The Council for Sustainable Development will soon finalise its recommendations on a Sustainable Development Strategy for Hong Kong, following the completion of a six-month engagement process.

The council plans to forward its recommendations on the way forward for a Sustainable Development Strategy to the Government this spring.

During the public engagement process, the council received nearly 2,000 responses on three Pilot Areas - Solid Waste Management, Renewable Energy and Urban Living Space.

More than 1,400 people participated in the forums, workshops and summits convened by the council.

Noting the encouraging stakeholder response, the council's Strategy Sub-committee chairman Dr Edgar Cheng said the wide range of views provided will enable the council to put recommendations to the Government that were genuinely based on community feedback.

2 more projects approved

The council today also considered the work of its Education & Publicity Sub-committee, noting recent education and publicity initiatives, and the status of applications to the Sustainable Development Fund.

On the council's advice, two more new community-based projects run by non-government organisations have been approved for the award of grants in its second round call for applications. The grants total $3.1 million.

One of the projects, which aims to put in place an "Action Model for Sustainable Development at Long Valley", will be implemented by the Conservancy Association over a two-year period at a cost of about $1.5 million.

The other project entitled "Sustainable Community Renewal in Sham Shui Po: Creating Our Future Together" will be run by the Association for Democracy & People's Livelihood Social Service Centre in Sham Shui Po over three years at a cost of $1.6 million.