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SCMP Reporter

A Preparatory Committee sub-group declined to approve the Government's long-term development strategy yesterday despite a second briefing by senior Hong Kong officials.

  The forecasts for population expansion in the next century were too conservative, said economic sub-group co-convenor Nellie Fong Wong Kut-man after the meeting.

  She was speaking after the Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands, Bowen Leung Po-wing, had given the sub-group its second briefing.

  The government report projects that Hong Kong's population will surpass eight million in 2011.

  But Mrs Fong said the figure had been underestimated, although she would give no estimate herself.

  'It must be more than that when you say over 50,000 Chinese people will come to reside in Hong Kong every year under the one-way permit system and that a number of returning migrants will come back,' she said.

  'Those coming to work and invest in Hong Kong, from both overseas and the mainland, will greatly increase after the handover following future economic development.'   The sub-group accused the Government of over-reliance on urban development while ignoring land planning in the New Territories.

  Mrs Fong said the Government should lay more stress on developing the New Territories, particularly the northeast.

  It should consider the economic direction it wanted to pursue when planning land use rather than speculate on future population levels. Southern China's development should be taken into account, rather than short-term or mid-term development of Hong Kong. Mr Leung said it was difficult to react to the suggestion that government research should cover a longer period.

  The longer the period, the more ambiguous the forecast, he said.

  However, the development strategy should be established before land was reserved for use, he concluded.



Development strategy based on 'too low' population projection