
In the 1970s, Universal Electronics
made stand-alone flash guns for
cameras. But when Japanese camera
company Konica released the
world’s first camera with a built-in
flash in 1979, sales plummeted.
“I had to come up with something, it was a matter of survival,” he
says. Mr Lee had neither the technology nor the ambition to compete
against powerhouse Japanese manufacturers, so he designed a simple
camera using the cheapest materials.
He insisted on adding a built-in flash
The Holga camera, a modern icon.
unit, however. “I wanted to show off
what we did best – making flash
units,” he recalls.
When the product was first tested,
Mr Lee bragged to observers that the
camera was ho gwong, meaning
“very bright” in Cantonese. He says
some non-Chinese buyers later
dubbed it “Holga”, and the name
stuck.
Made entirely of plastic, the Holga
uses medium-format 120 film and
the resulting photos are often blurry
because the lens leaks light. With a
clunky shutter that makes a loud
clicking sound after each snap, the
Holga looks and feels like a toy.
Because of a design flaw that
leaves images underlit, pictures taken with the Holga usually display
what is known as “vignetting”, where
the brightness of the image fades
• CONTINUED ON A2
News Digest
HK & Delta
International
City
Interpreters set for Nepali’s inquest
Criminal inquiry into CIA ‘terror’ tactics
Second baby blunder at hospital
In what is believed to be a first, headsets and
interpreters will be provided to the public gallery
at the inquest of a Nepali man shot dead by a
policeman. His widow and ethnic minority
communities had complained about the decision
to hear the case in Cantonese.
Full report A3
The Obama administration launches a criminal
investigation into the harsh questioning of
detainees during George W. Bush’s “war on
terror”. In one instance of CIA interrogation, cited
in an investigator’s report, a suspect was hooded
and threatened with a power drill. Full report A8
A nurse injected five newborns with a vaccine
that had been diluted two days earlier and should
have been used within four hours – the second
mistake within two weeks involving babies at
Queen Elizabeth Hospital. She injected them
without checking data on the bottle. Full report C1
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Leading business executives have left
the political party that aspired to be
their voice in the Legislative Council,
leaving the sector without a united
force to represent its interests. Debate is likely to become more
polarised as a result, say observers of
the political scene.
The executives are among the 60
per cent of Liberal Party members
who have jumped ship or been struck
off its membership roll for not paying
their dues since its electoral rout last
year and subsequent split. The loss of
624 members has left the Liberals
with just 412, making them the second-smallest of Hong Kong’s five
major political parties.
Some business executives have
joined Economic Synergy, a group
set up in June by legislators who quit
the Liberals, but one observer of the
political scene believes some people
in business have grown disenchanted with politics.
The decline of the Liberals is a big
turnaround for a party that, little
more than a decade ago, aspired to
become the city’s ruling party.
Founding chairman Allen Lee
Peng-fei said the party had only itself
to blame for the exodus. It had flipflopped too often under pressure
Stanley Hui
Steven Poon
from Beijing or the Hong Kong
government.
Among the big names to have left
the party since September are Airport
Authority chief executive Stanley Hui
Hon-chung; Herbert Hui Ho-ming, a
former deputy chief executive of
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing;
designer Kan Tai-keung; Henderson
Land Development executive director Suen Kwok-lam; and Michael Li
Hon-sing, executive director of the
Federation of Hong Kong Hotel
Owners. Steven Poon Kwok-lim and
Lau Wah-sum, former legislators
who co-founded the party in 1993,
quit in November.
Most lost their membership because they did not pay their annual
dues of HK$150 on time.
Party chairwoman Miriam Lau
Kin-yee said memberships would be
terminated once fees were three
months overdue. “Prior to September last year, this requirement was
not so strictly enforced,” she said.
Ms Lau, one of three surviving
Liberal Party lawmakers, said the
party believed that a smaller, but
more committed and united membership was “perhaps better than
having a larger membership that is
mostly inactive”.
Membership plunged from 1,473
in 1997 to 253 in 1998, mostly because
members had not paid their dues.
The party had 881 members by May
2006, when it disclosed its membership list for the first time.
The party plans a membership
drive at the end of this year.
