Hong Kong withdraws tenders for 2 sites to speed up Northern Metropolis development

South China Morning Post

21-07-2025

Hong Kong authorities have withdrawn tenders for two sites in the New Territories initially earmarked for multi-storey buildings for modern industries to speed up development in the
Northern Metropolis , with the government taking a bigger role.
The Development Bureau said on Monday that a three-hectare site in Yuen Long would be passed to the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) to build a microelectronics ecosystem to promote high-value-added new industrialisation. The corporation runs an innovation park next to the site.
An eight-hectare plot in Hung Shui Kiu will be included in a bureau policy study, under which the government aims to establish a company to run an industrial estate in the area.
The two sites are among 30,000 hectares of land under the Northern Metropolis megaproject, a blueprint to turn the northern New Territories near the border with mainland China into an economic powerhouse and a housing hub.
The bureau said it had halted the tenders to facilitate efficient implementation of more pragmatic arrangements, which could allow them to play a bigger role in promoting industrial development.
'In order to lead and effectively promote the development of industries in the Northern Metropolis, the government has to allow flexibility in the use of [land] and adopt a 'dynamic planning' approach in formulating strategies in accordance with the actual circumstances, thereby accelerating enterprise anchoring and fostering development of the area,' a bureau spokesman said.