Living Smart

IV PUBLIC POLICY & SOCIAL SCIENCE 128 129 to minimize their travel time; and in this case, pay a toll to continue using the important roads in Central during rush hour. On the other hand, those who put a lower value on time would switch to public transportation instead, causing a cascading effect across the entire public transit system. With less private vehicles on the road, buses will have shorter travel times. This may then attract people to switch from the MTR to buses, hence alleviating crowding on trains. Moreover, if the toll revenue collected from cars is used to lower public transportation fares to Central through a certain subsidy scheme, this will benefit both existing public transportation users and those who switch to public transportation. All public transportation users will benefit from both lower fares and faster transit times to Central. Those who keep using cars will find their travel times shortened, and the value of that is higher than the toll they pay. London and Singapore have used ERP for over a decade with varying degrees of success. Stockholm’ s experience, which introduced ERP permanently in 2007, could prove illustrative for Hong Kong. Sweden’ s capital city held a seven-month long trial of the system in early 2006, followed by a referendum in September that year that saw the largest municipality in the metropolitan area vote in favor of permanent implementation of ERP. Our government should explore a similar approach and prepare a trial ERP period that will clearly demonstrate the positive effects. Doing so will help swing the public in favor of ERP. After all, a reduced number of vehicles will not only improve the experience of our travel in Central but also the air quality in the area, helping Hong Kong to go forward as a green city. Published on May 22, 2019 Belt allies owed a clear road ahead Prof. Donald LOW Professor of Practice in Public Policy, Division of Public Policy CHEN Kejun Master of Public Policy student L eaders from more than 30 countries gathered in Beijing late last month for a forum on the Belt and Road Initiative. In his speech at the opening ceremony, President XI Jinping stressed that “the market should play a decisive role in resource allocation.” This appears to be in response to international concerns about the “debt trap,” the cost-benefit calculus of Belt and Road projects, and the possible export of China’ s governance practices. To address Belt and Road doubts, China should take three steps to strengthen the role of the market in the initiative. First, it should enhance transparency and market discipline by making public procurement procedures, tendering processes and lending standards. Systematic assessments of local socioeconomic environment and the debt repayment capacity of host countries should also be conducted. In the event of a debt crisis, assistance should be given to these countries to restructure debts rather than require them to undertake debt-for-equity swaps that may be perceived as a loss of sovereignty. Second, China should reconfigure the role that state-owned enterprises play in Belt and Road projects. The World Bank Group points out in a new working paper that “the limited available evidence suggests that Chinese