James Sung Lap-kung, a political
analyst at City University, said the
business sector lacked an organised
and strong force to represent its interests in the wake of the party’s demise.
“Compared with the pan-democrats and the pro-Beijing camp, the
Liberal Party has been seen as a centre-right force in Hong Kong’s political spectrum,” Dr Sung said. “Political debate will become more
polarised after its influence wanes.”
Dr Sung said it was important the
business sector had a political voice.
The Liberals won seven functional constituency seats in last
• CONTINUED ON A3
A2 Hong Kong & Delta
Public Eye
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2009 SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
Ferry operators get Flawed shot at
survival
now
assurance on the
a cult camera
cost of cleaner diesel
with Michael Chugani
mickchug@gmail.com
Higher education in history
Let’s give the Jockey Club a break. Its idea of building a panoramic
observation deck on top of a new high-rise smack in the middle of the
historic Central Police Station compound has merit. All those NGOs
opposing the plan need to think outside the box. Forget about how awful
it is to stick a skyscraper into a treasured heritage site. Think of all the
things you can observe from the viewing deck. Bring along your Auntie
Ah Chun from the Tin Shui Wai housing estate for a history lesson on how
in her day you could see
clear across the harbour
to Lantau. She’ll likely
squint and ask why all she
can now see are towering
grey slabs against a hazy
backdrop, wondering if
her eyesight has finally
failed her. You can
reassure her about her
eyesight. But she’ll stare
back blankly if you try
Central Police Station
explaining things like
“smog” and the “wall effect” of monster buildings ringing Hong Kong.
“Oh, is that why I’ve got asthma? Is that why there’s no breeze in Hong
Kong any more?” Back in her day, the wind at such a height would have
blown her away. You can tell her to look through the cracks of the “wall
effect” for a view. But then she’ll ask if her eyes are playing tricks or if
both the Star Ferry and Queen’s Pier have vanished. And if the harbour
has really shrunk. Hurry her back down if you don’t want to explain why a
muddy moonscape has swallowed up half the harbour where the Star
Ferry once stood. So you see, an observation deck on a historic site has
its purpose. Auntie Ah Chun can visualise from up there what it’s like for
our bureaucrats to live in ivory towers. And the deck can be our
21st-century monument to how hard those bureaucrats have worked to
make Hong Kong a world city.
• CONTINUED FROM A1
A ferry spews black diesel exhaust yesterday en route from Central to Cheung Chau. Photo: Oliver Tsang
Another relic bites the dust
......................................................
Senior civil servants are in a foul mood. They can’t understand why
they’re being forced into a 5.38 per cent pay cut when their lower-paid
colleagues are being spared. The senior bureaucrats say morale has
plunged and many plan to quit. Good. Public Eye can think of no better
way finally to break that leftover relic of bygone days – the iron rice bowl.
sure for a fare rise,” general manager
Nelson Ng Siu-yuen said.
Launching the nine-month trial
of the cleaner fuel yesterday, the
Environmental Protection Department said it would pay up to HK$10
million in incentives for ferry operators to take part. The money was for
fuel subsidies and technical monitoring. The trial would provide data on
operating costs, and the impact on
maintenance and technical performance to help officials decide whether all ferries should use cleaner fuel.
The fuel, 100 times lower in sulphur, will be supplied to five selected
ferries by an oil barge operated by
Sinopec in Cheung Sha Wan.
These are New World First Ferry’s
Xin Hui III and VIII between Central
and Cheung Chau and Xin Ying running from Central to Mui Wo; Hong
Kong & Kowloon Ferry’s Hoi Ming
connecting Central and Peng Chau;
and a Hong Kong and Yaumati Ferry
car-carrier between Kwun Tong and
North Point.
The Star Ferry did not join the
trial, saying its own trial of cleaner
Cheung Chi-fai and Anita Lam
The extra cost of using cleaner diesel
in Hong Kong’s ferries is likely to be
much less than ferry operators have
claimed, the environment watchdog
says.
Ultra-low-sulphur marine diesel,
which went on trial in five ferries yesterday, would cost about 60 HK cents
a litre more than conventional diesel,
not up to HK$3 as the companies had
estimated, the Environmental Protection Department said.
But one of the operators said the
cleaner fuel would still push up its
operating costs by 10 per cent,
increasing pressure for a fare rise.
