Dear citizens of Hong Kong,


The Development Bureau unveiled details of the Lantau Tomorrow Vision project last week. The project is estimated to cost around HK$624 billion, which would make it the most expensive project to date. Near shore reclamation may be a more practical solution to enhance land supply, instead of building an artificial island in the waters. If this project does go ahead as planned, there will be no turning back. Therefore, apart from questioning the costs of the construction project and its possible impact to the environment, the public is also questioning the basis of creating an artificial island. While the power to vet immigrants is not in our hands and the future economic growth of Hong Kong heavily relies on Greater Bay Area development as stipulated by the government, the creation of a 1000-hectare artificial island may still not be a viable solution for our future. On the other hand, the government has not been utilising our land resources wisely. For example, the government would only consider utilising the 60-hectare idle land reserved for the second phase of Disneyland’s development for short-term events, instead of calling to use parts of the land for modular housing. The 60 to 100-hectare developable land from Sunny Bay reclamation was still earmarked for leisure purposes, notwithstanding the need to relocate economic activities on brown field site to kick start the possible resumption of brown field for housing development.


The Democratic Party opposes the Lantau Tomorrow Vision project. There are three reasons for this. First of all, we believe “distant water cannot put out a nearby fire”, the project will only be able to provide developable land for housing in 15, or even 20 years. To the anger and dismay of many current residents of subdivided flats, the government has foregone many short-term options of alleviating the acute shortage of land, such as reclaiming golf course, farmlands and brownfield sites. The government has only decided to take back parts of the Fanling Golf Course, a move many interpret as the government giving in to the pressure of the rich. The rejection of utilising short-term options to increase land supply has disappointed the public. In this context, the Lantau Tomorrow Vision project will not win the public’s support and confidence, let alone mending the existing rifts in Hong Kong.


Surely there is a more effective way than building an artificial island, such as using the Land Resumption Ordinance to take back the farmlands, brownfield sites and the golf course in the New Territories and develop them using the New Town Development Areas Approach. There are also near shore reclamations in the pipeline. We already have a lot of development projects in the Northeast and Northwest New Territories, and Lok Ma Chau Loop in the next 10-15 years, which will undoubtedly tie up the construction capacity. The Lantau Tomorrow Vision project itself is Carrie Lam's political gamble, so that she can add this to her list of achievements during her term, but the project will inevitably add fuel to the escalation of construction costs on other projects.  That will mean the actual burden will not be limited to the ceiling of HK$624 billion. We will not approve the budget for the feasibility study of the Lantau Tomorrow Vision project, and we strongly demand a fresh round of public consultation on the project alone. Moreover, in order to efficiently release land for housing in the short-term, we have been advocating the use of Land Resumption Ordinance to take back the farmlands in the New Territories, so that land demand can be met at the same time as other ongoing New Territories new town developments.


We are also concerned about the cost of the sand for the Lantau project. Based on the amount and cost of the sand used in the Airport’s Three Runway System Project, we estimate that the Lantau project will require 260 million cubic meters of sand, which would cost at least HK$44 billion. Due to the shortage of marine sand, the Airport project had to use mechanical sand instead. Not only is mechanical sand harmful to the environment, the shortage of sand also increased the overall cost of the project.


Lastly, the Lantau Tomorrow Vision project itself is the outcome of a breach of procedural justice. Carrie Lam proposed this project before the Task Force on Land Supply even finished its public consultation. The government now claims the first phase of the Lantau project will only reclaim 1,000 hectares of land, so that it will be consistent with the results in the Opinion Survey by the Task Force. But the government has not yet revealed more details about the fate of the remaining 700 hectares of land they intend to reclaim, or the so-called second phase of the project. It is quite plain to see that the government hopes that the Lantau project will commence first so that it will be harder to say no to the second phase of the project.