News Stories:

Click-on these handy "jump links" to quickly access the news item
you're looking for.

1. Rail noise could affect Cultural Centre

2. Tamar wait `is just six months'

3. Islanders unite to fight `super prison' plan

4. Central government agency to back bridge

5. Government $4.8b HQ project may be scrapped

6. Fourth writ filed over failed Villa Pinada development

7. Shopping mecca braces for rail chaos

8. Legislators want review of planning fast-tracked

9. Hopes rise for harmony in the delta

10. Jockey Club gag rules choke basic rights

11. Falling Debris injures nine

1. Rail noise could affect Cultural Centre
Keith Wallis, The Standard 7 May 2003

Officials cannot guarantee noise from construction and rail operations will not be heard in the Cultural Centre and museums when work starts and trains run on the HK$10.3 billion Kowloon southern link, legislators were told yesterday.

Both Deputy Secretary for Environment, Transport and Works Paul Tang, and Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) East Rail extensions director Lee Kang-kuen could not say with absolute certainty the scheme would not have an impact the leisure facilities.

The line will run from Tsim Sha Tsui East to the West Rail terminus at Nam Cheong Street station. The current alignment shows the railway will run under Salisbury Road before turning north to run under Canton Road.

Speaking at a Legislative Council railways subcommittee meeting, Lee said that as construction had yet to start, ``I can't say 100 per cent'' there would be no noise or vibration. But he said calculations had been made that show the rail works were a ``safe distance'' from the Cultural Centre and museums.

He was responding to a question by Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong legislator Lau Kong-wah.

Earlier Frontier legislator Cyd Ho said users of the Cultural Centre would have ``zero tolerance'' to noise and vibration, adding ``any impact on the Cultural Centre and it would face huge losses''. If this happened the centre would have to be moved elsewhere, a move that would cost billions of dollars.

KCRC senior director capital projects James Blake said noise experts, who have worked with the rail company for seven years, would be employed to recommend ways to reduce noise and vibration.

Tang said that the KCRC would be subject to noise constraints imposed by the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) to minimise the noise from construction works.

Blake said contractors would have to undergo a rigorous selection process as part of the design and build tender and would not be allowed to cut corners, especially on noise mitigation.

Lee, responding to a question by Lau, confirmed that the KCRC should have lodged an initial environmental impact assessment to the EPD last month. But the study has been delayed for two months while the rail company reassesses the impact of work along Canton Road.

Tang said the conditions imposed by the EPD on the rail company ``may be harsher than the legal minimum standards''. The department would first have to study the environment impact assessment and decide whether the KCRC's mitigation measures are adequate.

Earlier, independent legislator Albert Chan urged a review of compensation levels paid to shop owners and landlords as a result of the disruption caused by the project.

He said owners were still angry at the amount of compensation they received from the Lands Department as a result of the West Rail and East Rail extension works.

Lee said talks would begin with shop owners in July and August to discuss likely disruption.

Construction of the railway is to start in a year's time and will continue until late 2008. The project will result in a reduction in the number of traffic lanes along Canton and Salisbury roads. Blake said the project would employ about 3,000.

2. Tamar wait `is just six months'
Keith Wallis, The Standard 7 May 2003

Five contracting groups short-listed to bid for the design and construction of the HK$4.85 billion Tamar government complex will not get any compensation from the government as a result of delays to the scheme.

Director of Administration Andrew Wong yesterday ruled out any immediate plans to recompense contractors who were estimated to have spent about HK$50 million on pre-bid works.

Speaking in the Legislative Council planning, lands and works panel meeting yesterday, he said the government made clear in the prequalification documents that the contractors were liable for all tendering costs.

He said that as the scheme had only been delayed by six months as a result of the spending review announced on May 26, rather than scrapped completely, it was too early to consider any ex-gratia payments to contractors.

