1990-06-22 10:05 0777777777707
852 845 3489 P.01
Fax Message
Port and Airport Development Information Unit Hong Kong Government
Works Branch
To:
Mr John Yaxley,
Commissioner, London
Hong Kong Government Office
Fax No:
002 44 71 495 5033
From:
Phillip Bruce, CIO/PAD.
Fax No: 845 3489
Telephone No:
Date: 22 June 90
File Ref:
848 2196
PADS/IU/C/005
With reference to your fax of June 70 in relation to the cort of port and airport development,
The $127 billion figure is, in fact, misleading and unhelpful and should not be quoted.
This was a very rough estimate produced in 1989 of the possible cost of completion of the entire PADS, some time well into the next century. It allowed for a very wide margin of error indeed and did not take into account the revenue which would be generated by the plans, such as redevelopment of Kai Tak, or the expected considerable private sector involvement.
You are quite correct in that our approach should now be to talk about the invididual components. Putting the port and the airport together is misleading as the former has no deadline attached and will only be completed as demand dictates and with, as now, a very high level of private sector funding.
So:
What are the estimates of cost for the individual projects? Answer: We are now in the process of appointing an overall financial adviser to the government and one of the prime roles of this adviser will be to refine specific costs.
So:
"How do we refute claims that we have got our figures wrong?ti Answer: $127 billion was an initial estimate of what the entire infrastructural development might be well into the next century. What is far more important is specifically costing the individual elements and this is what we
# are now doing.
:
A personal point: I can't stand the "PADS" acronym. It is for better to talk about the new airport and its related works and about general infrastructural development. If those horrible ini (ials disappeared tomorrow I, for one, would rejoice.
RECARDS
Phillip Bruce CIO