A department spokesman said
clean diesel now cost HK$4.50 a litre,
compared with HK$3.90 for conventional marine diesel, subject to oilprice fluctuations.
Hong Kong & Kowloon Ferry said
that price difference would lead to a
10 per cent rise in operating costs if all
its vessels used the fuel.
“The additional cost would erode
our meagre profit and increase pres-
No-strings puppet mistress
There’s a stench in the air. It’s coming from the Fringe Club in Central.
Follow the stink and you’ll end up at the Pottery Workshop inside. A
closer sniff will take you straight to its source – the workshop’s director,
Caroline Cheng Wai. She’s pals with Hong Kong’s mainland bosses. That
comes with being a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative
Conference. There’s nothing wrong with that. What’s plenty wrong is
flaunting this chumminess. The Fringe Club won’t renew Ms Cheng’s
lease. That got her mad, so she told a club official she had a “direct line”
to Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen. But she says she hasn’t pulled
any strings to get the lease renewed, nor does she intend to. The funny
thing is she still managed to get through to the right people when she
called Secretary for Home Affairs Tsang Tak-sing to pressure the club. Go
tell your Auntie Ah Chun and her friends they don’t need strings to reach
the right people in government. All they need is a phone. They’ll likely
burst into toothless cackles so loud and long you’ll think they’ve all gone
loony. Ms Cheng’s phone call did the trick. Mr Tsang’s bureau is now piling
on the pressure even though it had earlier said the lease renewal was
none of its business. When people know you can pull strings, you don’t
actually have to pull them to get what you want. If the Pottery Workshop
gets a new lease, Auntie Ah Chun and her friends will cackle some more
about how the puppets still danced even without strings being pulled.
diesel in 2006 resulted
in loss of power, higher
fuel consumption, and
engine corrosion. “We
will still keep track of
the trial results of other ferry operators,” general manager Johnny
Leung Tak-hing said.
The department spokesman said
there had been no mechanical problems for government vessels since
they started using the cleaner fuel in
2000. He said there were other solutions to resolve the operators’ worries
about the lubricating effect of sulphur in the engines.
The spokesman said that if all
local passenger ferries switched to
the cleaner fuel, the total sulphur
emissions from the marine sector
could be cut by about 12.5 per cent.
Other sulphur emissions come from
domestic vessels such as barges and
fishing boats, as well as ocean-going
vessels and cross-border ferries.
The Marine Department said four
local vessel operators were convicted
for black-smoke emissions last year,
compared with none in 2007.
Editorial
A12
towards the edges, producing dark
corners with saturated centres. Sales
were so badly affected by the design
problem that Mr Lee was ready to
stop the line.
“We mass-produced the first
batch of 5,000 and it moved so slowly
I was going to discontinue after they
were gone,” he says. But the camera
found life overseas when a group of
analogue photography enthusiasts in
Austria who had been using a Lomo
model got their hands on the Holga.
“Ironically, they considered the
vignetting problem an artistic effect,”
Mr Lee recalls. “The popularity of the
camera picked up overseas and the
orders started coming in.”
Over the next two decades, the
Holga’s popularity continued to
spread, especially in the United
States and Japan. Even professional
photographers began taking notice,
most notably award-winning American photojournalist David Burnett.
Much like an audiophile will
claim that vinyl records still sound
better than digitally enhanced CDs
and MP3s, many professional photographers feel a similar partiality for
Holga’s low-fidelity photos.
“Digital pictures are almost too
clean and too sharp; there’s no texture to them,” says Norm Yip Waising, 46, a professional photographer
in Hong Kong. “But with film,
because it’s made out of chemicals,
there’s texture inherent in them and
that shows in the photos.”
Leading Hong Kong cinematographer Henry Chung Yau-tim is even
more extravagant in his praise of the
Holga. “I am an avid stereo photographer and I used to shoot with a Hasselblad XPAN. That camera costs
HK$30,000 and the lens another
HK$30,000,” he says. “I now use a
Holga 120 Stereo Camera, which
costs HK$600 and produces the same
pictures. I seriously cannot tell the
difference.”
Mr Chung says he carries his Holga with him at all times.
