Hong Kong people are attaching increasing importance to environmental protection and urban planning and are less concerned about the economy these days, an annual development index shows.
As their concern with such quality-of-life issues has risen, so their satisfaction with the city's performance in these areas has fallen.
And when it comes to the environment, 65 per cent say air pollution is the biggest issue - double the 33 per cent who rated it their top environmental concern three years earlier.
Education remained their top concern last year, as it has been since 2003, the first year that City University and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce compiled their sustainable development index.
As well as education, job creation has been a high priority in each of the four years the survey has been carried out.
Last year's overall sustainable index dipped to 102.2, from 102.5 in 2005 and 102.8 in 2004. The score in 2003, the survey's base year, was 100.
'The small change [since 2003] indicates people in Hong Kong believe only minimal progress has been made in addressing priority areas,' said Ann Copeland Chiu, convenor of the Canadian chamber committee that helped compile the index, which is drawn up from interviews with 2,054 members of the public.
