Task force to consider ‘never-before-discussed’ options to boost housing supply, Hong Kong development minister says

Examples cited by Secretary for Development Michael Wong include reclaiming land from Plover Cove Reservoir and building platform on top of Kwai Tsing Container Terminals

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Secretary for Development Michael Wong Wai-lun was speaking soon after remarks by Chief Executive Carrie Lam sparked debates on housing. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Published: 1:34pm, 20 Oct 2017Updated: 2:20pm, 20 Oct 2017

A basket of new options to build up Hong Kong’s land bank, including constructing homes on top of a container terminal, are being considered by the land supply task force, the city’s development minister said.

“[The task force] will consider different options, some of which really have not been discussed before. The government will consider the options proposed to us,” Secretary for Development Michael Wong Wai-lun said during a RTHK programme on Friday morning.

Examples he cited included reclaiming land from Plover Cove Reservoir, building a platform for housing atop the Kwai Tsing Container Terminals and providing infrastructure so that private developers would develop their farmland reserves in the New Territories.

Wong’s remarks came as critics called on the government to look for more alternatives to boost land supply instead of narrowing down the options, after Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Monday that she might leave country parks alone if the public could agree on reclaiming land outside Victoria Harbour for housing.

Where could Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam have lived with a budget of HK$15 million?

Lam said it was all a matter of trade-offs.

“If you allow the government to do more reclamation outside Victoria Harbour, maybe we need not touch the country parks at all,” she said on a television programme on Monday.