Poll shows low expectations for Chief Executive CY Leung's policy speech

Almost half of Hongkongers questioned in a Chinese University poll expect nothing from this year's policy address, which Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying delivers next week.

Some 37.8 per cent of the respondents also said they distrusted Leung's administration, against 29.2 per cent who did trust the government.

Pollsters said the study reflected governance difficulties besetting the administration. Political reform has triggered unprecedented protests, notably the 79-day Occupy road sit-ins, while a restive Legislative Council has been frustrating the government's attempts to push through policy initiatives.

The university's Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies polled 744 people on their hopes for Leung's annual agenda-setting speech, due a week from tomorrow.

"People understand it is very difficult for the government to put forward any important policies now and have thus lowered their expectations," the institute's coordinator Dr Victor Zheng Wan-tai said.

"Leung should put more effort into livelihood issues if he wishes to regain support, given that it's hard for him to make a breakthrough on political reform."

In the survey, carried out between December 28 and 30, some 47.2 per cent of respondents said they had no expectations of the policy address, up 2.6 percentage points on a similar poll conducted before last year's speech. Some 42.6 per cent had some expectation, while 6.9 per cent told researchers they had high expectations.