18,000 sq ft plot is no stockpile, Paul Chan’s wife declares
Lawmakers accuse her of distracting attention from minister's failure to declare interest
Lawmakers remained unconvinced yesterday after development minister Paul Chan Mo-po's wife said that if she wanted to stockpile land with development potential in the New Territories she would have bought more than one plot in 19 years.
With her husband still embroiled in a conflict-of-interest row over farmland at Kwu Tung that is included in a new town plan, Frieda Hui Po-ming made the point in a statement published in several Chinese-language newspapers yesterday.
She also apologised for causing her family trouble over the land and insisted that her husband had never owned the 18,000 square foot plot.
"It is not a stockpile of land," she said. "If it was, I would not have bought just one plot of land over 19 years."
Cyd Ho Sau-lan of the Labour Party said: "It doesn't matter if she bought only one piece of land or lots of land. Former financial secretary Antony Leung Kam-chung stepped down just because he bought a car before he raised the vehicle tax."
Hui said the land was bought through Statement Industries in 1994, but the government did not announce Kwu Tung as a "potential strategic development site" until 1996.