For many young Hongkongers,
the appeal of the Holga lies in its simplicity. “What I love about the Holga
is how basic it is, the lack of options
makes for an unpredictable shooting
experience,” says Jeffrey Siu TszHang, 15. “You never know how a
photo has turned out until you’ve
developed the film. The anticipation
fascinates me.”
Young Holga fans tend to gather
in Facebook groups to share photos
and tips. Carmen Ng Ka-man, 22, a
journalism student at the University
of Hong Kong, started one of the earliest Facebook pages for fans in the
city in 2007. “I noticed there wasn’t a
dedicated page for fans in Hong
Kong,” she says. “I thought that was
weird, considering I know many people who love to capture Hong Kong’s
spectacular east-meets-west cityscape.” The page, now just one of
many on the social-networking website dedicated to Holga images, has
more than 1,200 members.
Ms Ng fell in love with the Holga as
she was about to complete secondary
school. “I love the lack of rules with
the Holga. It was a perfect tool to capture our youth before we each headed off to different universities.”
Despite the Holga’s steady rise in
popularity this decade – the millionth
Holga was sold last year and a search
on popular photo-sharing site flickr
.com yields 22,975 Holga users – for
many years Mr Lee and Universal
Electronics focused on manufacturing, content to leave the lucrative distribution and marketing business to
others. However, that changed a few
years ago following a split with Lomography Asia, which used to act as
the local distributor for the Holga.
“They came to us a few years ago
and requested to be the sole distributor of the Holga,” Mr Lee says. “I
rejected their offer because I didn’t
like the monopoly aspect.”
Their relationship soured after
that, Mr Lee says, and this year Universal Electronics launched a marketing division, Holga Inspire, and
opened five shops across the city.
Holga Inspire’s public relations
co-ordinator, Christine So Chi-yuet,
says their main goal is to develop a
community of Holga photographers
worldwide through exhibitions.
Ever practical, Mr Lee sees Holga
Inspire as a means of ensuring his
company’s survival, just as he did
more than 20 years ago when he created the Holga.
Weather
HONG KONG
FORECAST
28 33
Tomorrow
fine and very hot.
Friday
fine and very hot.
28 33
28 33
28 33
N
WIND
HUMIDITY
UV INDEX
POLLUTION
Force 3
65-85%
12
Low to Medium
Fine and very hot apart from isolated showers and
thunderstorms. Temperatures will range between 28
and 33 degrees. Moderate east to southeasterly winds.
Fine and very hot in the following few days.
GENERAL SITUATION (11PM YESTERDAY)
Under the influence of a ridge of high pressure, the
weather was generally fine over southeastern China.
On the other hand, showers affected the coast of
Guangdong and the northern part of the South China
Sea. Locally, it was very hot in the afternoon. The
maximum temperatures over the northern part of
the New Territories rose to about 34 degrees. The
ridge of high pressure is expected to strengthen and
bring generally fine weather to southern China in the
next few days.
THE WORLD TODAY
Showers
Cloudy
Cloudy
Cloudy
Cloudy
Rain
Fine
Cloudy
Showers
Rain
Rain
Fine
Thunder
Cloudy
Rain
Rain
Cloudy
Dalian
Guilin
Guiyang
Hefei
Jinan
Lanzhou
Nanchang
Nanjing
Nanning
Shijiazhuang
Taiyuan
Urumqi
Wenzhou
Xiamen
Xining
Yinchuan
Zhengzhou
22
25
20
25
21
16
28
26
25
21
17
18
23
27
13
17
22
ASIA-PACIFIC
26
36
31
34
29
23
35
34
33
23
24
29
32
34
17
21
32
Harbin 18 26
Hohhot 13 25
Shenyang 19 27
Tokyo 23 28
Beijing 20 31
Seoul 22 27
API LEVEL
MIN
MAX
Low to Medium
Medium to High
20
50
40
70
POLLUTION YESTERDAY
Qingdao 22 26
Xian 22 29
API LEVEL
MIN
MAX
Central/Western
Eastern
Kwai Chung
Kwun Tong
Sha Tin
Sham Shui Po
Tai Po
Tap Mun
Tsuen Wan
Tung Chung
Yuen Long
Medium
Medium
Medium
Medium
Medium
Medium
Medium
Medium
Medium
Medium
Medium
21
21
26
22
17
28
22
18
27
17
26
48
43
54
47
47
50
50
43
59
57
60
ROADSIDE STATIONS
API LEVEL
MIN
MAX
High
High
High
49
54
52
76
96
86
Causeway Bay
Central/Western
Mong Kok
API = AIR POLLUTION INDEX
WWW.EPD.GOV.HK
PEARL RIVER DELTA REGIONAL AIR QUALITY MAP
GUANGZHOU
I
II
III
IV
V
Pollutant concentrations are well within the air quality standards.
