📋 Tender Overview
Following is a question by the Hon Aaron Bok and a written reply by the Secretary for Environment and Ecology Mr Tse Chinwan in the Legislative Council today April 22
Question
In recent years the Government has consistently emphasised an infrastructuredriven economy and has been committed to enhancing Hong Kongs competitiveness However the industry has relayed that the production costs for engineering and construction projects in Hong Kong have been high in recent years one of the reasons being that such engineering projects must comply with the statutory procedures under the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance Cap 499 and the relevant assessment criteria specified in the Technical Memorandum on Environmental Impact Assessment Process the Memorandum In this connection will the Government inform this Council
1 whether it has compiled statistics on the number of engineering projects in the past three years where compliance costs including mitigation measures compensation proposals or monitoring and auditing expenses have increased significantly due to the requirements of individual assessment criteria in the Memorandum if so of the extent of cost increase
2 whether during the implementation of the existing environmental impact assessment process and the Memorandum the Environmental Protection Department has received any complaints or views from the engineering sector consultancy firms or contractors stating that the assessment criteria are overly stringent disproportionate to actual environmental benefits or result in unreasonable cost pressures if so of the number of cases received in the past three years and the main concerns and
3 whether it will in light of the current economic environment review the assessment criteria in the Memorandum to rationalise outdated or overly stringent indicators while maintaining statutory environmental protection requirements thereby shortening project development cycles and achieving the goals of reducing overall production costs and promoting development
Reply
President
The establishment of the statutory procedures and the Technical Memorandum on Environmental Impact Assessment Process Technical Memorandum under the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance EIAO Cap 499 is intended to ensure that environmental factors and public views are fully taken into account during the planning of works projects so as to safeguard public health and wellbeing and to seize development opportunities to improve the environment This is especially crucial for achieving environmental protection in parallel with development
In 2022 the Environmental Protection Department EPD launched the worlds first publicly accessible smart environmental impact assessment EIA platform the Hong Kong Environmental Database HKED together with related smart assessment tools to assist project proponents in identifying potential environmental impacts more effectively thereby enabling the formulation of greener and more sustainable mitigation proposals at the early planning stage and facilitating speedier and more costeffective project delivery
Leveraging AI and Geographic Information System technologies the HKED brings a breakthrough transformation to EIA work not only effectively enhancing EIA efficiency but also reforming the traditional process of passive vetting of submitted EIA reports into proactive provision of data and tools Built on open access and datasharing principles it enables sharing the data not only with government departments but also project consultants and teams academia and even relevant organisations worldwide
Project proponents can use the ecological data smart assessment and spatial analysis tools available on the HKED to identify relevant environmental information and potential environmental issues at the initial planning stage enabling them to quickly assess different design options and avoid ecologically sensitive areas or potential environmental problems and eliminating the need to explore mitigation measures after issues are identified at the later EIA stages This breakthrough transformation proactively helps project proponents address environmental issues without compromising EIA standards and requirements while significantly reduces the time needed for EIA work from about 36 to 48 months to about 15 to 24 months roughly halved This demonstrates the HKEDs multiple benefits in expediting processes improving efficiency reducing costs and protecting the environment and ecology etc and its positive role in taking forward major livelihood projects
In response to the question raised by the Hon Aaron Bok the reply as follows
1 The EIAO covers aspects including air quality water quality noise ecology and landscape providing scientific and objective assessment criteria for project planning so as to formulate appropriate mitigation measures compensation proposals or monitoring and audit measures These measures are prerequisites for a project to obtain approval to proceed under the EIAO The design and costs of such measures vary depending on the scale of the project the time required for development and the conditions of surrounding environment The overall economic environment will also impact costs The EPD does not maintain information on the increased compliance costs of works projects arising from the EIA process or the benefits of reduced environmental impacts brought about by the EIA process
2 In the past three years the EPD has not received any complaints or views alleging that the EIA criteria are overly stringent disproportionate to the actual environmental benefits or causing unreasonable cost pressure
3 The EPD reviews the EIA criteria and related content from time to time After consulting the environmental sector and relevant stakeholders the EPD amended the EIAO and the Technical Memorandum in 2023 to further improve the EIA mechanism and streamline procedures with a sharper focus on key environmental
