XN000022-1974-01-30 — Page 14

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Wednesday, January 30, 1974

SALES OF LAND FOR SPECIAL INDUSTRIES

Basic Principles Of Government Policy Outlined

The Secretary for the Environment, Mr. James Robson, said that the government is prepared to consider restrictive user sales of land for special industries when an application is made for suitable land.

must be:

However, he pointed out that the industrial processes to be used

*

first, new to Hong Kong and represent a technological upgrading to a significant degree of an existing

industrial process;

second, at a higher level of technology and provide employment opportunities at a general higher level of skill than currently obtains in Hong Kong industry;

third, land-intensive and cannot be carried out in ordinary multi-storey industrial buildings.

Mr. Robson was outlining the basic principles of the policy now being applied for restrictive user sales of land for special industries in reply to a question by Dr. the Hon. S.Y. Chung in the Legislative Council today.

He said that the basic method of sale to be adopted for this land

was normal tender procedure on a suitably defined restrictive user basis...

"Recently, however, the Executive Council has agreed to sales by

private treaty where the engineering studies necessary to submit a reasoned tender, or the difficulty of specifying what controls are needed to safeguard

against pollution, would probably have resulted in thero being no sale if

tenders had been called for the sites applied for," Mr. Robson said.

In such cases, he added, the premium charged was the full market

value of the land restricted to low buildings.

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