Hong Kong rural leaders, groups cry foul over ‘shockingly’ rushed Legco funding bid by city’s government for new border town

Yuen Long District Council chairman says there was no time for community consultation and the move veered from past practices

New Territories North project earmarked as one of two long-term sources of land supply for Hong Kong

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Hong Kong’s rural land, some of which includes brownfield sites. In the backdrop is the Futian district of Shenzhen. Photo: Roy Issa

Published: 7:30am, 4 May 2021Updated: 12:56am, 8 May 2021

A government plan to build a new town near the border with mainland China was “shockingly” rushed and presented to the legislature for a funding bid, rural leaders and groups in Hong Kong have said, insisting they have not been properly consulted.

The Development Bureau submitted a paper to the Legislative Council on Monday, stating that it would make a funding request in the second quarter of the year for HK$994.6 million (US$128 million) to conduct investigations and detailed works design for the first phase of the New Territories North (NT North) project, and to kick-start planning and engineering studies for the second phase.

The project is earmarked as one of the two long-term sources of land supply for Hong Kong, along with a reclamation plan off the waters of Lantau Island, according to the bureau.

“Commanding a strategic boundary location, with easy access to Shenzhen … the NT North developments will … tap into the fast-growing regional economy in the Greater Bay Area and meet the economic challenges ahead,” the bureau said in the paper.

The proposal, to be discussed by Legco’s development panel next Monday, did not come attached with a feasibility study which was launched in 2019. The bureau only said the study had been “substantially completed”, presenting an initial land-use plan and some basic planning parameters in the document.