Majority of Hongkongers worried about cost of Lantau reclamation plan, survey finds
- Civic Party poll of 3,236 residents finds many also believe the government should first make use of existing land resources
- Survey comes as group of 38 economists released joint statement in support of Carrie Lam’s Lantau Tomorrow Vision
Almost 60 per cent of respondents to a survey said they are worried that a government plan to create a massive artificial island in the waters around Hong Kong would exhaust the city’s fiscal reserve.
The survey, conducted by the pro-democratic Civic Party between October 16 and November 5, covered 3,236 respondents interviewed through random telephone calls.
The survey came as 38 economists jointly issued a statement in support of the reclamation proposal, dubbed the Lantau Tomorrow Vision by Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor in her policy address last month.
The economists argued that the government could recover the costs in building the 1,700-hectare island to the east of Lantau and even make a profit by selling land on the new island.
But lawmaker from the party Jeremy Tam Man-ho, releasing the survey findings on Tuesday, urged the government to explain whether it actually wanted to build the island to solve Hong Kong’s unaffordable and overcrowded housing as it had claimed, or to use the island as a tool to make money.
“The plan is like splashing out the fruit of several generations of Hongkongers’ hard work on an island that may or may not be submerged due to global warming and rising sea levels,” Tam said.
The survey showed that 58 per cent of the respondents were worried that the project, estimated by a government source to cost HK$500 billion – about half of the city’s fiscal reserve – could eventually use up all the fiscal reserve. About 21 per cent said they were not worried.