Shui On Construction, one of the short-listed contractors, estimated it had spent HK$10 million on work related to the prequalification and pre-tender. China State Construction Engineering Corporation also cleared an entire floor at its Hong Kong headquarters to work on the scheme. Aedas, one of the selected architects, made extra space to work on the project, while Aedas chairman Keith Griffiths estimated the 15 firms that originally applied spent HK$10 million each on presentation materials.

Legislator Abraham Shek, who represents the construction industry, questioned why the Tamar project, which would include government offices, a replacement Legco building and exhibition gallery, could not be financed by the private sector.

He said the construction industry could give a significant amount of input for a private finance initiative-type scheme. Shek was echoing the thoughts of many in the industry who had questioned why the government was using taxpayers' money to build the complex when governments in the UK, Australia and several Asian countries were increasingly getting the private sector to finance and build public projects.

Shek said the move ``would create employment and restore sagging confidence''. Wong did not reply to Shek's suggestion.

Emily Lau of The Frontier suggested that if the scheme was scrapped ways should be found to give the prime Tamar site back to the people of Hong Kong.

Independent legislator Albert Chan said the decision to suspend the project ``a few days'' after Wong had sought legislative support for the scheme ``robbed the government of confidence, even though it didn't have much left anyway''.

Chan joked that the government took the decision to suspend the project because it knew he would object to it in the Finance Committee and, as a result, ``I find my status elevated''.

More seriously, he said the government was creating unemployment because thousands of construction jobs would be lost as a result of its decision. He also said the construction industry and New Territories residents would suffer because of the year long delay to the Central-Sha Tin line after the government banned the Kowloon-
Canton Railway Corporation from building the railway under the Tamar site. The line will be realigned at a cost of HK$1 billion to the rail company.

3. Islanders unite to fight `super prison' plan
Paris Lord, The Standard 7 May 2003

A group of South Lantau residents opposing the planned 7,220-inmate ``super prison'' at Hei Ling Chau want other groups to unite and become one voice representing island communities across the SAR.

The Living Islands Movement, formed in late April, holds its first meeting today in Mui Wo to discuss opposition to the HK$12 billion prison, elect officials and collect ideas for ``sustainable'' future projects for the outlying islands.

``The government should not squander an opportunity to develop the islands and the island community in such a way that it will be sustainable for all our future generations,'' LIM member Neil McLaughlin said.

``We think the construction of a super-prison on reclamation between two beautiful islands [Hei Ling Chau and Sunshine Island] would be very much against that vision.''

The Security Bureau argues the project is necessary to reduce overcrowding in the existing 24 prisons, lower operating costs by consolidating operations and meet projected inmate numbers. The bureau has said reclamation of more than 100 hectares between the two islands is cheaper and easier than finding flat land in the New Territories. It has ruled out a site at Kong Nga Po near the mainland border because local residents want the area reserved for future commercial development projects. The government's own report to the Legislative Council public works committee showed that should a riot occur, it would take a full emergency unit platoon 30 minutes to reach Kong Nga Po and 90 minutes to Hei Ling Chau.

Cecilia Chu, spokeswoman for Lamma Island environmental group Save Lamma, said joining forces with LIM would be ``a good idea''.

McLaughlin said the ``obvious'' candidate for proposing tourism ideas on the islands was the Tourism Board, but it had not done so.

Tourism Board chairwoman Selina Chow sits on the Legislative Council's security panel and supports the super-prison.

4. Central government agency to back bridge
GARY CHEUNG, SCMP 7 June 2003

A bridge linking Hong Kong with the western side of the Pearl River Delta should go ahead because it will boost economic development and help regional integration, a central government study has found.

The South China Morning Post has learned that a feasibility study, conducted by an institute under the powerful National Development and Reform Commission, has endorsed the necessity of the cross-delta bridge.

Proponents of the project say the green light given by the cabinet-level commission can put an end to debate over the project and lead to an early start on construction.

The study, which was jointly commissioned by the Hong Kong government and the commission, formerly known as the State Development Planning Commission, started in March and was initially scheduled to be completed by the end of this month.

