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South China Morning Post
2 days ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Will Hong Kong government's more hands-on approach to development pay off?
News that the government has withdrawn tenders for two sites to speed up development of the Northern Metropolis comes as Hong Kong is still celebrating the anniversaries of various economic initiatives from a previous era. There could not be a better illustration of the changes in the city's approach to economic development. On Monday, the Development Bureau announced that it was withdrawing from two sites that had previously been open to private sector bidders. A three-hectare lot in Yuen Long will instead be given to the wholly government-owned Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation, which already runs an innovation park on adjacent land. The site will be used to build a microelectronics industrial ecosystem. Meanwhile, an eight-hectare site in Hung Shui Kiu will be developed as an industrial estate run by a government-owned company to be established pending a bureau policy study. In both cases, the administration is clearly taking much more of a leadership role and hands-on approach. This contrasts with the philosophy prevailing immediately after the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in 1997. At that time, then financial secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen set up a Business and Services Promotion Unit as part of his own office to play a much more proactive role than the laissez-faire approach that had largely applied under British administration. The unit was created to draw up and implement programmes to help businesses – basically, cutting red tape – and to support the development of Hong Kong's service sector. Each programme had its own advisory committee comprising business leaders and academics, with support from relevant government departments. Financial secretary Donald Tsang (left) is helped by his assistants as he shows copies of Hong Kong's 2000-2001 budget to the press on March 7, 2000. Photo: Dustin Shum Tsang encouraged leading members of the private sector to put forward suggestions for strengthening and improving the economy in general as well as the operating environment in specific sectors. The unit would then study how best to improve the situation with the help of external consultants if necessary.
South China Morning Post
14-03-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong to spend at least HK$100 million studying new cross-border rail link
Hong Kong authorities plan to spend at least HK$100 million (US$12.87 million) to study the design of a cross-border railway project that will feature a co-location checkpoint in Shenzhen, according to insiders. Advertisement Sources said on Friday the Hong Kong–Shenzhen Western Express Railway would join Hung Shui Kiu, Ha Tsuen and Lau Fau Shan in the New Territories with Shenzhen Bay and Qianhai in mainland China. 'The cross-border checkpoint will be located in mainland China and adopt a co-location arrangement,' one insider said. Such checkpoints allow travellers to clear immigration channels in both jurisdictions at a single site. The arrangement has been implemented at the high-speed railway station in West Kowloon and at the Shenzhen Bay control point. One source said the exact location of the stations had yet to be confirmed, but the government planned to spend at least HK$100 million on the study, which would be open for tender. Advertisement In his budget address last month, finance chief Paul Chan Mo-po said the administration was working with mainland authorities to push the railway project forward, and expected the study to be launched this year.
