Guangdong to pay the most under new funding model
Construction of the Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai Bridge will be able to begin by 2010 after the central government agreed to inject funds to make sure the project does not suffer any more delays, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said yesterday.
A new funding arrangement will see the cost of building the bridge split between the three regional governments, with Guangdong - after receiving subsidies from the central government - paying the most. However, 58 per cent of the cost will be funded by loans.
The three governments had agreed in February that the 37.45 billion yuan (HK$42.72 billion) project would be tendered out to the private sector under the build-operate-transfer model, with the three governments meeting the funding gap between the construction cost and the private sector investment under a cost-to-benefit principle. Hong Kong would have covered 50.2 per cent of the gap, Guangdong 35.1 per cent and Macau 14.7 per cent.
But under the new funding arrangement, Hong Kong will shoulder 42.9 per cent of the upfront payments, Guangdong and the central government 44.5 per cent and Macau 12.5 per cent. Mr Tsang announced the new plan after meeting Guangdong Governor Huang Huahua at the 11th annual meeting of the Guangdong-Hong Kong Joint Co-operation Conference yesterday.
'The three governments will now be responsible for contributing 42 per cent, or 15.73 billion [yuan], of the bridge's construction cost,' he said. 'We will raise loans for the rest.'
That means Guangdong and Beijing would have to shoulder an upfront payment of 7 billion yuan, Hong Kong 6.75 billion yuan and Macau 1.98 billion yuan.