Developing a new North Lantau - (2013/02/06)

First of all, I would like to declare my interest. Our company provides cross-boundary bus services at the airport and has some indirect investment in the SkyPier.

In the Policy Address delivered last month, the Chief Executive put forth the development plan for Lantau Island. Mr CHAN Han-pan's motion today timely provides an opportunity for government officials to listen to the initial views of various sectors and Members from various political parties and groupings at the meeting, and these views will form a foundation for future studies.

As I understand it, the Government's studies on the new town development at Tung Chung started from the 1990s. However, when we review the progress, I will say that it has proceeding at snail's pace and it is apparently behind schedule. According to the original plan, there would be 200 000 people living in Tung Chung, but now there are only around 90 000 people. Now, I will try to analyse the advantages and disadvantages of Lantau Island, as well as the opportunities available and threats present, and then put forth some proposals on the direction of the development of Lantau Island.

At present, there are a number of landmark large-scale structures on Lantau Island, including the Chek Lap Kok Airport, the Disneyland, the Ngong Ping 360 cable car, the Tian Tan Buddha and the Asia-World Expo, and so on. The total asset value of these structures amounts to $150 billion approximately. At the same time, there are natural resources and traditional feature spots like Tai O, Cheung Sha, Pui O and Shui Hau, which are rich in local and cultural colours. These are favourable conditions conducive to the development of tourism, highlighting the potential of Lantau Island in developing business, leisure and ecology tourisms together.

Moreover, with the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge to traffic in 2016, it will take only 20 minutes to travel between Lantau Island and Qianhai in Shenzhen or Hengqin in Macao. Together with the West Hong Kong-Shenzhen Express Line and the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Highway to be built, it will take only 20 minutes to travel between Lantau Island and Central and Sha Tin via the connecting roads. It is evident that with the completion of various cross-boundary and large-scale infrastructure in succession, Lantau Island will become the transport hub in the Pearl River Delta, bringing about opportunities for the development of "bridgehead economy".

With the integrated opportunities presented by the advantages in tourism and "bridgehead economy" of the district, Lantau Island has great potentials to be developed into a tourism island comparable to Sentosa in Singapore, and the development will enhance Hong Kong's image in tourism and improve the living standard of residents in the district. In recent years, the supply of tourist supporting facilities, such as hotels, retail and catering services, is getting tight. Since these supporting facilities are mostly concentrated in both sides of the Victoria Harbour and prime commercial districts, the development of tourism in Hong Kong has come to a bottleneck, so it is necessary to increase the capacity of tourist support in future. If Lantau Island can be developed into an international tourist resort, it will be the new bright spot in Hong Kong tourism, easing the pressure on hospitality in the urban areas.

However, there are many problems with the tourism development in Lantau Island at present. It is pointed out in a survey that over 53% of the respondents consider it necessary to improve the land transport of Lantau Island, and over 42% consider it necessary to improve the transport between Lantau Island and the urban areas in Hong Kong, and 40% consider it necessary to improve its marine transport. If tourism development is to be carried out on Lantau Island, the authorities have to take proactive actions to deal with the inadequacy in transportation. The absence of clear positioning is the main hindrance to the effective development of Lantau Island over the years. Despite the many tourism facilities available on Lantau Island, the Government had focused on the planning on logistics and transport in the past, leading to a palpable inadequacy in municipal and tourism planning. As a result, relevant bureaux, including the Development Bureau, the Transport and Housing Bureau and the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, lack proper co-ordination, thus directly impeding the examination and implementation of overall policies and measures in respect of Lantau Island. 

In the Pearl River Delta (PRD) Region, the annual retail sales reach an average of RMB 130 million yuan at present, and the enormous scale of the market is very attractive. When the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge are open to traffic, it will further realize the concept of "one-hour living circle", which offers great strategic value in the competition for the PRD consumer market. As we see that large-scale infrastructure works are now in full swing in Qianhai, Shenzhen and Hengqin, Macao, the two main exits of the bridge, so if we do not make an effort to catch up in developing Lantau Island, we will be lagging far behind the trend a few years later.

Tourist spots in Lantau Island are only linked in a linear mode, where the plane-scale development is overlooked. In the medium-to-long term, the existing North-South Road Link should be enhanced, and this includes improving the Tung Chung Road and roads in Lantau South, speeding up the progress of the main line of the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Express Line, and examining the connection of Urmston Road from south to north as soon as possible and the possibility of establishing a direct link between Northwest New Territories and Qianhai, Shenzhen, so as to reinforce Lantau Island's role as the transport hub.

In the near term, the authorities may examine opening up the SkyPier for the provision of various cross-boundary ferry services for tourists. At present, the pier merely serves as a supporting facility to the Chek Lap Kok Airport for the convenience of transit passengers, which is indeed a waste of resource. If the SkyPier is opened up, it will facilitate the commute of tourists among Hong Kong, Mainland and Macao. It is estimated that such an arrangement will increase the passenger trips by 1.5 million to 3 million a year, which will bring additional job opportunities and other economic benefits to Lantau Island.

Moreover, to cope with the increasing tourist traffic after development, the authorities should promptly strengthen the existing tourist support facilities on Lantau Island. According to a survey conducted by a district organization in the district, which seeks to gauge the views of visitors on improving the tourist facilities on Lantau Island, over 60% of the respondents consider that more shopping facilities should be provided, and over 55% consider that additional catering facilities should be provided. In this connection, the authorities should consider making funding provisions for the construction of large-scale shopping areas to provide both retail and wholesale services. For instance, it may consider developing the north of the airport into a commercial district, forming this into a famous tourist shopping spot in the district, thereby easing the bottleneck of tourist shopping in the town centre. 

At the same time, in view of the frequent traffic congestion and shortage of parking spaces at tourist spots in the urban areas, the authorities should examine the provision of additional parking spaces in North Lantau, covering the boundary crossing area of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, various major tourist spots, shopping spots and the commercial areas surrounding the airport. The arrangement is meant to provide convenience to tourists visiting Lantau Island through various channels and the bridge, so as to attract them to stay in the district to shop and spend, which will then enhance Lantau Island's attractiveness to tourists.

In respect of tourism spots, though the performance of the Disneyland has been improving in recent years, it remains the Disneyland with the smallest area in the world to date. Given the current scale of development, it can hardly cope with the future increase in visitors arriving in Hong Kong, nor can it compete with the Disneyland to be built in Shanghai in future. As such, it must speed up the expansion progress. It has been learnt that the Disney of the United States is now discussing the expansion arrangement with the Hong Kong Government. I hope the works concerned will be launched as soon as possible.

The AsiaWorld-Expo, another landmark structure of Lantau Island, has all along been a catalyst for economic growth. In 2010 alone, it brought about $13.4 billion income to the local economy and created, directly and indirectly, 26 000 employment places. Since the AsiaWorld-Expo has not reached its full capacity by now, if support for business tourism of Lantau Island is enhanced, it will be conducive to the development of the convention and exhibition industries in Hong Kong.

In recent years, Lantau Island has been facing the problem of hotel shortage, particularly three-star and four-star hotels in the vicinity of the AsiaWorld-Expo. The Government should expeditiously launch the demand assessment on hotel in Lantau Island, formulate long-term land grant arrangement as soon as possible, and draw up comprehensive hotel planning to support the "bridgehead economy".

We hope that the Government will upgrade various tourist support to improve people's livelihood and promote employment.

I so submit.