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Now, what this means is that business could be diverted elsewhere if there is no adequate airport. And if business is diverted elsewhere we could expect to see jobs being lost and the income for our workforce will not grow as it should. So, we felt, when we studied this project, that we just had to build a new airport. We really do need it. It is not being put there for cosmetic reasons. We carried out a study into how much our economy would suffer if we didn't build the airport. And, as you know, we calculated the economic disbenefits at around a hundred billion dollars, Hong Kong, between 1996 and 2010.
Now, we have established for ourselves a very tight timetable. As you remember, the Governor said that we should have the first runway open and ready by early 1997. So that is the timetable that we are working to. It means that days are important, actually. We really cannot afford to lose any time at all and we have been working very hard on setting in place the various arrangements.
We felt that it was most important that we should have a project manager in overall control of the project, and that is why we have appointed Bechtel. Bethel, as the project manager, will have a crucial role to play because the success of this project hinges on a high degree of coordination.
As you know, the project as a whole consists of not just the airport, but also the North Lantau Expressway, the Fixed Crossing, rail links, road links right the way round Kowloon, and of course the Western Harbour Crossing.
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There will be a mixture between public sector and private sector between public sector in terms of the government and statutory corporations. So there will be a lot of individual groups involved in this particular project. coordination will be quite complicated and difficult.
So
I have noticed recently that two terms that we have used have caused a certain amount of confusion so I would like to say a bit about them.
The first term is the Master Development Programme. This is a programme that we put together in the administration. It is a detailed breakdown in relation to the planning, the feasibility, the design and construction of the airport and all the related projects. It is really essentially a road map of what needs to be done and the timing. It is a critical path.