Plans include getting 18,000 taxi-owners to
                 convert from diesel to LPG

                 By LOH HUI YIN

                 HONGKONG -- A carrot-and-stick approach to
                 get old diesel vehicles off the road, through higher
                 annual licence fees as well as incentives for
                 replacements which use cleaner fuels.

                 And a limit on the amount of fuel in the tanks for
                 vehicles coming from the mainland to prevent lower
                 quality diesel being brought into Hongkong.

                 These are among a raft of measures which the
                 Hongkong government will implement or consider in
                 an action plan to tackle worsening air pollution. The
                 problem gained urgency in the last couple of months
                 when the Air Pollution Index shot to a dangerously
                 high level of 174 points. Acute hospital admissions
                 linked to pollution had cost about HK$3.8 billion
                 (S$830 million) yearly in medical expenses and loss
                 of productivity. Indeed, the government pulled no
                 punches yesterday when Mr Kim Salkeld, deputy
                 secretary for the Environment and Food, showed a
                 blackened piece of air filter paper, 24 hours after it
                 was installed at an air monitoring station in the central
                 business district.

                 When asked why the government has been tardy in
                 implementing the anti-pollution plans, he said: "We
                 have been trying to work out a partnership, preparing
                 the ground so that people will accept them."

                 The immediate target of its efforts was to get owners
                 of the 18,000 diesel-run taxis to convert them into the
                 cleaner liquefied petroleum gas. The government
                 would give a HK$40,000-grant to help defray the
                 cost of a new LPG taxi which cost about
                 HK$210,000. More land would also be set aside for
                 LPG filling stations. The government was even
                 prepared to forego revenue of HK$700 million from
                 land premiums to promote these stations.

                 A cross-departmental task force, headed by the
                 secretary for the Environment and Food, Mrs Lily
                 Yam, has also been established to monitor the plan's
                 implementation.

                 Mr Salkeld expected these measures to improve air
                 quality within the next 18 to 24 months. By 2003, the
                 level of particulate concentrations in the air would
                 come down to a level comparable to those of Tokyo
                 and New York.

                       Adapted from The Straits Times, 10 May 2000.