TNAG-2145-FCO40-3064-Hong-Kong-Port-and-Airport-Development-Strategy-(PADS)-1990 — Page 58

23-NOV-1990

13:04

SECRETARIAT PRESS OFFICE

+852 868 5212

P.04

Hong Kong Port and Airport Development

The following are that railway for a few months yet. The further development of the Port on Lantau will of course continue.

extracts from speeches delivered in the Legisla- tive Council on October 31, 1990:

The Chief Secretary, Sir David Ford

There is nothing magic about the 1997 target date for building the airport and it has no political sig- nificance. The view that the airport must be built in the period of the British administration forms no part of Government's thinking. Two factors led us to the target date, first we needed to build the airport as soon as practicable bearing in mind the growing congestion at Kai Tak, secondly our best advice at the time was that seven years was the short- est period necessary for completion of the core projects. That brought

us to 1997.

2. The core projects are the projects which are essential to the opening of the airport by the target date. They include one runway of the Chek Lap Kok Airport, the North Lantau Expressway, the Lantau Fixed Crossing, and the West Kowloon Expressway. The first runway at Chek Lap Kok operating 24 hours a day, and without the constraint of the curfew at Kai Tak, would pro. vide ample capacity to meet our air traffic demand by the mid-1990s. It follows that the completion date for the second runway is flexible. While the design of the Lantau Fixed Crossing and the Expressways will provide for development of the Airport Railway, we do not need to make a decision on the timing of

to be based on demand, it will there-

fore be incremental and it will also be largely financed by the private

sector.

3. Whilst we have a programme for completion of the core projects it is not set in stone. As more infor- mation becomes available the pro- gramme is reviewed and refined to reflect the optimum time frame within which each project can be completed at a reasonable cost. I use the word optimum advisedly. Because time equals money in two ways, speedy completion can save money by avoiding the inflationary impact on cost, but on the other hand an unrealistic target date will result in contractors bidding higher prices to cover the risks involved in a tight schedule. Our prime con- cern in coming to a conclusion on programming therefore is to ensure speedy completion with optimum value for money.

4. 1 think we well understand that the Government cannot expect universal acclaim, but sometimes it seems we cannot win whichever way. There was some criticism in the Leg- islative Council, in the media and in the community, în 1988 and 1989 when we were considering the PADS. The painstaking way in which we in- sisted on studying every aspect of the strategy became a standing joke. The most often heard criticism then was "Not another consultancy. Why do you simply not get on, make a de- cision and start building?”

S.

Two years on, the commu- nity seems suddenly to have forgot

ten its earlier impatience. Now we hear: "You really should have stud- ied the proposals more thoroughly"; "there is far too little consultation with the people of Hong Kong, with engineers, with town planners, with university professors".

6.

The decision to build the new airport was not a sudden one. As a government, we do not take rash decisions on the infrastructure vital for Hong Kong's continued eco- nomic growth. As you've heard our planning for Hong Kong's territo- rial development strategy began in 1972. Need for port and airport de- velopment was defined in the early seventies, and curiously enough, the sort of solution even then proposed was broadly similar to that we adopted last year.

7.

Over the intervening period, the problem has been exhaustively reviewed from every angle: from forecast of demand, through loca- tion and environmental impact, to cost and the disbenefits of doing nothing.

8. The decision in October 1989 could hardly be described as a sur- prise. The Governor devoted nine paragraphs to PADS in his 1988 speech, almost as much as this year. At that time he gave a clear indica- tion of our thinking on the project and signalled a firm decision in 1989. We fully briefed many eminent visi- tors to Hong Kong on the project long before the announcement to go ahead was made last year. Inci- dentally these visitors included a group of senior officials from the Mainland who were given a full presentation on PADS by me and policy secretaries in March 1989.