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new airport which is to be built at Shenzhen will not
remove the need for a new international airport in Hong Kong. We understand that the Shenzhen airport is only designed to handle 3.4 million passengers per annum by the year 2000, compared with the new Hong Kong international airport which will be able to handle 80 million passengers a year, more than three times Kai Tak's maximum capacity. Moreover, the Shenzhen airport will be 85 kilometres from the Central districts of Hong Kong. There is no rail link
or high speed road link at present and the journey to Hong
Kong by jetfoil would take 50 minutes.
(ii) Site for a new airport
The site for the new Hong Kong international airport at Chep Lap Kok was only chosen after exhaustive consideration of the various options, based on expert advice and detailed studies conducted over the past 17 years. Some 30 possible sites were looked at over this period, including sites in
the Western Harbour and Deep Bay, which were examined in
detail. It is clear from these studies that Chek Lap Kok is
the most attractive and viable option.
(iii) Cost and financing of the new airport
The cost of the new airport is estimated to be some HK$35 billion at 1989 prices. On a debt : equity ratio of 3:1, the Hong Kong Government calculate that the airport will
have a rate of return on equity of about 20%. This should make it attractive to private sector investors and it is
expected that as much as 70% of the costs could be financed by the private sector. The financing, construction and ultimately the management of the airport will be put in the hands of the new Airport Authority, a statutory body separate from the Hong Kong Government, although the latter
will remain responsible for certain key functions such as
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