A source close to the study said the commission's Institute of Comprehensive Transportation had reached the initial conclusion that the link should be built as soon as possible. However, it has not yet decided on the specific alignment of the cross-delta bridge.

The Hong Kong government has recommended a Y-shaped bridge linking San Shek Wan, south of Chek Lap Kok airport, with Macau and Zhuhai. Its alignment is similar to a 29km bridge proposed by Hopewell Holdings chairman Sir Gordon Wu Ying-sheung.

The estimated cost of Sir Gordon's proposal is about $15 billion and it will take three years to complete.

Sir Gordon said last November he expected work to start by the end of this year at the earliest and be finished in 2006.

It will take just 20 minutes to travel between Hong Kong and Zhuhai on the bridge.

Shiu Sin-por, executive director of the One Country Two Systems Research Institute in Hong Kong, said: "The study will state that there is a need for the bridge on the grounds that it would stimulate economic development of Hong Kong, Macau and the west side of the delta, particularly the logistics industry of the three places."

Mr Shiu, who has engaged in lengthy discussion with researchers from the commission, said he did not expect the commission tospell out the alignment of the proposed bridge in its report.

But the endorsement of the need for the link signals an important step towards its eventual construction. Mr Shiu expected it would take a few more months for final approval of the project after the feasibility study is completed.

The researchers have taken into account factors such as traffic flow and environmental impact.

Former premier Zhu Rongji gave his backing to a bridge between Hong Kong and the west bank of the delta during his visit to Hong Kong last November.

According to a study by Chinese University professors Tuan Chyau and Linda Ng Fung-yee, the completion of a bridge linking Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai will generate up to an extra $110 billion in economic output for Hong Kong and the west side of the delta.

The professors estimated that Hong Kong's economy would grow an extra 1.36 to 1.66 percentage points in 2008, one year after the bridge opened. The estimates are based on the assumption that the project will start by next year and will be completed in 2007.

A spokeswoman for the Environment, Transport and Works Bureau said the study was being conducted on schedule but declined to reveal further details.

Chen Anming, director of the Zhuhai municipal government's policy research centre, said he supported building a cross-delta bridge linking Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai because it could help further integration between the two special administrative regions and the west side of the delta.

"All places should put aside their differences and seek the common good in discussing the project," he said.

5. Government $4.8b HQ project may be scrapped
CHEUNG CHI-FAI, SCMP 7 June 2003

The plan to build a $4.8 billion government headquarters at the Tamar site might be scrapped after a six-month review on spending priorities, a senior official said yesterday.

Reporting to the legislature on the possibility of shelving the project, Director of Administration Andrew Wong Ho-yuen said it was not only the timing of the project that needed to be reviewed but also the need for it.

Last month the government made a surprise announcement that the Tamar project would be put on hold until a six-month review on government spending priorities was completed.

The decision was made ahead of the scheduled bidding for the project by five contractors this month, each of whom had invested at least $10 million in the design and study of the scheme.

"It will depend on the spending priorities," Mr Wong said. "If we decide the money is not to be spent, we might not build the headquarters at all."

He said the decision would not impose any liability on the government to compensate the contractors. But the government's move was criticised as irresponsible.

Legislator David Chu Yu-lin said the decision to shelve the Tamar project had reinforced public perception that the government was indecisive and further affected public confidence.

"When Hong Kong decided to build a new airport in 1992, the government was short of cash. But it insisted on building it, even though the project was very expensive."

Abraham Razack, who represents the real estate sector, demanded that contractors be compensated for the losses they had suffered to restore business confidence in the government.

Raymond Ho Chung-tai, who represents the engineering sector, expressed anger at the sudden announcement, saying the government did not respect the legislature, which had backed the project.

6. Fourth writ filed over failed Villa Pinada development
MAGDALEN CHOW, SCMP 7 June 2003

The embattled property firm behind the failed Villa Pinada development has been hit with a fourth writ seeking the settlement of unpaid bills.

