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CONFIDENTIAL #Z
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in
establishing
development
the
a single body to be responsible both for
and subsequent operation of the new
airport. A single body would ensure that the airport was
planned, from the outset, in ways designed to optimize its
commercial viability as well as facilitating the financing
of the project, including long term borrowing if this were
The Government further concluded
seen to be desirable.
that such a body should operate separately from the civil
service in order to ensure that it could be managed
flexibly, along fully commercial lines.
4.
Given the
Having reached these conclusions it remained to
decide whether such a body should take the form of a
statutory corporation or a commercial company.
crucial importance of the airport to Hong Kong and its
economic development, the Government concluded that the
creation of a statutory Authority was the best option as it
combined both the advantages of a commercial management
approach and an optimal degree of accountability to the
Government and the public in general. In so doing we had
mind the success of the Mass Transit Railway Corporation
(MTRC) in building a railway on time and with maximum
private sector funding.
in
CONFIDENTIAL ##