Hong Kong Pollution Reaches Severe Level as Pollutants Trapped

April 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Hong Kong Pollution Reaches Severe Level as Pollutants Trapped

Hong Kong’s air pollution index reached the “severe” level for the third time this year, triggering a government warning, as the lack of air flow trapped pollutants in the city.

The Air Pollution Index (HKAICEMA) reached 203 at both the Central business district and the Mong Kok roadside-monitoring stations as of 11 a.m. local time, according to the Environment Protection Department. The index last registered similar readings in March.

“The high air pollution incident is caused by the trapping of pollutants,” the Environmental Protection Department said in a statement on its website today. “Air quality will start to improve gradually later tomorrow” after the wind picks up, according to the statement.Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has vowed to clean up the city after a government audit last year showed air quality has worsened since 2007. Poor air quality and high rental and living costs are deterring companies from setting up regional headquarters in the city, according to a survey released in November by CPA Australia.

The government said the public should avoid prolonged stays in areas with heavy traffic and reduce physical exertion. The Education Bureau (EDUCGZ) asked schools to cut down on physical activities in the next few days, and the Labour Department said employers should assess the risks of outdoor work.

Elevated nitrogen dioxide concentrations are the contributing pollutant for the smog in the city, the government said. The index ranges from zero to 500, with any reading from 201 ranked as the highest level.

Hong Kong will raise its standard for measuring air quality for the first time since 1987, using World Health Organization measures as a reference for its own objectives, Wong Kam-sing, secretary for the environment, said last month.

The government is offering HK$10 billion ($1.3 billion) in subsidies to replace old diesel vehicles, and plans to introduce laws requiring ships berthing at its ports to use cleaner fuel over the next two years.

To contact the reporter on this story: Simon Lee in Hong Kong at slee936@bloomberg.net

Filed under Macro Trends

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Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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