Public doubts officials' financial skills, survey shows
The public consultation on the introduction of a goods and services tax has lowered Hong Kong people's confidence in the government, a political group said as it announced findings from its regular opinion poll.
The New Forum interviewed 1,408 people last month and this month, and found respondents least confident about the government's ability to handle economic matters and fair competition.
Respondents were asked to assign a score of one to seven for the government's performance in five areas. A score of four is considered satisfactory.
They were most confident about the government's ability to maintain human rights (which scored 4.41), governance and livelihood policies (though both scored below four), followed by its work on constitutional development.
They gave a score of only 3.36 for the government's performance on economics and maintaining fair competition. Its work in this area drew the third-best score in the same survey in May.