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Road corridor and running under the harbour to the central business district of Victoria and terminating at Western Market. Pending a final decision on such a vast project a Steering Group has been formed to go into all the possibilities of financing, constructing and operating it. Proposals have also been called for, and received, from many groups and consortia on how the system could be financed and constructed.
The airways, too, have thrived in the last two decades and to meet the needs of growing air traffic the runway at Kai Tak International Airport is being extended from 8,350 to 11,130 feet.
Dock facilities have expanded. Shipbuilding and repairing have taken on new dimensions. A new port is being created at Kwai Chung in the New Territories, just north of the present harbour. It will be one of the most efficient container terminals in the world catering for an armada of purpose-built ships. The $500 million complex will eventually cover 125 acres, with a 4,000-foot sea frontage. The first of three berths was in use in September and the other two will be completed in early 1973.
A growing population and a thriving industry develop a healthy thirst and to keep pace with it, work on the High Island 60,000 million gallon reservoir has been pushed ahead. Meanwhile, the level of the dam at Plover Cove reservoir is being raised to bring the capacity up to 50,000 million gallons and contracts have been let for a desalting plant which, with an output of 40 million gallons of water a day, will be the largest in the world.
The tourist industry has been developing rapidly through the years and it reached new levels in 1972 with more than one million visitors. Japanese remain the largest national group of visitors with Americans the next. Four new hotels were opened during the year but, in spite of the extra 2,300 rooms they offer, occupancy rates throughout Hong Kong are still, on average, as high as 80 per cent.
Gross income from tourism is about $2,000 million which accounts for six to seven per cent of the national income. More hotels are planned for 1973 and there have been suggestions that resort areas might be developed in the New Territories and on larger outlying islands. It is hoped that this will encourage visitors to stay longer by offering them attractions other than shopping.
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The environment is receiving attention from many quarters. A Conservancy Association has been formed which aims to stimulate a sense of personal and social trusteeship of natural resources and amenities in the people of Hong Kong. The government has set up an Advisory Committee on Environmental Pollution on Land and Water to keep these matters under review and with more immediate objectives in mind, the government, mid-year, launched the 'Keep Hong Kong Clean' campaign. The results are plain to see. Hong Kong is indeed a cleaner and brighter place.
These changes are solid indications of rising living standards and a higher degree of sophistication in the community. The concomitant is inevitable. As Sir Murray MacLehose said in his major policy speech, the people have become more expectant of their government. The areas which he earmarked as ripe for far-reaching advances in the 1970s were housing, education and social welfare.