17
53.
Apart from work necessary for the completion of the present New Towns, our efforts in the early 1990s are likely to be applied initially to reclamation and other works.
around the Harbour. This will assist the growth and diversification of our economy by enhancing port, business and financial facilities, will enable road and rail systems to be extended and improved and will help relieve some of the
pressures of population growth. Detailed planning and engineering studies are now proceeding.
(ii) New Town Development
54.
In the shorter term, the Government will continue the development of the New Towns. The building of the six towns is already well advanced and by the early 1990s they will house nearly 3 million people. In human terms, this means about 200,000 people will move to new homes each year,
and this will increase as work progresses on housing development at Junk Bay and Tin Shui Wai.
55.
This is a challenging programme, involving the provision of infrastructure, housing and community facilities. Government and Housing Authority expenditure on
it is now running at more
more than $5 billion a year, but there
remains considerable scope for private investment in residential, commercial and industrial development.
(b) Land Supply
56.
The success of our plans will depend, in part, on there being a ready supply of land. I am pleased by the Special Committee on Land Supply's forecast that the supply
of land over the next
the next five years will be more than adequate to meet most public and private sector needs. identification of further major development areas in the long-term planning studies has allayed any doubts there
The
may
/have
•
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