TNAG-0737-FCO40-941-Hong-Kong-annual-review-for-1977-1978 — Page 42

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e)

f)

which will produce housing for over

250,000 people in a single year (1979/80).

A long pipeline of planned and timed

resumptions, clearances, site formations,

provisions of services, and lettings of

piling and building contracts ensures that

this figure will be maintained each year

for the subsequent five years. These years

will at last drastically change the demographic

map and housing standards of Hong Kong.

Construction of 40,000 Government flats

for sale under a government Home Ownership

Scheme has started. The special terms offered

are intended to fill some of the gap left by

the absence of a provident fund scheme such

as exists in Singapore.

latter suggests that its mortgage facilities

for house purchase are preferred to retirement

benefits as an insurance for security in old

age.

Experience of the

In a place as crowded and still as badly

housed as Hong Kong, provision for leisure

becomes an important obligation of Government.

Good progress was made in this field, including

the expansion of the new Recreation and Sports

Service to cover all city and rural districts;

CONFIDENTIAL