'Civil engineering capacity in local government too low to deliver'
``Constraints vary according to the type of municipality. We currently have two engineers for 100 000 people -- we need at least five. ``The overriding conclusion, based on experience and research carried out both locally and internationally, is that the civil engineering capacity in local government is too low to deliver, operate and maintain local government infrastructure in a sustainable manner,'' Timm told the Infrastructure Dialogue, last week.
The local government has the financial means to solve social issues and improve public institutions, but may not be politically willing to do so, Timothy Ka Ying Wong, director of the Centre for Social and Political Development Studies in Hong Kong, said yesterday.