STUART LAUstuart.lau@scmp.com
PUBLISHED : Friday, 28 August, 2015, 12:00am
UPDATED : Friday, 28 August, 2015, 12:00am
English is "the only one official language" when foreigners come to Hong Kong. Photo: Edward Wong
Improving English proficiency among citizens and increasing the use of renewable energy are essential to Hong Kong's continuing development, Germany's top diplomat in the city says.
"It seems to me that in general English skills are not improving in Hong Kong, for objective, understandable reasons," Nikolaus Graf Lambsdorff says. "I think that is a fact and probably not a good development."
English, he says, is "the only one official language" when foreigners come to Hong Kong.
"That of course makes life much, much easier for foreigners, including me. That is a big asset for Hong Kong," he tells the South China Morning Post. "And I can only hope that Hong Kong keeps this asset."
Graf Lambsdorff is not the only one to express concern at slipping English-language standards in Hong Kong. In its English Proficiency Index last year, language instruction company EF Education First ranked the English skills of Hongkongers marginally lower than those of residents of major mainland cities including Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin.
In order to improve that, the diplomat says more support is needed to promote the use of English in class as a first step.
"The next step: Hong Kong needs as much international exposure as possible," he says. "Younger people need to be interested and exposed to the world [and] need their own personal international experiences.
"[For] young people in Germany now, it is almost like normal to study abroad."
Coming from a land where 12 per cent of energy is from renewable sources such as wind, hydroelectric and solar power, Graf Lambsdorff can offer insight as Hong Kong debates how to power its future. At present, just 0.1 per cent of Hong Kong's energy is from renewable sources.
"I think Hong Kong could do more," he says. "I would be very surprised if Hong Kong would not make progress on the way of using more renewable energy."
Despite those shortcomings, Graf Lambsdorff believes Hong Kong will remain popular with German businesses looking to tap China. Last year 330 German companies had operations in the city, of which two-thirds were regional headquarters.
"Yes, there are a lot of investments going to the mainland bypassing Hong Kong, but at the same time at least when I look at [the number of] German companies ... if it is changing at all, [it] is increasing," he says.
"And often this would be our advice: if you are new to the China business, think of going first to Hong Kong and then take the next step," he says. "It still is."
Stuart Lau
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1853175/german-consul-general-hong-kong-touts-citys
