Civil Society Index 2006

2. ENVIRONMENT

2. ENVIRONMENT To what extent is the external environment

disabling / enabling the development of civil society?

2.1. Political context 2.2. Basic freedoms & rights 2.3. Socio-economic context 2.4. Socio-cultural context 2.5. Legal environment 2.6. State-civil society relations 2.7. Private sector-civil society relations

Score: 1.5 (Not disabling, nor enabling)

2.1. Political context Score: 1.7 (Somewhat enabling)

Political rights: Lack of full democracy; yet restrictions on people’s political rights are limited.

Political competition: Having three major parties; resources and the level of institutionalization of political parties are in no way comparable with the Western counterparts.

Rule of law: Society is governed by fair and predictable rules, which are generally abided by.

Corruption: A moderate level of corruption. State effectiveness: Government bureaucracy is

functional but some aspects of which are perceived to be insufficient.

Decentralisation: The decision making power have always been rather centralized.

2.2. Basic freedoms & rights Score: 1.3 (Somewhat disabling)

Civil liberties: The protection of HK people’s basic rights and freedoms is guaranteed by the Basic Law.

Information rights: Citizens are allowed to get access to government documents, but the scope of which is limited.

Press freedom: Article 27 of the Basic Law: provide for the freedom of speech, and of the press and publication. Yet there are some violations of violations of press freedom (e.g. self-censoring).

2.3. Socio-economic context Score: 2.0 (Somewhat enabling)

Poverty: HK is by no means a poor society Civil war: None in the last five years. Recent severe ethnic/religious conflict: None in the

last five years. Severe economic crisis: No debt problem. Severe social crisis: SARS at spring of 2003. Severe socio-economic inequities: Increase in the gap

between the rich and the poor. Pervasive adult illiteracy: Adult illiteracy rate aged 15

and above < 10%. Lack of IT infrastructure: High prevalence on the use of

IT.

2.4. Socio-cultural context Score: 1.0 (Somewhat disabling)

Trust: A low level of general trust. Tolerance: A low level of tolerance in the society. Public spiritedness: A low level of public spiritedness in

the society.

2.5. Legal environment Score: 1.8 (Somewhat enabling)

CSO registration: The CSO registration process can be judged as relatively supportive.

Allowable advocacy activities: Constraints on CSO’s advocacy activities are minimal.

Tax laws favourable to CSOs: The Inland Revenue Ordinance contains provision of tax exemption for ‘non-profit-making’ or ‘voluntary’ org.

Tax benefits for philanthropy: Tax advantages for tax-exempt charity; Tax exemptions cover profits tax; stamp duty; estate duty; and business registration tax.

2.6. State-civil society relations Score: 1.7 (Somewhat enabling)

Autonomy: Government interference is quite minimal on CSO registration and application to organize activities in public places.

Dialogue: There are limited dialogues between government and individual CSOs (e.g. advisory committees and consultative bodies).

Cooperation / support: Allocation of government resources for CSOs is usually done on a programme basis. Mainly falls in education and social welfare.

2.7. Private sector-civil society relations Score: 1.0 (Somewhat disabling)

Private sector attitude: Business in general had a positive but indifferent view to CSOs.

Corporate social responsibility: The concept of corporate social responsibility was rather underdeveloped.

Corporate philanthropy: There are some involvements of business sectors into philanthropy, yet only a limited range of CSOs receives funding of this kind.