Border dwellers demand restricted areas be opened

Angry Shataukok residents have demanded the government open up all border land before planning for economic development in the New Territories.

The chairman of Shataukok District Rural Committee, Lau Tin-sang, said the administration no longer had a political reason to maintain the restricted zone.

The border area, where entry is restricted to local villagers, stretches from Deep Bay in the west to Shataukok in the east.

'The closed frontier area was set up to cut supplies from Hong Kong to the mainland during the Korean war in the 1950s. Hong Kong is now part of China. Why does the area have to remain closed?' Mr Lau asked at a forum on the future development of border land in Shataukok yesterday. Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen announced the idea of opening up part of the restricted zone in his first policy address last month.

About 2,000 hectares of land is set to be opened up under the government plan to promote ecotourism and low-density development.

Assistant director of the Planning Department Augustine Ng Wah-keung said only about 800 hectares of land were geographically suitable for economic development as part of it was wetland.