Hong Kong  - Corruption complaints made to Hong Kong's anti-graft watchdog surged 23 per cent in the first quarter, the head of the organization said Thursday.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption said it received 811 corruption reports from January to March compared with 659 in the same period last year.

The sharpest rise was in the finance and insurance sector and the building management sector, in which the number of graft complaints rose 46 per cent and 33 per cent, respectively, Commissioner Timothy Tong said.

He said it was unclear if the increase was related to the economic downturn and said the relationship between corruption reports and the impact of the financial crisis needed to be further examined.

Tong spoke at the launch of Hong Kong's first anti-corruption research centre, which integrates theoretical research with the results of empirical investigations. 9dpa)