Hong Kong withdraws tenders for 2 sites to speed up Northern Metropolis development
Tenders for sites in Yuen Long and Hung Shui Kiu were scheduled to close on Friday and had repeatedly been extended
The Development Bureau said on Monday that a three-hectare site in Yuen Long would be passed to the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) to build a microelectronics ecosystem to promote high-value-added new industrialisation. The corporation runs an innovation park next to the site.
An eight-hectare plot in Hung Shui Kiu will be included in a bureau policy study, under which the government aims to establish a company to run an industrial estate in the area.
The two sites are among 30,000 hectares (74,100 acres) of land under the Northern Metropolis megaproject, a blueprint to turn the northern New Territories near the border with mainland China into an economic powerhouse and a housing hub.
The bureau said it had halted the tenders to facilitate efficient implementation of more pragmatic arrangements, which could allow them to play a bigger role in promoting industrial development.
“In order to lead and effectively promote the development of industries in the Northern Metropolis, the government has to allow flexibility in the use of [land] and adopt a ‘dynamic planning’ approach in formulating strategies in accordance with the actual circumstances, thereby accelerating enterprise anchoring and fostering development of the area,” a bureau spokesman said.