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

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.

‘Thousand-year sinners’: island residents decry Lantau reclamation

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.

But the most controversial of them all was a request for HK$550 million for studies related to man-made islands which would kick-start the government’s plan for reclaimed land off Lantau Island.

The controversial project, known as the Lantau Tomorrow Vision, centres on 1,700 hectares of artificial islands that would become a housing and business hub.

The first phase, which would include 1,000 hectares of artificial islands, is estimated to cost HK$624 billion to build. Opponents fear the plan will drain the city’s financial reserves, currently above HK$1.1 trillion.

Chan said the Lantau project would be at the bottom of the committee’s agenda, but campaigners and pan-democrat lawmakers suggested that getting it approved was his real aim when adding the extra meetings.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Eddie Tse Sai-kit, convenor of the Save Lantau Alliance, which opposes the development, said the government had yet to consult the public on the project.

“We don’t understand why this has to be hurried. And why resort to such procedural violence to bulldoze this through?” he said.

Pan-democrat lawmaker Au Nok-hin agreed the Lantau funding request should be withdrawn, noting the recent political controversies around the government’s now-suspended extradition bill, which drew hundreds of thousands onto the streets in opposition and led to clashes between police and protesters.

“It is such a controversial project ... When society is so polarised, the funding request should be shelved,” Au said.

Accountancy lawmaker Kenneth Leung said the committee should prioritise bread-and-butter issues.

“The pan-democratic bloc would like to have allocations for education, medical care and social welfare quickly passed, but we do not have to arouse disputes or tensions with an item as controversial as the artificial islands at this sensitive moment,” Leung said.

As for the civil service pay rise, Leung said some lawmakers might have concerns due to police officers’ performance at recent rallies and protests, particularly their use of force during clashes on June 12.

“But we can’t skip the whole team of civil servants just because we have complaints against the police. We will have to discuss this item carefully,” Leung said.

Claudia Mo Man-ching, convenor of the pan-democratic bloc, said the camp would finalise its own list of priority items for the Finance Committee while trying to meet Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung to discuss the list before Friday. The list would not include the funding for the studies related to artificial islands, she revealed.

Pro-establishment lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun also said the funding for the Lantau studies could wait until Legco resumes in October after summer recess.

“Without withdrawing the Lantau funding request, the other items placed before it could also be affected and could end up not going to the vote,” he warned.