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Bureaucratic hurdles block new technology

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HONG KONG is in danger of missing out on new technology because of bureaucracy and civil servants' fears of being accused of bribery.

Small firms with technology that is being tried elsewhere leave Hong Kong empty-handed as officials admit there is no procedure for trying out their equipment on a small scale.

Company offers to run pilot tests are turned down because ''we have no rules for handling that kind of offer''. ''If there's no procedure, it just doesn't happen,'' said one official.

He said civil servants feared facing corruption accusations if they allowed the firms to show off their processes.

Instead, the Government would spend millions on consultancy reports on technologies for a particular problem, which took years to analyse before companies were asked to tender for jobs - by which time the processes had moved on.

Lisa Hopkinson from Friends of the Earth said the group had found the Government reluctant to try new processes for handling sewage sludge. Yet, it put 12 million cubic metres of sludge each year into precious landfill space.

A small United Kingdom firm, Sherwen Green, last week gave up efforts to build a pilot plant at its own expense to test its method for burning sludge with ash to produce building aggregate.

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