Government think tank the Central Policy Unit also splashes out HK$9.8 million for research work
TONY CHEUNG AND NG KANG-CHUNG
UPDATED : Wednesday, 30 March, 2016, 11:34pm
One Country Two Systems Research Institute chief Cheung Chi-kong. Photo: SCMP Pictures
The government’s top advisory body awarded nearly a million dollars in public money to fund consultancy studies by a research institute close to its leader for at least the third year in a row.
The Central Policy Unit, a think tank, has also earmarked HK$7 million to conduct dozens of opinion polls in the coming year and another HK$9.8 million for commissioned research.
In recent years, pan-democrat lawmakers have questioned decisions by the CPU, led by Shiu Sin-por, to grant research funding to the One Country Two Systems Research Institute, which Shiu and Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying used to head.
The institute’s current chief is executive councillor Cheung Chi-kong.
Official documents released yesterday show the CPU granted HK$811,440 to the institute for a “study on current affairs and topical issues” in the past year, and spending on a study under the same title will continue in the coming year.
The unit also granted HK$300,000 to the China Institute of International Studies, a think tank under the Foreign Ministry, for a study on the latest developments in nine Asian countries including Russia, and another HK$65,000 for Polytechnic University to study Hong Kong’s role in the “One Belt, One Road” national strategy.
The CPU also spent HK$4.32 million on 43 public opinion polls in the last year, down from HK$7.35 million on 75 polls in the 2014-15 financial year. In the coming year, its budget for opinion polls will increase to HK$7 million ahead of the chief executive election in 2017.
Shiu will be paid about HK$310,000 a month, about the same amount awarded to each of the government’s 13 policy bureau chiefs.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1932189/hk7m-public-cash-set-fund-opinion-polls-hong-kong-ahead-2017
