MR YIU SI-WING (in Cantonese):

 

President, first of all, I am very grateful to Mr Paul TSE for proposing the motion. In his question raised in 2019, Mr TSE once asked whether the Government had any plan to carry out reclamation works at the Kwun Tong Typhoon Shelter ("KTTS"). At that time, the Secretary for Development replied that there was no such intention, one of the reasons being that a feasibility study on a monorail in Kowloon East was underway, which could solve the traffic problems in the district in the future. However, last year's Policy Address has made it clear that the Kai Tak monorail project, which has been in the pipeline for 10 years, is technically infeasible and the project will not be pursued. Nevertheless, there are many large-scale commercial and residential infrastructure projects in Kowloon East―particularly in Kai Tak―including the Kai Tak Multi-purpose Sports Complex, and they are bound to bring a huge flow of people to the district. If all these facilities come into full operation, it is estimated that the ancillary transport facilities originally planned for Kowloon East will be even more overloaded. Therefore, I agree that we should study the feasibility of the KTTS reclamation on the premise that adequate berthing spaces are provided for vessels at the typhoon shelter, so as to address the traffic problems arising from the shortage of land in Kowloon East.

 

There have always been problems with the ancillary transport facilities in the vicinity of the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal ("KTCT"). Every time when two mega cruise ships berth there, masses of visitors go in and out the district simultaneously, causing immediate traffic chaos across the district. With a construction cost of $8.2 billion, KTCT boasts a beautiful environment and has 50 000 sq ft of commercial space. Apart from providing areas for the embarkation and disembarkation of cruise passengers, the hardware can also provide space for business, leisure and tourism purposes in the district. That said, due to poor ancillary transport facilities, the shopping mall, exhibition venue and other facilities in the cruise terminal have all along been under-utilized and the economic benefits originally envisaged have not been achieved. To turn around the current passive situation, the only way is to improve the traffic network so that the value of the cruise terminal can be fully exerted and the traffic problems in the vicinity can be resolved.

 

The KTTS reclamation proposed by Mr TSE is indeed one of the options worth exploring. If successful, the terminal area can be integrated with the Kwun Tong District. Apart from additional land supply, vehicles will no longer need to make a detour as they do now and the traffic problems will then be solved, which is conducive to the development of KTCT and its surrounding facilities in the long run.

 

President, reclamation in urban areas is not simply a matter of engineering works, but comes with various controversies and is estimated to take over 10 years from study to implementation. For this reason, on top of reclamation, I also suggest that some short-, medium- and long-term measures can be considered in order to solve the existing problems with the traffic in the district and the external access of the cruise terminal.

 

A short-term proposal is to establish a temporary terminal facility for passenger embarkation and disembarkation near the entrance to the typhoon shelter, that is, next to the Kai Tak Runway Park. Despite the existing Kai Tak Public Pier near the former airport fire station, vessels using this pier must reach the interior of the typhoon shelter by taking a relatively circuitous and time-consuming route. At present, ferries plying between Kwun Tong and North Point need to berth there midway. Given the longer travelling time, the response from passengers has been lukewarm. During the boom of Mainland inbound tours, in order to divert the tour groups in To Kwa Wan, harbour tours for Mainland visitors also used this piers, but the response was equally lukewarm due to the relatively remote location of the pier. Even if the tourism industry recovers, it is likely that the location of this pier will lead to low patronage. If a temporary pier is provided near the entrance to the typhoon shelter, it will be able to cater for the needs of different visitors, including the Mainland tour groups participating in harbour tours as mentioned just now, passengers taking the ferries plying between North Point and Kwun Tong, passengers at the Kai Tak water taxi stop to be developed, as well as cruise passengers. Recently, organizations participating in reception of cruise passengers suggested to me that if a temporary pier could be provided at the aforesaid location, they would design several local tour itineraries for cruise passengers coming to Hong Kong to choose from, so as to enhance the attractiveness of Hong Kong in the cruise market.

 

President, in the face of fierce competition from the Shenzhen Prince Bay Cruise Homeport ("SZCH") in the Greater Bay Area, the Government cannot rest on its laurels. There should be longer-term planning for KTCT, such as by increasing clearance facilities and cross-border transport services to strengthen the external connectivity of the cruise terminal and enhance its competitiveness against our neighbouring regions. The positioning of SZCH is already higher than Hong Kong in design, with the intention of becoming a comprehensive waterborne transport hub centre of the Greater Bay Area; and since its commissioning, there have already been many cruise routes to different cities such as Hong Kong, Macao and the Pearl River Delta, and the ancillary transport facilities to and from SZCH within Shenzhen City are also relatively well-developed. Therefore, that terminal has a higher utilization rate and a very heavy passenger flow. On the contrary, the design of Hong Kong's cruise terminal started at a lower level. Considerations were only given to local traffic arrangements without taking into account cross-border transport services, and the transport to and from urban areas is also inadequate, thus causing dissatisfaction among the industry and visitors.

 

In fact, the existing facilities, location and hardware of the cruise terminal have already laid down some sort of foundation. The Government should make optimal use of the existing resources and re-plan the external ancillary transport facilities with a forward-looking vision, so that the competitive advantages of the cruise terminal in Hong Kong can be sustained in the long run.

 

With these remarks, President, I support the original motion and its amendment.