XN000022-1997-04-30 — Page 58

37.

Vacant development land

Following is a question by the Hon Chan Yuen-han and a written reply by the acting Secretary for Planning, Environment & Lands, Mr Patrick Lau, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Question:

It is learnt that the Government currently holds a total of over 4300 hectares of land which can be developed for residential use. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)

(b)

of the reasons for the above land not being used for building residential flats; and

whether it has formulated any plan to develop the above land; if so, what the details are?

Answer:

Mr President,

It is not true that the Government holds 4,300 hectares of land which can be developed for residential use. We believe the statistic refers to information in Table 1 of a report produced by the Research and Library Services Division of the Legislative Council Secretariat, "Land Supply in Hong Kong" dated 3 April 1997. That table classifies the use of land in Hong Kong as at 31 March 1996 showing, among other uses, 4,300 hectares of "vacant development land".