Hong Kong - Hong Kong's government is spending hundreds of thousands of US dollars looking for a new slogan to replace the current boast of "Asia's World City," a news report said Sunday.

The former British colony's government has spent 160,000 US dollars hiring multi-national communications company Fleishmann- Hillard to supervise the task, the Sunday Morning Post reported.

Another 64,000 US dollars is being spent setting up a website for people to offer their ideas on a new slogan and image for the city of 6.9 million people.

Hundreds of thousands are then expected to be spent once the process is complete promoting the new slogan, which will compete against regional slogans such as Malaysia Truly Asia.

The Hong Kong government spent 1.1 million US dollars in 2001 relaunching itself as Asia's World City with a dragon logo, a controversial exercise criticized by many as a waste of money.

The "Asia's World City" slogan has since been repeatedly used to bash Hong Kong when it fails to live up to its image as an international and cosmopolitan city. (dpa)