8 Tuesday, August 14, 2018

COMMENT CHINA DAILY EDITION

TO THE POINT Reclamation in mainland STAFF WRITER waters real game changer Leading group membership a big step Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet- of doing it alone, the city should take full ngor will set o for Beijing today (Tuesday) to advantage of the help of the motherland and Following Macao’s example would attend the fi rst meeting of the leading group its resources, which it is ready to o er to the for the development of the -Hong SAR. On the other hand, Hong Kong has a lot speed process and vastly increase the Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area scheduled for to o er, including its talents, experience and Wednesday. The group is chaired by Vice- connections in di erent realms, particularly Premier Han Zheng. Its membership, other global fi nance, trade and arbitration. area for reclamation, writes Regina Ip Regina Ip than the CEs of the two special administrative There are regional economic clusters The author is Hong Kong’s former regions of Hong Kong and Macao, includes already existing in other parts of the country. secretary for security and a current representatives from Guangdong province Due to geographical proximity, close cultural and shortage is no launched in early August an “Enhanced Executive Council member. and the National Reform and Development ties and a historical tradition of cooperation, doubt the most ELM”, or EELM proposal, recom- Commission. Hong Kong is well-placed to cooperate with pressing social and mending that the area of the proposed This is the fi rst time a chief executive of Guangdong and Macao, hence the Bay Area economic problem artifi cial islands be enlarged to 2,000 The beauty of recla- a SAR has joined a leading group of the development. in Hong Kong. High hectares to accommodate up to 1.1 mil- central government. SARs were previously The SAR looks ready to fully engage itself in land prices have chan- lion people. mation in mainland represented by o cials from the Hong Kong the Bay Area project. Other than the CE attend- neled wealth into The EELM plan is no doubt more waters is that it would and Macao A airs O ce of the State Council ing the fi rst leading group meeting in Beijing, one dominant sector — property and visionary than that of the government. in such high-level decision-making bodies. the director-general of Invest Hong Kong, Lrelated — and taken away incentives to The foundation is also absolutely right steer clear of the Direct face-to-face communication between Stephen Phillips, will visit Ho Chi Minh City innovate and venture into new enter- that large-scale reclamation is the game leaders of the SARs and central government in Vietnam and Bangkok in Thailand to show prises. With the waiting time for public changer that would enable Hong Kong protracted and highly is certainly much more e cient in dealing Southeast Asian investors the business oppor- rental housing lengthening to a historic to break out of its current capacity politically charged with such complicated projects. And this tunities o ered by the Bay Area development. high of 5.3 years, and a record number constraints. All social and economic refl ects the growing role Hong Kong is play- On July 1, Lam told the press that although of people living in poor conditions in indicators — transport bottlenecks, funding process in ing in the country’s overall development the entire blueprint of the Bay Area has yet subdivided units, increasing land and mass transit construction scandals, Hong Kong. strategy and the increasing signifi cance the to be announced, related measures will be housing supply has become the most over-stretched public medical and central government is attaching to the SARs launched one after another as soon as they critical challenge facing Hong Kong’s health services, let alone acute land and in this aspect. are ready. It has just been announced that leaders. housing shortage — all point to the fact Hong Kong’s development has long been Hong Kong residents no longer need a permit Historically, with more hills than fl at that Hong Kong has reached a tipping available, the possibilities for devel- hampered by its spatial restriction and rela- to work on the mainland, thus removing one land, Hong Kong has relied heavily on point. It will either break out, or break opment are infi nite. Planners could tively small size of the market. To fi nd the great barrier for the city’s residents seeking reclamation to increase its land supply. down. experiment with building a carbon-free, solution to this problem the city must look career opportunities in the Bay Area and The sharp economic downturn at the The foundation deserves to be car-free future city; build much-needed northward. The vast expanse of the territory facilitating talent fl ow from Hong Kong to turn of the century led the government applauded for encouraging Hong Kong public housing for those inadequately across the boundary and the immense market other cities in the city cluster. We look forward to slow down drastically its land and people to think out of the box and rei- housed; develop new industries, parks there provide exactly what the SAR lacks. to more good news from the leading group