Single-developer approach to hub project attacked
A review is urged, but government won't shelve the West Kowloon cultural plan
The government suffered a major setback over the West Kowloon cultural hub project yesterday when political parties joined forces to pass a motion for a full review on the contentious 'single-developer' approach.
But Chief Secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said the administration would not shelve the project.
'We shouldn't stop because there are calls for us to stop. That would be irresponsible,' he said after a three-hour heated debate in the Legislative Council panel on planning, lands and works.
The panel also unanimously passed another non-binding motion urging the government to extend public consultation on the project from three months to six months. A third motion that would have forced developers to divulge full financial arrangements for the project was narrowly defeated.
Defending the scheme, Mr Tsang said the public would have to fork out $11.8 billion if the government were to build the project.
'It's just pure fantasy to say that the government can restore budget balance instantly by selling the land and using the revenue to finance the cultural hub,' he said.
Mr Tsang dismissed reports saying the consortium which won the right to develop the site could practically control the land supply and the property market in the near future.
He said only seven of the 40 hectares had been earmarked for property development on the West Kowloon site, whereas the government planned to release 300 hectares of land over the next five years.
With the three shortlisted proposals due for a 15-week roadshow from this month, Mr Tsang urged lawmakers to let the public decide what it wanted.
Amid calls for full disclosure on the developers' finance package, Mr Tsang warned that the public might be misled if the competing developers only selectively revealed figures at this stage.
But he promised to disclose as many details as possible when the government was close to signing a deal with the winning consortium. 'We will make sure that the developer's profit is not unreasonably high,' he said.
Independent democrat Albert Chan Wai-yip accused the government of again rubbing shoulders with property developers despite outcries over previous projects like the sold-off Hunghom Peninsula housing project and the single-developer Cyberport.
Mr Chan's amendment seeking to scrap the single-developer approach rather than review it was rejected by the panel.
Liberal Party leader James Tien Pei-chun also said the single-developer approach was not the only option.
'Long Hair' Leung Kwok-hung called for a referendum for the public to decide what to do with the project.