Sub-contractor Yuen Cheong Engineering filed the writ in the High Court yesterday seeking to recover from True Gold Investments $6.35 million, being the balance outstanding on a $25.85 million contract for installation of plumbing and drainage works at the luxury development in Chung Shan, Tuen Mun.

Three other companies seeking to recover a total of $73.38 million have sued a director of True Gold Investments, Tai Chi-wah, and related companies in High Court actions filed this week.

Tai, 47, managing director of Gold-Face Holdings, is one of two executives of the property subsidiary charged with conspiracy to defraud over the failed development.

He was released on $1.8 million bail following an appearance in Eastern Court last week, where no plea was entered.

During Tai's appearance before magistrate David Dufton, the court heard he and company financial controller Lim Hau-chun, 50, allegedly conspired with other people to defraud Paul Daniel Emerson, principal of Emersons law firm.

The legal firm maintained an account for stakeholders in the project with the Bank of China (Hong Kong). The money had been deposited by buyers of uncompleted flats, the court heard.

It was said that Tai and Lim created fake documents relating to construction work supposedly completed on Villa Pinada to get the solicitors to release money to True Gold from the accounts of buyers, the court heard.

It is alleged the two defendants disposed of the bulk of the funds for purposes not connected to the project's construction.

7. Shopping mecca braces for rail chaos
JOSEPH LO, SCMP 7 June 2003

Rail chiefs yesterday revealed the disruption facing part of Tsim Sha Tsui during construction of an underground link to the West Kowloon reclamation. The chaos along Canton Road could be the last straw for struggling shopowners, legislators warned.

The KCRC said parts of Canton Road - one of Hong Kong's busiest shopping thoroughfares - would be closed during a 16-month period while it builds the 4.5km line from Tsim Sha Tsui to the new Nam Cheong Station. The Southern Link will connect the southern ends of the West Rail and East Rail lines at a cost of $10.3 billion and will be built part underground and part above ground. It is due to open in 2009.

James Blake, the senior director of capital projects for the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation, said Canton Road would be closed section by section, rather than the whole route being shut for 16 months, so as to minimise possible disruption to local residents.

He said a special deck laid over the construction site would mean two lanes of the road remained open to vehicles.

"The deck surface is not disruptive, but putting it in will be," Mr Blake said.

He said there would be pedestrian walkways on each side of the road deck. "The flow of traffic will be maintained," he said.

The KCRC director said: "We do anticipate some trouble with residents, since Tsim Sha Tsui is a well-populated area. But the station is necessary to Hong Kong's future. And with [our] construction . . . we will avoid taking over buildings.

Lee Kang Kuen, KCRC director of East Rail Extensions, said "hoardings would be put up by section along Canton Road, with each one put up in front of any one shop for a maximum of four months. We will also try to introduce an aesthetic design in hoardings, with a transparent section at the top to let light through.

This will minimise the impact on business and consumers."

As well as voicing concerns about the financial impact on retailers, legislators worried the Southern Link would pass too close to the concert hall and cultural centre planned for sites near Kowloon Station on the West Kowloon reclamation, and that passing trains would produce excessive noise and vibration. But Mr Blake said the design of the tracks would take into account the need to isolate "vibrations at the source".

Officials from the Environment, Transport and Works Bureau said they hoped the final plans for the rail line would be ready for gazetting and public consultation by July.

By then, the amount of compensation the KCRC and/or the government will be proposing for residents and businesses facing disruption from the construction work would also be clearer, the bureau said.

Mr Blake said some 3,000 jobs would be created by construction of the Southern Link, with some jobs for skilled managers.

8. Legislators want review of planning fast-tracked
CHEUNG CHI-FAI, SCMP 7 June 2003

High-rise blots on the landscape such as the Tseung Kwan O new town could be avoided if the government fast-tracked a 12-year review of the Town Planning Board's operation and composition, legislators said yesterday.

They demanded the government restructure the board, allowing for better representation, and increase transparency by opening the board's meetings to members of the public.

