HKU POP SITE releases the findings of a Policy Address follow-up surveyBack


Press Release on October 28, 2005
 

The Public Opinion Programme (POP) at the University of Hong Kong today releases via the "HKU POP SITE" (http://hkupop.pori.hk) the findings of a Policy Address follow-up survey. As a general practice, all figures have been weighted according to the gender-age distribution of the Hong Kong population obtained from the 2001 Population Census. In the past many years, POP has conducted instant polls after the head of the government delivered his Policy Address, or after the Financial Secretary delivered his Budget Speech. Such instant polls, which measure people's instant reaction to the policies, would be followed weeks later by our follow-up surveys, which measure people's more matured reaction. We believe this is a better way to study public opinion on these issues. The Policy Address instant poll this year has already been released the next day after the release of the Policy Address, while the findings of the follow-up survey are released today. With respect to people's specific reactions towards the contents of this year's Policy Address, findings of the instant poll and follow-up survey are summarized below:

 

Date of follow-up survey (FU survey) 25 - 27/10/05
Sample base 513
Overall response rate 65.4%
Sampling error of percentages (at 95% confidence level)* +/- 4%
Date of instant poll 12/10/05
Sample base 914
Overall response rate 66.1%
Sampling error of percentages (at 95% confidence level)* +/- 3%
How satisfied are you with Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen's Policy Address?**
FU survey Satisfied 41% Half-half 24% Dissatisfied 5% DK/HS 30% Total 100%
Instant poll^ Satisfied 48% Half-half 33% Dissatisfied 9% DK/HS 11% Total 100%
CE said the most pressing public demand is to pursue excellence in governance. He will authorise the Chief Secretary for Administration and the Financial Secretary to co-ordinate policies, with all Secretaries of Bureaux reporting to them. He will also expand the Executive Council and the Commission on Strategic Development, and to rejuvenate the membership of advisory boards, etc. Do you think CE can achieve his goal of pursuing excellence in governance in the coming year?
FU survey Yes 47% Half-half 17% No 28% DK/HS 8% Total 100%
Instant poll# Yes 46% Half-half 18% No 24% DK/HS 11% Total 100%
CE said the second theme of his policy direction is to create a harmonious community. He said the government will establish partnership relations with different sectors and bodies in the society so as to foster a harmonious community. Do you think CE can achieve his goal of creating a harmonious community in the coming year?
FU survey Yes 36% Half-half 21% No 36% DK/HS 7% Total 100%
Instant poll# Yes 38% Half-half 19% No 32% DK/HS 11% Total 100%
CE said the third theme of his policy direction is to help the economy to power ahead, to consolidate Hong Kong's position as an Asia's world city and a key international financial, trading, transportation and information hub of China. Do you think CE can achieve this goal in the coming year?
FU survey Yes 38% Half-half 21% No 33% DK/HS 9% Total 100%
Instant poll# Yes 39% Half-half 19% No 28% DK/HS 14% Total 100%

* "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.
^ Excluding respondents who said they would not answer because they had not heard of or did not know the content of the policy address, the sub-sample size of this question is thus 377 only, with sampling errors increasing to +/- 5% accordingly.
# The sub-sample size of these questions is 666, sampling errors increase to +/- 4% accordingly.

 

The follow-up survey suggested that, two weeks after the announcement of the Policy Address, 41% of the respondents were satisfied with the contents of the address, 24% said "half-half", and only 5% were dissatisfied. With regard to the three themes mentioned by CE Donald Tsang in his Policy Address, namely pursuing excellence in the government, fostering harmony in the community and helping the economy power ahead, a respective of 47%, 36% and 38% of the respondents thought Donald Tsang could achieve these goals in the coming year, while 28%, 36% and 33% respectively said no.

 

Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed, "People's satisfaction with the policy addresses usually drops after some public debates, this year is no exception. The drop this year, however, is not too big, and the latest satisfaction rate is still higher than the other 8 policy addresses in the history of the HKSAR. Regarding the three major themes of the Policy Address, namely, pursuing excellence in the government, fostering harmony in the community and helping the economy power ahead, people are still most confident in Tsang accomplishing the first one, and the relevant figures are practically the same as those recorded in the instant poll."

 

POP's normal practice is to release the results of our regular surveys every Tuesday at 2 pm via our POP Site, except during public holidays, each time with a forecast of the items to be released in the forthcoming week. We will review and adjust this operation regularly. According to this schedule, the date and time of our next release will be November 1, 2005, Tuesday, at 2 pm, we will release the latest popularity figures of CE Donald Tsang and the HKSAR Government. Then on November 3, 2005, Thursday, at 2 pm, the latest figures on subjective social and legal indicators will be released.

 

Shall anyone have any question regarding the research design of the surveys published in the POP Site, 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 us at <[email protected]>. The Director of Public Opinion Programme would answer them as soon as possible. We will keep such an arrangement under constant review, suggestions most welcome. Please note that everything carried in the POP Site does not represent the stand of the University of Hong Kong. Dr Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, is responsible for everything posted herewith, except for column articles which represent the stand of their authors.