HKU POP SITE releases the survey results on public utilities in MacauBack

Since 1992, the Public Opinion Programme (POP) at the University of Hong Kong has been conducting studies in Macau, in order to map its changing public sentiment. So far, 13 surveys have been completed, mainly election exit polls and public opinion surveys. All studies are conducted independently by the POP research team, unaffected by any government or sponsor.

After the handovers of Hong Kong and Macau, the public mood of the two societies have come closer and closer. In the middle of last year, POP and the Union For Construction Of Macau reached an agreement to embark on a "Joint Project on Regular Opinion Surveys in Macau", initially for one year, which aims at establishing in Macau a mechanism to conduct scientific opinion surveys, reinforcing the channels for collecting public opinion, fostering the development of opinion surveys in Macau, as well as providing scientific opinion data for comparative studies between Hong Kong and Macau.

The first three surveys of this joint project were conducted in August, October and December of last year respectively, and their results have also been released in September and October of 2003 as well as in February this year. Released today are the findings of the fourth survey of this joint project, which was conducted between March 1 and 3, 2004, by random telephone surveys executed by interviewers, and successfully interviewed 776 Macau citizens of age 18 or above. The first part of the findings on Macau people's opinion on the selection method of their Chief Executive has been released some time ago. The second part of the findings, herewith released, focuses on their views on public utilities in Macau. Findings of the relevant parts are summarized in the following table:

* "95% confidence level" means that if we were to repeat a certain survey 100 times, using the same questions each time but with different random samples, we would expect 95 times getting a figure within the error margins specified.
** Collapsed from a 5-point scale.

As shown by the survey results obtained in early March in Macau, 58% of the Macau people interviewed considered bus fares reasonable. Meanwhile, 18%, 17% and 12% considered telephone fees, water and electricity charges reasonable. On the other hand, 56% were satisfied with the service quality of electricity supply, whereas the satisfaction levels of bus, telephone and water supply services were 46%, 45% and 38% correspondingly. Results also revealed that 63% were dissatisfied with the present water quality, 51% needed to pay extra expenses because of "salty tide". Besides, 83% thought it was necessary to set up an organization to regulate public utilities.

With respect to the findings obtained, Dr Fong Man-tat, representing the Union For Construction Of Macau, observed: "Without the participation of the general public, any monitoring of public utilities will not be effective, credible and legitimate. It will also have a hard time to win the trust of the people." Fong strongly demanded the setting up of a body to regulate the service quality and profit margins of public utilities in Macau.

Contact information and detailed figures of this survey have been published at the POP Site. Shall anyone have any question regarding the research design of the survey, members of the POP Team will be happy to answer them, but we will not further comment on the findings. Shall any person or journalist have any other questions, please email them to <[email protected]> or <[email protected]>. We would answer them as soon as possible. Please note that everything carried in the POP Site does not represent the stand of the University of Hong Kong.