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HONG KONG
BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE
Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts boasts some of the best facilities to be found anywhere for training professional musicians, actors and dancers.
(3) Housing
The provision of housing for a constantly-growing population, particularly public housing for the lower income levels, has been a special concern in Hong Kong for many years. It was, for instance, the major reason for starting the New Towns programme in 1972. The numbers of new apartments built have increased steadily over the years and their quality has also gradually improved. In 1987, the public and private sectors combined built some 80 000 new flats, of which around 45 000 were for sale and 35 000 were public sector rental units. In 1988, total building is likely to be nearer 90 000 units. By now almost half the population are accommodated in public housing and the Hong Kong Housing Authority can claim to be the biggest landlord in the world. Even so, there is still some way to go before all the population can be considered adequately housed. Moreover, as the general standard of living increases, the pattern of demand for housing is changing. More and more people want to own their own homes or are looking for better-quality housing.
These changing attitudes are recognised in the Hong Kong Government's Long Term Housing Strategy, which was published in April 1987. This sets a target of providing homes for an additional one million families from the public and private sectors combined by the early years of the next century. It also aims to provide more opportunities for home purchase, as well as additional higher quality rental accommodation and a comprehensive redevelopment programme for the older public housing estates. As part of the strategy, the Housing Authority, which is responsible for building and managing public housing, will be charged with the task of overseeing an overall housing programme in partnership with the private housing sector.
To carry out this programme will require not only a commitment to complete the New Towns programme in the nineties, but it will also call for a major programme of urban development, renewal and expansion in the core metropolitan area around the harbour. This will link it in with major new plans now under consideration which, if they are proceeded with, could once again bring about fundamental changes in the physical structure of the territory and fit it to face the challenges of the 21st century.
Towards a New Dimension of Development
In summary, these plans would involve, first, a renewal and restructuring of the older parts of the metropolitan area with the help of large new reclamation projects in various parts of the harbour area. The reclamations would also assist in the construction of new transport corridors, both road and rail. Secondly, there would be a major expansion in port facilities and, probably also, the construction of a new airport to replace Kai Tak. Thirdly, the new port and airport facilities would be connected to the metropolitan area with the help of the new transport corridors on the reclamations and also by the provision of one or more new transport arteries through the New Territories to the Chinese border.
All this would involve the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars over a period of years, probably more than a decade. The sums involved would be such that the close collaboration of both the public and the private sectors would be required throughout the programme, and almost certainly the involvement of overseas capital as well. The omens for such collaboration, however, appear to be good. The general thrust of the alternatives now being studied by the government and its advisers shows considerable similarities with proposals for port, airport and other development prepared last year by a group of major