The board, formed under the 64-year-old Town Planning Ordinance, oversees the development blueprint of Hong Kong in terms of land use. It also has wide-ranging powers which include approving land use changes, sparing cultural and heritage sites from demolition and limiting building heights.

A review of the ordinance was started in 1991 but so far no concrete amendments to the laws which govern the board have been made, mainly because of the huge complexity of the task.

Frontier legislator Emily Lau Wai-hing said the board should be held responsible for turning a beautiful place such as Tseung Kwan O into an eyesore for those who lived there.

"Once you step out of your home and look up, you will not be able to see the sky because of the many concrete structures over your head," she told a meeting of the planning, lands and works panel yesterday.

"I wonder what went wrong with the planning process of the town. Couldn't the planning officials and the Town Planning Board members foresee this situation."

The high-density Tseung Kwan O new town was originally designed to house about 500,000 people, but the property slump and rising demand for lower-density housing forced a rethink.

Ip Kwok-him, from the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong, queried the board's ability to protect heritage sites.

Daniel Cheng Chung-wai, principal assistant secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands, admitted that Tseung Kwan O's planning left much to be desired. "The government has learnt a lesson on how to improve the planning. We are considering ways to enhance the design of new towns," he said.

However, he made no commitment to speed up the review of the Town Planning Ordinance.

9. Hopes rise for harmony in the delta
ANALYSIS by GARY CHEUNG, SCMP 7 June 2003

The National Development and Reform Commission's endorsement of the need for a bridge linking Hong Kong and the west side of the Pearl River Delta could spell the end of the debate and jockeying over the project. There has been intense rivalry between regional cities and powerful local firms.

Leo Leung Kwok-kee, executive director of Hopewell Engineering and Construction, said the green light given by the commission could help iron out the differences among Hong Kong, Macau and various cities in the delta.

"It will put an end to the debate on whether to build such a bridge. I expect the commission's recommendation will speed up the policymaking process for the project,'' said Mr Leung, who has helped Hopewell Holdings chairman Sir Gordon Wu Ying-sheung put forward a proposal.

Tuan Chyau, of the department of decision sciences and managerial economics at the Chinese University, said the bridge would give a boost to Hong Kong's logistics and tourism industry.

"It will help lure foreign enterprises to set up their regional headquarters in Hong Kong as a springboard to invest on the west side of the delta,'' he said.

Canning Fok Kin-ning, managing director of Hutchison Whampoa, fired the first salvo in the bridge controversy last August by warning that government subsidies for the proposal would put Hong Kong's free enterprise system at risk.

But Sir Gordon, who put forward a $15 billion proposal last year, said he would spearhead a consortium to support the project.

Some analysts say Hutchison fears that if the bridge is built, containers may have to go to terminals near the new link rather than existing port facilities at Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi, where the company has heavy investment.

In an article published in the South China Morning Post last year, Mr Fok said he was not opposed to the bridge, but did not feel it would be a more efficient way of moving cargo across the delta than the current river barge system.

Ho Ming-sze, an adviser to the Fok Ying Tung Foundation and a close aide to tycoon Henry Fok Ying-tung, said in February that the project would harm the environment by worsening the silting problem in the Pearl River estuary, which could further endanger its rare pink dolphins.

He said that the proposed bridge would not be cost-effective, given the low level of development on the western side of the delta.

Henry Fok has invested an estimated $2.5 billion in business and recreational facilities, including piers and port facilities, in Nansha, Panyu.

He plans to commit a further $1.3 billion.

Meanwhile, Sir Gordon, also chairman of the Hong Kong Port Development Board, has long argued for the need to move forward with port infrastructure in Hong Kong that can handle future generations of big ships.

Critics say the answer lies in the fact that the proposed location of that port is exactly where his company wants to land this bridge.

But Hopewell's executives argue that the proposal is for Hong Kong's long-term interests.

