TNAG-0422-FCO40-468-Construction-of-an-underground-railway-system-in-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 95

sir,.

STATEMENT BY THE HONOURABLE THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY

IN LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ON WEDNESDAY, 14TH FEBRUARY 1973

1.

I also

On 7th June last year, I announced in this Council that the

Government had taken a decision in principle to proceed with the

construction of the full Mass Transit Railway, subject to satisfactory

arrangements being made for financing it and for letting contracts.

announced then that the Governor had appointed a small Steering Group

to work out the best methods of resolving three important and closely

inter-related problems, so as to enable a final decision to be taken

whether or not to go ahṣad. These three problems concerned:

first

and foremost, the availability of

sufficient outside capital on

appropriate terms as regards interest

rates and repayment arrangements;

Secondly

the form of tendering and the letting

of contracts; and

Thirdly the most appropriate operational arrangements.

After more than six months of intensive investigation, the

Steering Group has come to the conclusion that it should be possible

to raise the capital required for constructing the full Mass Transit

Railway, from a combination of several sources, and on terms which, by

present indications, are likely to be acceptable. This conclusion, in

turn,has strengthened the Government's belief that the system would be

financially viable, in the sense that a sufficient cash flow would be

generated to enable the capital cost and accumulated interest to be

"

/repaid ......