University of Hong Kong associate geography professor James Wang, said Thursday at a pollution conference that a regional development bank is needed to support inter-city projects. ``There is a lack of cooperation between cities, and a lack of regional financial backing for sustainable development,'' he said.

His colleague, associate professor Lee Yok-shiu, pointed out that institutional constraints - including mismatches between Hong Kong and Guangdong institutions - are major hurdles, with no coordination between the Hong Kong government and officials at the local level at places where pollution occurs.

He said that the duty of addressing cross-border environmental policy was ``ad hoc, reactive and diffused'' before Keith Kwok was appointed director of Environmental Protection when the department merged with the Environment, Transport and Works Bureau earlier this year. ``The Hong Kong government is not willing to initiate projects and pursue collaboration under `one country, two systems','' said Lee.

There is a long way to go towards effective regional anti-pollution measures because of a lack of systematic and scientific data at the regional level, he said. ``There have been a lot of accusations, but we have no data showing exactly who produced how much.''

WWF Hong Kong senior conservation officer Alan Leung said more transparency is needed between the Hong Kong and Guangdong governments.

sylvia.hui@singtaonewscorp.com