TNAG-1437-FCO40-1921-Constitutional-development-in-Hong-Kong-1986 — Page 79

DEC 31 '85 17:47 GIS HK

Date:

Time:

Reporter:

30.12.85

9.35

10.45 a.m.

RG/5.

.P.5:

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building a new tunnel from Shatin, on the western side, from Shatin

to take traffic direct to the container port. So those are three

major projects.

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We are pressing ahead with Junk Bay,

and the first housing blocks there are up now to about 14 or 15 storeys,

I think. And Tin Shui Wai development, in the north-west of the New Territories, is about to begin. Work is already going on on the light rail system between Tuen Mun and Yuen Long. So there is a lot going on in the development of the infrastructure, and I suppose as part of that,

or concomitant to it, is the further development of housing for the people of Hong Kong. And it is I think, a world-record beater

that we are in fact, likely in the next 5 years, if you take the private and the public sector housing development together, we will be building something like 65,000 flats per year. And if you total that up over a 5-year period it is something like 300,000 flats produced, which will house about 1.3 million people. NOW that for

a community the size of Hong Kong, to have completed housing for its

people in the private and the public sector

in 5 years

for 1.3 million

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is, I submit, a very major achievement.

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So, I think that is about as far as

I would like to go in my review at this moment. I don't want to pre- empt the Financial Secretary's Budget Speech, and all the speeches that will follow from it. But I would say that at the end of 1985 and the beginning of 1986, Hong Kong is alive and well and facing up to its problems with confidence and with enormous public interest.

Questions?

Q.

Sir David, concerning the housing sector, why has the Government taken so long to appoint a new

Secretary for Housing?

A.

Bomething in that field fairly soon.

I should think we will be announcing

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