Pollutant concentrations are generally within the air quality standards.
Concentrations of individual pollutants may approach or exceed the air quality standards.
Air quality standards are generally exceeded.
Air quality standards are significantly exceeded.
TIDES
High
Low
High
Low
MOON & SUN
2.1m 00:58
1.0m 07:08
1.5m 14:14
1.2m 18:38
Moonrise
Moonset
Sunrise
Sunset
11:38
22:41
06:04
18:46
Shanghai 26 35
Wuhan 28 36
Hangzhou 26 36
Changsha 27 38
Kunming 16 26
Calcutta 26 33
Amsterdam
Athens
Barcelona
Belgrade
Berlin
Brussels
Budapest
Copenhagen
Dublin
Frankfurt
Geneva
Helsinki
Istanbul
Lisbon
London
Madrid
Milan
Moscow
Munich
Oslo
Paris
Prague
Rome
Stockholm
Vienna
Zurich
Taipei 27 36
Guangzhou 27
Kaohsiung 27 29
Hanoi 27 33
Hong Kong 28 33
Haikou 25 34
Vientiane 23 32
Yangon 21 31
Manila 26 30
Bangkok 25 33
Adelaide
Auckland
Bangalore
Brisbane
Brunei
Busan (Pusan)
Canberra
Colombo
Darwin
Delhi
Denpasar
Dhaka
Hobart
Honolulu
Islamabad
Jakarta
Karachi
Male/Maldives
Melbourne
Mumbai
Perth
Sydney
Tashkent
Wellington
MIN
MAX
fine
rain
cloudy
fine
showers
fine
rain
thunder
fine
thunder
fine
thunder
showers
fine
thunder
cloudy
fine
thunder
showers
thunder
fine
fine
fine
rain
9
11
20
14
24
22
2
24
21
25
23
24
6
19
23
24
27
28
8
26
7
10
14
11
17
18
28
27
33
26
12
30
35
31
29
32
13
31
34
32
34
28
15
30
22
20
31
15
cloudy
fine
thunder
fine
cloudy
mainly fine
fine
few showers
showers
cloudy
showers
few showers
fine
fine
rain
fine
showers
fine
thunder
rain
cloudy
rain
fine
rain
showers
showers
13
23
22
18
17
12
18
16
13
15
16
10
19
17
15
17
21
10
18
13
13
16
20
15
15
16
22
33
31
32
25
23
31
23
21
26
27
22
29
28
22
34
31
22
25
19
26
23
33
19
28
25
EUROPE
Naha 27 33
Fuzhou 26 36
Phnom Penh 25 31
Ho Chi Minh City 25 33
Phuket 27 30
Kuala Lumpur 24 33
Singapore 24 31
MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA
SUNNY
FOG
ISOLATED
SHOWERS
SHOWER
ISOLATED
THUNDER
DUST
SNOW
FLURRIES
HAIL
PARTLY
CLOUDY
CLOUDY /
OVERCAST
DRIZZLE
RAIN
THUNDER
WINDY
SNOW
TYPHOON
ISOBAR CHART
YESTERDAY'S READINGS
TEMPERATURES
Chek Lap Kok
Cheung Chau
Hong Kong Park
King's Park
Lau Fau Shan
Sai Kung
Sha Tin
Ta Kwu Ling
Wong Chuk Hang
MIN
MAX
29.1
26.2
28.4
28.1
27.3
28.2
28.6
26.3
28.2
34.3
31.0
32.9
32.3
34.6
31.0
32.7
33.0
32.0
28.3
27.4
69
33.3
FRONTS
COLD
Air Temperature
Grass
Humidity (%)
Sunshine (Hours)
Rainfall (mm)
WARM
OCCLUDED
1008
83
6.7
Trace
STATIONARY
TROUGH
1010
AS AT 2PM
YESTERDAY
Total rainfall since January 1st is 1,538.1 mm
against an average of 1,812.8 mm.
