Hong Kong budget 2024-25: city delays Lantau Island reclamation project, orders all departments to tighten belts

In ‘a fiscal consolidation programme’, finance chief’s budget lists steps to cut expenditure in areas ranging from infrastructure to transport to civil service

Paul Chan also announces two transport subsidy policies, including HK$2 concessionary fare, have been placed under immediate review

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Lantau Island. Several advocacy groups have called for a complete scrapping of the mega reclamation off the island plan due to its cost and ecological impact. Photo: Martin Chan

Published: 8:48pm, 28 Feb 2024Updated: 12:14am, 29 Feb 2024

Hong Kong will delay a controversial massive reclamation project off Lantau Island and require extra expenditure cuts by all departments in a bid to restore fiscal balance in a few years as the city’s deficit ballooned to HK$101.6 billion (US$12.98 billion).

The finance minister also announced in his budget on Wednesday that the two costly transport subsidy policies, including the HK$2 concessionary fare enjoyed by the elderly and people with disabilities, had been placed under immediate review.

“This notwithstanding, the government will remain committed to taking care of people’s needs by continued allocation of resources for the provision and improvement of public services,” Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said.

In what Chan called “a fiscal consolidation programme”, the government’s budget listed steps to cut expenditure in areas ranging from infrastructure to transport to the civil service.

An illustration of the Lantau Tomorrow Vision Project. Photo: Legco

Among them was the reclamation for Kau Yi Chau, one of three artificial islands under the Lantau Tomorrow Vision development plan that has an estimated HK$580 billion price tag.