Cash for Lantau Tomorrow Vision can wait until next term, Hong Kong legislators say

Calls for livelihood issues to trump man-made islands at finance panel before Legislative Council session ends

Pan-democrats say there is already enough political controversy in the city amid extradition row, without arousing further conflict

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The Lantau Tomorrow Vision proposes 1,700 hectares of man-made islands off Lantau Island, seen in the background. Photo: Martin Chan

Published: 5:27pm, 25 Jun 2019Updated: 1:35pm, 20 Oct 2020

Plans for a metropolis on reclaimed land in Hong Kong should be bumped off the agenda at the legislature’s finance committee in favour of livelihood issues, lawmakers from across the political spectrum said on Tuesday.

The legislators noted that the major project – a signature policy of Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor – could arouse further controversy as her government tries to take the heat out of the extradition bill saga.

Their call came a day after the chairman of the Legislative Council’s Finance Committee announced an extra 37 hours of meetings to allow 44 funding requests to be approved by July 20.

The committee had scheduled 12 hours of meetings to scrutinise 21 items on its agenda. But Chan Kin-por said the government wanted lawmakers to approve another 23 items that had not been on the agenda.

Among the 44 requests were nine from the Development Bureau and six from the Environment Bureau. The Food and Health Bureau and the Education Bureau had five and four requests on the list, respectively. Other requests included cash for a public housing project at Wang Chau in Yuen Long, where about 4,000 flats will be built; a road-and-tunnel project in Cha Kwo Ling, east Kowloon; and civil servants’ annual pay rise.