HK People Back Reclamation For Housing: Think Tank

A think tank founded by former Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa said on Wednesday that it believes around half of the public support the idea of using reclamation as a way to boost Hong Kong's land supply.

The Our Hong Kong Foundation said it questioned around 1,000 people by phone in March and asked them if they believe large-scale reclamation outside Victoria Harbour would be a good way to tackle the territory's shortage of residential land.

About 45 percent of those surveyed said it would be, while about half also agreed that an artificial island should be built in waters east of Lantau, the think tank said.

The think tank's senior researcher, Ryan Ip, told RTHK's Priscilla Ng that estimates of how much land Hong Kong will need to find in the coming decades have been too conservative.

"If you look at our past history, over the past 40 years we have built nine new towns and now you are saying to me that over the next 30 years we only need one and a half Sha Tin [sized] new towns, that doesn't sound right to me. That's why we believe in the next 30 years, Hong Kong will need at least three Sha Tin new towns, which is roughly 9,000 hectares of land," Ip said.