10. Jockey Club gag rules choke basic rights
JAKE VAN DER KAMP, SCMP, 7 June 2003

I have to wonder whether some of the people who fear gag orders from the Article 23 legislation currently before the Legislative Council could not have found a better target for their protests yesterday.

In our Sport section we carried a report that the Jockey Club has fined leading trainer Ivan Allan $100,000 for "unfounded and unjustified" public comments during the Cheers Hong Kong Isosorbide inquiry. He was done under club rules against discrediting and prejudicing the good name of horseracing.

The circumstances, you may recall, were that Mr Allan was about to be done for illegal substances ingested by a horse under his care only to find that this illegal substance had come from a horse shampoo that had been cleared by the Jockey Club itself.

You can fully understand why he would be irate in the circumstances and he was. He made a few choices and entirely fitting comments about it and what rendered these remarks even more appropriate was that this howler should have elicited immediate and full apologies from the club but did not.

Instead, Mr Allan was hit with a $100,000 fine for breaching Rule 155(3) - acting in a manner prejudicial to the integrity, proper conduct or good reputation of racing - and Rule 155(24) - behaviour or conduct which might discredit horseracing or bring the club or any activity under its management into disrepute.

What strikes me here is that the club should be careful about using words like "the good reputation" of horseracing. You can as easily describe what it does as a social evil that preys on the poor and brings numerous people misery through an addiction they have acquired with the club's complicity.

Let me say immediately here that I think this is no reason for banning it. If people wish to gamble then that is their business and an even greater social evil would be to take away their liberty to do so, although you may note that the club is all for taking that liberty from them in forms of gambling it does not control.

But surely the words "good reputation" are not ones that you would normally use of the racetrack. There has always been more than just a whiff of the disreputable and tawdry to horseracing. Choose your words with greater care, sirs.

More than that, can you imagine someone being fined $100,000 after the Article 23 legislation passes on the grounds that he or she brought the government of Hong Kong into disrepute by saying some angry words in public about an undoubted miscarriage of justice for which the government was responsible?

I know some people will say that this is exactly what new sedition laws will allow the government to do. Perhaps they are right, although I very much doubt it, but this still would only be what it could conceivably do. Can you actually see the government demanding such a person be punished with the full weight of the law?

It seems a mighty long stretch of the possible to me and, if it ever happened, the outcry would be enormous. Why do we not hear that same outcry when one of the oldest institutions of Hong Kong does exactly this?

The Jockey Club can, of course, protest that it is a private members club and can set such rules for its members as it wishes. Yes it can, but then I am still utterly baffled that it would use words like "good reputation" to justify doing something that can only damage its reputation in the eyes of the public.

Even then to have such rules as 155(3) and 155(24) seems mighty at odds with the 21st century in a society that values civil liberties enough to make enormous and widespread protest about lesser restrictions on freedom of speech in Article 23.

These sorts of gag orders stick in the craw in more ways than one. If the club insists on them let us make sure that we disassociate Hong Kong's good name from this relic of colonial practices.

Can these people not see that any (many, actually) faults the club may have can only grow worse if people involved with it on a close day-to-day basis are not permitted to criticise it?

Do we really now want to permit an institution such as this to be responsible for football betting in Hong Kong? Do we really wish to protect it from the encroachments of Internet betting and make criminals of people who prefer to stake their money on bets not run by the club?

Where are all you Article 23 protesters? This is a far more egregious affront to civil liberties.

Email Jake van der Kamp at jakeva@scmp.com.

11. Falling Debris injures nine
SCMP, 7 June 2003

Nine people, including two young children, were injured yesterday after rocks crashed down on their bus near the Choi Wan Estate in Choi Hung. The injured were taken to United Christian Hospital, where a seven-year-old girl and a 61-year-old man were admitted in stable condition. A woman aged 46 and a man aged 38 were also admitted for observation.

Reports from the scene said the injured were struck by flying debris from blasting works at a site on New Clear Water Bay Road, opposite the estate. Some witnesses said rocks as big as watermelons fell from the sky.