NT Development Favoured Over Reclamation: Survey

A newly-released survey commissioned by a green group has found scant support for government plans to pursue two massive development projects at the same time.

Greenpeace said around two-thirds of respondents favour prioritising the Northern Metropolis plan ahead of a mega-reclamation project off Lantau.

Around 14 percent said officials should work on the Kau Yi Chau artificial islands project first, and only six percent of the respondents back the idea of pushing ahead with both projects at the same time.

More than half of the respondents said they were worried that the reclamation project would drain public coffers but wouldn’t generate as much revenue as the government has projected.

The survey was conducted by the Public Opinion Research Institute by phone last month, and 1,018 people were interviewed.

Chief Executive John Lee had earlier said that the two initiatives will proceed simultaneously to create land for development and improve people’s living conditions.

But Greenpeace's Chan Hall-sion said officials should listen to people's views, withdraw the artificial islands plan and instead focus on developing brownfield sites in the Northern Metropolis.

In response to the Greenpeace survey, the Development Bureau said it was determined to push ahead with both the Northern Metropolis and the reclamation projects to meet the city's medium to long-term demand for land. It said picking only one of the projects was not "viable" and that it was time to discuss how, not whether, the reclamation plans should proceed.

"For the sake of Hong Kong's future, picking only one [of the projects] is not viable," the bureau wrote on social media.

It added that developing brownfield sites would also be controversial.

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Last updated: 2023-04-19 HKT 23:29