Furthermore, even though the pace of development would be determined by the developer's need for cash flow and profits, the cost to Government in the end in land, infrastructure, GIC facilities and public housing would be just as great as if it was itself constructing a new town of equivalent size.
53
An alternative would be for the project to be undertaken on a joint venture basis with Government. This would require a precise agreement as to the respective roles and responsibilities of the developer and Government, but the developer would need to accept that the rate of investment in and development of the project would have to be subject to overall Government control having regard to other priorities. This option seems unlikely to be viable as there would inevitably be divergent views over priorities, uncertainty in respect of overall project management and potential for the creation of unresolved disputes.
54
A third possibility might be to grant the developer an exchange of land .of equivalent value in an already approved urban layout leaving him in a position to proceed with a smaller, more manageable, scale of development and leaving Government with a large land bank at Tin Shui Wai to form and develop as and when circumstances require. This, however, would be a radical departure from existing land policy (particularly having regard to the large outstanding commitment of land exchange entitlements) and would lose any political advantage that might otherwise be gained from having a major developer with the backing of the China Resources Company involved in a large-scale, long-term, project in the New Territories.
55
However, it may be possible to justify the grant of an area within a future part of the Tin Shui Wai land formation which could be developed by the present owners, who would then hand back part of the area to Government, retaining the rest for their own development. A similar approach was used in Sha Tin whereby a developer formed some 48 hectares of sea bed, of which he retained 16 hectares for private development, the balance being handed over to Government (but compare this with 488 hectares at Tin Shui Wai). This resulted in the construction of private housing for 30,000 people as well as land for industry and for the Sha Tin teaching hospital. This alternative approach may prove to be attractive to the applicant in that it would give him a share in the development. However, the practicality of such an approach would depend on there being a firm commitment by Government to proceed with building development at Tin Shui Wai .on a given scale and layout and in a given time period, as was the case in Sha Tin, as well as on favourable economic and market conditions which cannot be predicted with any degree of certainty at this time. Also, for a project the size of Tin Shui Wai, it would be desirable to broaden the field for private investment and to keep administrative arrangements for . land disposal as simple as possible. Although, therefore, this approach
should be regarded with some caution it is felt that it could be used as a fall-back position.
G.S. 166
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