Road to 5**﹕No shortcut to increasing land supply

[2019.01.14] 發表

【明報專訊】◆Source A

Source： a cartoon by 尊子 published in Ming Pao on 2018.07.04

◆Source B

Four months into the "big debate on land supply", the last public forum, held on 25th August 2018, drew around 250 people.

Many citizens expressed disapproval of land reclamation from the sea during the forum. Miss Chan said that "she would rather level mountains than reclaim land from the sea", since new trees could be planted but lost oceans could never return. Mr Chung, who lives in Ma On Shan, said that though part of his district was reclaimed from the sea, he believed that we had more options of land development to choose from, "We need to be better than before. We no longer need to reclaim land from the sea, which is an irreversible process."

Stanley Wong Yuen Fai, Chairman of the Task Force on Land Supply said that as can be seen in numerous public events, the development of the fringe areas of country parks, land reclamation from the sea and the development of private recreational land have shown to be more controversial than the other options. He is happy to see that citizens have in general reached a consensus on the need to solve the problem of land shortage and to find 1,200 hectares of land.

Source: a Ming Pao report on 2018.08.26

■Questions and answering guidelines

◆1. Discuss the importance of increasing land supply to Hong Kong.

Development of diversified industries﹕

Apart from four key industries, Hong Kong also has six emerging industries. Extra land might be needed for these industries' future development to support related operations, such as data centres and Chinese medicine hospitals.

Tackling urgent social matters﹕

Citizens generally regard the housing problem as the most urgent problem. A key to solving the problem is the exploration of new land resources to tackle the need for housing and shorten the waiting time for public housing.

◆2. " If a consensus is not expected after a consultation exercise, it is better not to consult the public." Do you agree?

Agree∕Disagree∕(See the table)

Text：劉錦輝, liberal studies teacher at Christian Alliance College

Translation: Terence Yip

[通通識第558期]