Hong Kong to Implement Major Land Supply Projects at Full Speed: Chen Maobo

Zhitong Finance APP learned that on May 14, Hong Kong Financial Secretary Chen Maobo stated that the government has locked in the supply source of 7,300 hectares of land, which exceeds the estimated land demand of 6,200 hectares between 2019 and 2048 in the “Hong Kong 2030+” report. More than half (54.6%) of the land supply comes from the Northern Metropolitan Area and the Kau Yi Chau artificial island. Among them, the northern metropolitan area will provide more than 3,000 hectares of land; the Kau Yi Chau artificial island will provide 1,000 hectares of land. Since the government needs to have sufficient land reserves to provide sufficient land and housing supply at different stages to allow the market to develop in a stable and orderly manner, both programs must be implemented at full speed.

The northern metropolitan area will help promote Hong Kong’s new industrial layout of “southern finance and northern innovation and technology”, accelerate the development of Hong Kong as an international innovation and technology center, facilitate the development of new industrialization, and help the cooperation and coordinated development with brother cities in the Greater Bay Area. In the “Financial Budget” announced by the government last year, a special fund of 100 billion yuan has been set aside to speed up the progress of land, housing and transportation infrastructure development projects in the northern capital. The Hong Kong Development Council is accelerating the establishment of the “Northern Metropolitan Coordination Office” and will propose a specific development plan within this year. The “Office for the Introduction of Key Enterprises” is also promoting the work of introducing strategic enterprises at full speed to match the industrial layout of Beidu. The government will start consultation on the development plan and land planning of the flagship project “Xin Tin Science and Technology City” in the region in the short term. The goal is to start the land leveling project for the first batch of Xin Tin innovation and technology land in 2024. In addition, Beidu is expected to provide more than 500,000 new residential units and provide citizens with more high-quality living space.

As for the Kau Yi Chau artificial island reclamation project, there are three important positionings: first, it will become a major source of residential land supply, providing about 200,000 residential units that can accommodate 500,000 to 550,000 people; second, it will It will be developed into Hong Kong’s third core business district, providing a total of about 5 million square meters of commercial floor space; third, it will connect Hong Kong Island, Lantau Island, the airport, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Port and the west of the New Territories, and will lead to Shenzhen in the future The railway in the sea provides citizens with a more convenient and accessible transportation network, which is convenient for citizens to travel and is also conducive to economic activities. When the artificial island is fully developed, the related economic activities are expected to bring an annual added value of about 200 billion yuan to Hong Kong, which is equivalent to about 7% of the gross domestic product.

Chen Maobo mentioned that the society has different opinions on the reclamation project, and the government will fully consider it and focus on making a good development plan. For those who have opinions on the impact of the entire project on public finances, he said that the funds required for the project will have a larger part Through market raising, the government can also issue bonds with a retail component.

Chen Maobo pointed out that reclamation is an effective way to increase the large-scale land available for development in Hong Kong. However, since the handover, the speed of reclamation in Hong Kong has slowed down significantly. Currently, land reclamation accounts for only 7% of Hong Kong’s land area, which is far lower than Singapore’s 20%. %. The persistent shortage of land supply has far-reaching consequences. Hong Kong urgently needs to substantially increase land supply through reclamation and other land development.