Donald Tsang leads the drive to keep Hong Kong eternally clean

Hong Kong will launch a campaign to keep the city healthy and clean forever, Chief Secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen pledged yesterday.

Speaking after the first meeting of what is dubbed Team Clean, Mr Tsang stressed the importance of the task.

He rejected suggestions he was being sent into the political wilderness in his role as chairman of the inter-departmental taskforce spearheading the campaign in the aftermath of the Sars outbreak.

Mr Tsang said the taskforce, set up by Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa on Monday, would tackle the problems of town planning and public hygiene, promote civic consciousness to keep Hong Kong clean and establish a long-term structure to improve the environment.

'This is a long-term mission. It is not a one-off campaign ... We will create a lasting process to forever maintain health and cleanliness in Hong Kong ...

'It can really rebuild Hong Kong's economic prosperity and show the world that Hong Kong has a new face which will last.'

He said the taskforce would come up with short-term plans within three weeks and medium-term ones in three months.