Secrecy over Kai Tak cruise terminal generates waves of questions

'The consortium chosen to develop a cruise terminal at Kai Tak will have the right to operate the terminal on the former airport site for more than 30 years.'

SCMP, October 19

PERHAPS WE'LL GET around to building it then before those 30 years are up. Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen had been expected to present details in his policy address last week but no luck and the leaks we are now getting are still very short on detail.

Mr Tsang's reluctance is understandable. He has come a cropper on this idea once already. In his 1999 budget speech as financial secretary, he announced approval in principle of a cruise terminal in North Point to be built by a private developer.

That developer was tycoon Li Ka-shing but nothing came of the idea, perhaps because of the ruckus caused by the announcement in that same budget speech of another land grant (Cyberport) made without auction or tender to a member of Mr Li's family. It was just as well perhaps as North Point is not the right place.

Last year the government invited expressions of interest in the construction of a cruise terminal and got six replies. Only one of them proposed a terminal at the Kai Tak site, although Kai Tak had already been highlighted as a government preference. The others generally picked locations more convenient to their existing land banks. All were rejected.