Press Release
Second Draft
Annex B
the
The total cost
first runway of
for the key projects necessary to open
Chek Lap Kok airport in 1997 is
estimated to be of the order of $79 billion at 1990 prices,
the Government announced today.
sector.
A significant part of this will be met by the private
The costs will also be offset by considerable
revenue arising from the airport projects. This includes
potential revenue, at 1990 prices, of nearly $40 billion
from land sales at East Kowloon upon the closure of Kai Tak
Airport, sales of land formed by reclamation at West Kowloon
and North Lantau along the approaches to the replacement
airport.
Details of the
Government's
financial approach were
revealed today to members of the LegCo Ad Hoc Group on PADS.
Said the spokesman : "When completed, the investment in
the airport and related facilities will bring to Hong Kong long-term economic and financial benefits far greater than
the cost of the investment, and these benefits will be
enjoyed well into the next century".
Commenting on the new figure of $79 billion at 1990
prices, the spokesman explained that when the Governor announced at the opening of the 1989-90 Legislative Council Session the decision to proceed with the airport, it was in the context of a broad strategy for both port and airport
expansion going
well into the next century. The total cost
of these projects, including those to be financed by the private sector, was then estimated at some $127 billion at 1989 prices over the period up to 2006. The Government had now refined a list of those projects which are required to
meet the primary aim of having the first runway of the new