30 jobs go as Disney halts HK expansion

The Walt Disney Company has halted all creative and design work on the expansion of Hong Kong Disneyland, cutting more than 30 jobs.

The company acted after being told by the government that there was no timetable on the way forward, the US entertainment giant said yesterday.

Contracts with several architectural and consulting firms would also be suspended as a result, sources said. It is understood that Disney will have to compensate the firms involved.

Yesterday's job cuts reduced the size of Walt Disney Imagineering's Hong Kong-based team to a skeleton crew of about 10 staff. Those laid off included two Americans and three or four Britons, while the rest were local employees, the sources said. Their salaries were paid by Disney, based in Burbank, California. Imagineers are mainly responsible for master planning, developing, designing and engineering the company's theme parks.

The redundancies come a month after Disney said an undisclosed number of its US jobs would be shed as part of a corporate overhaul and to trim its overheads amid the economic downturn and poor consumer spending.

'After two years of Disney investment in creative and design work and extensive negotiations with our partner, the Hong Kong government, we have not yet reached a final agreement to expand Hong Kong Disneyland,' Walt Disney parks and resorts spokesman Leslie Goodman said.