DATA SOURCE
SMGM Hong Kong Observatory
EPD www.epd.gov.hk
Abu Dhabi
Amman
Bahrain
Beirut
Cairo
Cape Town
Casablanca
Doha
Dubai
Jeddah
Johannesburg
Kuwait
Riyadh
Tel Aviv
fine
fine
fine
fine
fine
mainly fine
mainly fine
fine
fine
mainly fine
fine
fine
fine
fine
30
19
30
25
24
9
21
33
32
29
7
31
33
22
44
31
40
32
33
18
26
44
43
39
21
48
45
31
fine
showers
mainly fine
rain
mainly fine
mainly fine
thunder
rain
mainly fine
few showers
thunder
fine
fine
fine
showers
thunder
mainly fine
fine
mainly fine
showers
fine
mainly fine
mainly fine
few showers
mainly fine
fine
21
9
22
18
14
10
26
17
26
19
24
26
16
17
11
28
19
21
18
19
13
4
13
15
11
21
31
21
31
25
24
23
34
27
41
26
34
39
20
27
25
33
22
37
21
22
23
24
27
23
23
34
THE AMERICAS
1010
HONG KONG OBSERVATORY
HONG KONG
Hiroshima 17 27
Chongqing 27 34
Kathmandu 15 29
Chennai 28 36
GENERAL STATIONS
Osaka 21 30
Tianjin 20 30
Chengdu 22 28
Lhasa 9 20
Sapporo 15 25
Changchun 17 26
POLLUTION TODAY'S FORECAST
General Station
Roadside Station
Sunday
fine and very hot but hazy.
28 33
ASIA TODAY
Today
fine and very hot apart from isolated
showers.
FORECAST
Saturday
fine and very hot.
Other cities visit: www.scmp.com
Information visit: www.metra.info
Atlanta
Bogota
Boston
Brasilia
Buenos Aires
Calgary
Caracas
Chicago
Dallas
Detroit
Houston
Las Vegas
Lima
Los Angeles
Mexico City
Miami
Montreal
New York
Ottawa
Rio De Janeiro
San Francisco
Santiago
Seattle
Toronto
Vancouver
Washington DC
A shot by young fan Jeffrey Siu shows the Holga’s vignetting effect.
Fall in exports a sign
of consumer doubt
......................................................
Dennis Eng
Hong Kong’s trade suffered a major
setback last month as total exports
shrank almost one-fifth year on year
in a worrying sign consumers are
unconvinced about a recovery.
July’s 19.9 per cent drop in the value of total exports to HK$212.28 billion from a year ago followed four
months of steadily smaller declines
that saw exports drop by just 5.4 per
cent in June, the Census and Statistics Department said.
Last month’s result was worse
than the 12 per cent average fall economists had expected.
Between April and June, Hong
Kong, Singapore and other markets
recorded their first quarterly growth
since the credit crunch, spurring
hopes of a quick turnaround.
A government spokesman attributed the steep drop to the relatively
high base of comparison in July last
year, when the value of exports rose
to more than HK$265.1 billion, the
second highest on record.
The weak performance was part
of a trend across the region as
demand for imports in advanced
economies was still subdued, the
spokesman said.
The recovery would be uneven
Down in the dumps
Y-o-y % changes in the value of
Hong Kong’s external trade
Imports
Exports
20
10
0
-10
-20
-30
Aug 08
Jul 09
SCMP GRAPHIC SOURCE: CENSUS AND STATISTICS DEPARTMENT
given that overseas demand had yet
to show signs of near-term improvement, he said.
Of total exports last month, reexports, which account for about 97
per cent, fell 19.2 per cent to
HK$207.14 billion and domestic
exports dropped 41.3 per cent to
about HK$5.14 billion. Imports fell
17.8 per cent to HK$233.95 billion,
with the trade deficit widening to just
under HK$21.67 billion from
HK$16.48 billion in June.
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