ENG-1987 — Page 31

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HONG KONG

BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE

China. It is the issue to which the strategic planning studies now being undertaken are essentially addressing themselves.

Strategic Planning Studies

There are a number of these studies being carried out at present, but the three major ones, which will incorporate the results of some of the other studies, are:

(a) an umbrella study on port/airport development and related issues which has just

started and which will be completed in the summer of 1989;

(b) the Second Comprehensive Transport Study, and

(c) Metroplan, dealing with the redevelopment and restructuring of the metropoli-

tan area.

When all these studies are completed they will need to be drawn together into a new master strategy for development in the nineties and beyond.

The emphasis in most of these studies is on the metropolitan area and the harbour area to the west.

In the 1970s a high priority of government planning was to provide more housing for a growing population and this called for substantial expansion into the New Territories. Now, even in housing, the emphasis is on improving quality as much as quantity and on a bettering of the living environment. Hence the need to replace the older housing estates and to restructure the older parts of the metropolitan area generally.

The major priority for the 1990s and beyond, on the other hand, will be to expand and upgrade the essential economic infrastructure of the territory. And, because this, of necessity, must be close to and related to the major centres of activity, what it requires in many ways complements what is needed for urban renewal.

The key to meshing the two requirements together seems likely to be the harbour reclamations proposed in the Territorial Development Strategy. There were five major reclamation areas proposed - at Aldrich Bay on the east of Hong Kong Island, Hung Hom next to the railway terminus, the Central/Wan Chai area, the extreme west of Hong Kong Island and west Kowloon. Of these, the last three are the most important for the overall strategy in terms of urban expansion and renewal, improved transport facilities and to ease the building of links to any new port and airport developments.

The developments involved are so large that they must be considered comprehensively and be related to each other in the context of a strategic plan. For instance, new, essential, port developments will need to be located somewhere in the western harbour area. Any new airport will also have to be in the same general area to the west of the territory, either as previously envisaged at Chek Lap Kok to the north of Lantau Island, or on reclamation to the east of Lantau. If it is decided to proceed with both port and airport developments, they must be looked at together, particularly as regards access, whether from the border and the New Territories or from the main urban area. They must also be considered in relation to the new harbour reclamations and their configurations, which are still under study. This will ensure that the investments undertaken will as far as possible complement each other and serve multiple needs.

The harbour reclamations envisaged can be expected to generate substantial revenue from private development when completed, both in terms of land premia to the government and, more generally, from the boost they can give to the economy. This is especially the case with the Central/Wan Chai reclamation on Hong Kong Island, which will provide much needed space for the expansion of the business district and for an additional transport corridor. Developments of this sort should therefore be given priority.