public housing programs, resulting in magine the city’s future. Yet the huge and waterways between residential and It has long been pointed out that instead meeting in Beijing. today’s looming crisis. expense — easily HK$100 billion — and commercial developments; and even The Land Supply Task Force long timeline involved mean that the relocate Hong Kong’s container ports, appointed by the government laid out project will take at least a decade before correctional facilities or universities to 18 options for increasing land supply, it could be completed under the best- release prime sites and give colleges none of which is, as task force leader case scenario. more space. Stanley Wong Yuen-fai said, painless. Already localist and conservationist The Guishan Island is currently a Yet as Chief Executive Carrie Lam groups are accusing such a large-cale tourism destination with a few thou- Hong Kong land policy Cheng Yuet-ngor declared in late June, reclamation project to be damaging sand inhabitants. Provided support by some of the options, such as taking to Hong Kong’s coastlines and over- the government and approval away one of the golf courses in Fanling crowding Hong Kong’s central waters. by the State Council is forthcoming, to produce 32 hectares of land, is “pea- It would be an unimaginably long using the mainland’s advanced rec- must serve need, not desire nuts” compared to large-scale reclama- process before such a gigantic project lamation techniques, well tried and tion projects. could obtain the necessary funding tested in reclamations in Xisha and overnments should not shirk their A careful reading of the consulta- from LegCo. Nansha Islands, reclamation up to responsibilities of designing policies tion document issued by the task force If we truly think out of the box, a 1,000 hectares or more could be com- to meet citizens’ needs. They should of shows that the government’s atten- much quicker and more cost-e ective pleted in a few years, thus providing course consult the public, but this is in tion is trained on the Eastern Lantau alternative would be to seek the central much-need land supply in the shortest Gorder to know the concerns of the public, particu- Metropolis (ELM), a strategic long-term government’s permission, as Macao has space of time. larly those of di erent interest groups. But in such development project aimed at reclaim- done, to reclaim in mainland waters. The beauty of reclamation in main- consultations governments are not supposed to give ing 1,000 hectares of land in Hong Two possible locations are either land waters is that it would steer clear people di erent policy options with a view to acting Ho Lok-sang Kong’s central waters, east of Lantau islets in Neilingding Yang, west of Lan- of the protracted and highly politically on the option with the greatest public support. The author is dean of business at Chu Hai Col- and west of Kau Yi Chau. It would cre- tau or islets to the south. Neilingding charged funding process in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, the ongoing “great debate on land lege of Higher Education. ate a new business district and accom- Island, which can be easily connected Reclamation could be undertaken by supply” is turning out to be what I abhor the most. modate up to 700,000 people. to Tuen Mun, Shenzhen and Zhuhai, mainland experts in accordance with First of all, the Task Force on Land Supply o ered on policy options are therefore just not meaningful, The ELM was fi rst announced by has been mooted as a possibility. But it the mainland’s environmental and 18 options, and the public is led or misled into and defi nitely not useful. They are just a waste of then chief executive Leung Chun- has been declared part of the Neiling- maritime rules, and leased to Hong believing that the consultation will produce a “win- time. ying in his Policy Address in 2014. Yet ding Island and Futian National Nature Kong on completion. ner”: The most popular option or options was/were Still, policymakers do need to make public con- despite repeated discussions at the Reserve. Reclaiming close to Shenzhen The approval given by the State to be selected and acted upon by the government. sultations. But these consultations should not be Lantau Development Advisory Com- could also a ect Shenzhen’s own coast- Council in 2009 for Macao to reclaim When Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor over a list of policy options. Consultations should mittee and the Development Panel of al reclamation plans. 