oing ships to sail under it. But the Lantau Fixed Crossing is not just the Tsing Ma Bridge. It consists also of a shorter but equally impor- tant bridge across the Kap Shui Mun Channel, to connect Ma Wan Is- land with the North Lantau Express- way, and thence to the new airport at Chek Lap Kok. This is the East- West link I mentioned earlier. It provides the only land access to Lantau Island, and serves the new airport as well as new port and community developments on Lan- tau. Without it, the new airport simply cannot function.
4. Since the Hong Kong Gov- ernment announced the Port and Airport Development Strategy a year ago, much detailed planning and work have been done to take that strategy forward. As far as the Lantau Fixed Crossing is concerned, a number of reputable and experi- enced international bridge engineers and builders have advised us au- thoritatively that to build a bridge of this complexity and magnitude, a construction period of five years is required, working to a very tight programme schedule. Allowing, one year to draw up detailed tender documents, to evaluate the tenders, and then to award contracts, it is clearly necessary for the Govern ment to make a firm decision on the Lantau Fixed Crossing, and to an- nounce it as soon as possible to ensure that the roads and bridges are ready by the time the airport is due to open. The timing was in fact envisaged when we called for Ex- pression of Interest in the Lantau Fixed Crossing in February this year. Over 1,000 copies of the documents describing the project and stating quite clearly that we would call for tenders in September were distrib- uled to interested parties. It is not difficult to imagine the newspaper headlines which would have greeted any decision to delay the announce- ment. Clearly, the Government's announcement was by no means a sudden decision, but previously scheduled and a timely one.
5.
As regards the reasons for adopting the "Design and Construct"
approach in preference to the "Buiki- Operate-and-Transfer" (BOT)
approach, the advantages of build- ing the Lantau Fixed Crossing as a publicly funded project are firstly, programme certainty. That is to say, we can be much more certain that the roads and bridges will be completed on time, without the need for protracted negotiations with tenderers which would otherwise be necessary under the Build-Oper- ate-and-Transfer arrangements, Sec- ondly, given that the commercial world operates on the principle of "the higher the risk, the greater the reward", they would almost certainly demand a high level of Government guarantees and financial support. In the circumstances, we believe the "Design and Construction" approach we have adopted would result in a better overall deal for Hong Kong taxpayers. The decision to finance the construction of the Lantau Fixed Crossing does not, of course, pré- clude the Government from con idering offers of finance or pledges of financial support at the tender stage. Looking ahead, we also re- tain the option to call for competi- tive bids from the private sector to operate the Lantau Fixed Crossing upon its completion, according to a franchise on terms to be agreed. Thus, the door to private sector par- ticipation remains wide open in- deed.
6.
We intend to embark on a "prequalification" exercise shortly, with a veiw to screening in those tenderers judged to have the neces- sary experience, expertise, profes. sional competence and financial backing to undertake a project of this magnitude.
7.
We intend to split up the Lantau Fixed Crossing project into a number of self-contained contracts, so that interested parties, whether they be locally based or interna. tional consortia, will feel able to tender for those contracts in the field best suited to their expertise and ability. At the tender evalu- ation stage, cost consideration, or the tendered quotation, will of course be a very important factor to be
taken into account.
8.
All major airports of the world have good rail connections to their city centres - Narita, Schipol, Frank- furt, Brussels, Gatwick, Heathrow- to name just a few that come to mind. Hong Kong cannot be the exception. There is no doubt in our mind that in the long term an Air- port Railway is needed to link up Hong Kong International Airport with the city centres. The question is how soon it is required, what the best alignment is, and what the fi- nancial arrangements should be. The position at the moment is that we have commissioned consultants to advise us on these matters, and we expect to receive their assessments and final reports by the end of the year. We can then take a decision on the Airport Railway having re- gard to the expert advice we receive and all relevant factors.
9.
To sum up, if we accept that Hong Kong needs a new airport and new port facilities to sustain our economic growth we must get on with building the essential trans- port infrastructure in support of PADS. We must have the courage to act on our conviction. We have no time to waste, for the future prosperity of Hong Kong is at stake.
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