Reclamation Needed As HK Situation Is Unique: CE

The Chief Executive on Tuesday rejected concerns that the Lantau Tomorrow Vision project contradicts President Xi Jinping’s call to protect the environment, saying every jurisdiction has its unique circumstances.

In a recent interview, Lam herself had quoted Xi as saying that conservation is important.

When asked whether the mega-reclamation that her administration is planning in Lantau waters contradicts this, Lam said every jurisdiction has its unique circumstances and Hong Kong also has its development limitations.

"It could not be understood in a one-size-fits-all situation. Every place has its unique circumstances," Lam told reporters before she headed into the weekly Executive Council meeting.

"If you don’t allow the government to touch the country parks, the wetlands, if there are extreme difficulties in resuming some of the lands because they have active operations which will affect the economy, then the reclamation we have been proposing is one of the feasible options."

Lam also said there’s an environmental benefit of reclamation, saying it can absorb the public fill materials created by the building works in Hong Kong, which at the moment are shipped to Taishan on the mainland for reclamation.

But she said the quota will be exhausted in a couple of years time and Hong Kong will need to find another solution.

Earlier in the day, Democratic Party lawmaker Andrew Wan told an RTHK programme that Lam should try to take back the land that developers hold in the New Territories instead of reclamation.