361.65 hectares in mainland waters made the observation that reclamation from the sea rather be on the nature of the public’s concerns, and the Legislative Council, the government Another possibility is Guishan Island and to lease part of Island seems to be unavoidable if Hong Kong is to meet the extent of worries and desires for certain results. ran into such strong objections and to the south of Lantau. About 780 hect- provided useful precedents. The addi- its long-term needs, when the “great debate” is still Policy designers need to know what the public skepticism from pro-conservation legis- ares in area, the distance between the tional areas are administered by Macao going on, people accuse the special administrative wants, but not what policies the public wants. To lators that it failed to obtain funding of northern tip of Guishan Island to the under the “one country, two systems” region government of conducting a “fake consulta- use an analogy, public consultations should serve HK$227 million to undertake prelimi- southernmost end of Lantau is only 4.8 model. There is no reason why the tion”. the purpose of “market research”, and should repre- nary feasibility studies. km. The distance will be shorter after same arrangement cannot be extended We may recall that in the “Your Health, Your Life sent a process of gauging the needs of the market. The government no doubt hopes reclamation has enlarged the area of to Hong Kong. With substantially more Consultation Document on Healthcare Reform” Policy design is like designing the product to meet that the public consultation organized the island. Reclamation at Guishan land for development, Hong Kong of 2008, the SAR government laid out six “supple- the needs of the market. Engineers do not ask by the task force would generate suf- could produce up to 2,000 hectares could reshape its future, become more mentary fi nancing options” for consultation. As respondents to a market research survey to choose fi cient impetus to relaunch the project. of land, which could be connected to integrated with the Guangdong-Hong expected, when the consultation was completed, the from a list of product designs. But when they design While the outcomes of the consultation Lantau by bridge and to various desti- Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and bet- government could not come up with a policy pack- a product, they should have the needs of the market remain uncertain, Our Hong Kong nations in Hong Kong and Zhuhai by ter positioned to contribute to China’s age that it felt was the solution. In October 2010 in mind. And after they have got a good idea about Foundation, a think tank founded by ferry. ongoing development and moderniza- the government published the second-stage public the market needs they will just go about producing former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa, With such a sizeable tract of land tion. consultation document on healthcare reform, and the product. Of course the product rolled out will consulted the public again over the proposal of a not be perfect. But it will serve a list of purposes, government-regulated, voluntary Health Protection and those on the priority will be addressed. Some Scheme, which was aimed at enhancing the long- needs that are lower on the priority list may have Well on top term sustainability of the healthcare system. The to be ignored. consultation was to last three months until Jan 7, Our Hong Kong Foundation proposed last week 2011. Seven years after that, we are still without a an ambitious reclamation project to produce 2,200 scheme for tackling our healthcare fi nancing prob- hectares of land. This is double the size of the gov- Editor’s note: China Daily lems over the longer term. Meanwhile, the quality ernment’s proposal. Many people thought this out- Hong Kong Edition has of healthcare has fallen, and medical incidents have rageous. But Singapore in 2010 already had 10,000 launched a photo-sharing risen. The voluntary health protection scheme is hectares of residential land. Hong Kong in 2016 campaign on Instagram. You still in the works. only had 7,666 hectares. The proposed increase in can share your photos by tag- land supply through reclamation, even if it were all ging #hk24hr, and we’ll choose Let me repeat: Policy design is a technical matter the best ones to publish in the and must be conducted with a public-interest per- devoted to housing, would still leave Hong Kong newspaper. spective. The government can source experts from having less residential land than Singapore in 2010. the community if it does not have in-house experts, I saw some criticisms online suggesting that this but our policy design must not be based on public was to accommodate people from the mainland to consultation. settle in Hong Kong. But let us be reminded that The government’s perspective must be the public- today Singapore’s population is just 5.8 million. interest perspective. That is, it must consider the Whether Our Hong Kong Foundation’s proposal impact of the policy on each and every member of makes sense depends on how much desire we have the community. This is in contrast to the private- to improve Hong Kong people’s housing conditions, A tram passes in front of a Wan interest perspective. In practice, only very few versus the desire we may have to preserve that part Chai building with top precision, participants in the policy debate will think about of the sea. We must also ask if it is more or less with a woman and her computer pictured in a giant the public interest. Many will look after their own costly to develop the abandoned agricultural land billboard seemingly perched interest and many will make comments without now in private hands, of which there are around right on top of the vehicle. doing the homework. Most will lack the technical 2,930 hectares. Once we know our social priorities, @KAMPORL / INSTAGRAM expertise to make a sound judgment. Consultations we should act on them.