SKYLINE Technologies -- News Update (20 June 2005 )

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1. Lack of rail link in bridge plan fuels pollution fears
Dennis Chong, The Standard 20 June 2005

A lobby group and a leading academic have said the public deserves an explanation as to why the proposed Hong Kong-Zuhai-Macau bridge will not carry a rail link.

Hung Wing-tat, assistant professor of Civil and Structural Engineering Department of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and the Conservancy Association contend that a rail link is vital for the bridge's sustainability as it will greatly reduce pollution caused by road traffic.

The 30-kilometer bridge, first proposed by Hopewell Holdings' Gordon Wu in the 1980s, is expected to be open to traffic by 2011 at the earliest, and is seen as a major boost to the economic development of the Pearl River Delta region.

Stretching from San Shek Wan on Lantau, the bridge will be second in size only to the second Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in the United States by about 8.5 kilometers and will initially have traffic flow of between 12,000 and 16,000 vehicles per day.

Final capacity will reach 80,000 vehicles per day, spurring concerns about the pollution it will cause in an already smog-plagued region.

Bridge project manager Lam Chiu-hung said the rail capacity would add an extra cost of HK$6 billion to the planned HK$15 billion bridge.

Quoting the findings of a feasibility study, Lam said there will not be enough patronage by 2030 to support railway services.

``Due to different rail systems currently adopted on both sides of the bridge, no through train service can be provided and a large area of land will be required for the turn-around and interchange facilities,'' he said.

In addition, Hong Kong does not have a freight link that can connect with the bridge.

Technically, the main structure of the bridge will not be able to accommodate both rail and road components for a significant part of the route, he said without elaborating.

The ``gradient requirement'' of a rail line is much more demanding than that of a road link, he added.

But during an environmental protection seminar last month, Lam said:``If we don't have enough people [to use the bridge] by 2030, why don't we build another bridge at that time? It will cost less than HK$6 billion.''

However, Hung said he did not believe a rail component would be technically impractical.

``The whole matter is about who will come out and offset the loss. Money is what it is all about,'' he said.

Although the government has not officially vetoed the idea of a rail link running on the bridge, it is increasingly clear that a railway will not be included.

According to a spokesperson of the Environment, Transport and Works Bureau, the proposed bridge ``has always been a road bridge,'' and that the bridge needs to be completed as soon as possible.

Conservancy Association chairman Albert Lai, a green activist, said the government is obliged to release figures to justify its decisions. ``It is possible that neither road nor rail is a viable option. Maybe railway is a better option. Many factors ought to be quantified,'' he said.

Lai criticized the government for failing to conduct a comprehensive economic viability study on the bridge, which it pledged to do in 2003.

``There are many white elephant projects in Zhuhai. We don't need any of them here in Hong Kong,'' he said.

Since the proposed bridge was given the go-ahead in 2003, much of the talk has been confined to the higher ranks of the three governments of Macau, Hong Kong and the mainland.

Public consultation on the potential impact of the bridge, which could fundamentally change the region, is yet to be conducted.

SAR officials have been coy in revealing details about the bridge, saying that it is not appropriate to do so as planning work involves three governments, the privacy of which should be respected.

``We cannot overshadow others. [The Hong Kong section of the bridge] is just one-fourth of the whole bridge,'' a bureau spokesperson said.

That is why Hong Kong may have lacked the political weight to push for a more sustainable way of utilizing the bridge, such as linking it to the national rail grid and adding a freight train capability to the bridge, Hung said.

``If you don't talk about this with the Guangdong authorities ... they [would say they] don't have the money and the development of the whole region will grind to a halt,'' he said.

The bridge will serve as a catalyst for the region's economic development, which has so far left the western shore of the Delta trailing, due to its distance from Hong Kong, he said, and that short-term return should not outweigh long-term benefits.

``It will be a strategic infrastructure which will create demand. You should not talk about rate of return here. If you do so, the [Hong Kong International] airport would not have been built,'' he said.

2. New bridge will leave city out on a limb
LEU SIEW YING , SCMP 20 June 2005

With plans for the cross-delta bridge linking Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macau taking shape, Zhongshan is trying to avoid being marginalised.

The Guangdong city's executive vice-mayor, Peng Jianwen , told the South China Morning Post the decision to land the bridge at Gongbei in Zhuhai - instead of the Lingding islands - meant Zhongshan would be eclipsed. A landing at Lingding would have brought Zhongshan closer to Hong Kong.

"The existing scheme will give us another link with Hong Kong, but in terms of travel time it will still be two hours," Mr Peng said.

City leaders are now eager to improve road links with other areas. Mr Peng said although an intercity light rail network due for completion in 2007 and the coastal highway from Shenzhen would make Zhongshan more accessible, the city would still have to build road links to these projects.

Zhongshan has always faced a land shortage, but is trying to make greater use of what it has by selectively attracting investment and implementing better urban planning.

With an area of just 1,800 sq km, Zhongshan is one of the smallest cities in the delta. In the past, administrators tried to cut down on wastage of resources by reducing the number of towns from 32 to 24, but Mr Peng rules out any more mergers of towns and districts because the process has proven counterproductive.

"With 24 townships, there is still a lot of waste of resources. When areas are merged, some are marginalised and administrative co-ordination becomes time consuming," he said.

The city is also not keen to re-merge with Zhuhai, which was carved out of Zhongshan in 1980 to create a special economic zone. Pang Huiyang, chief of the local economic and trade bureau's quality section, is encouraging Zhongshan to pursue producers of advanced and branded products, as well as machinery and equipment manufacturers.

In addition, the development and reform bureau's deputy director, Wu Kunman, said Zhongshan would not welcome Taiwanese companies because those that had already invested in Zhongshan were small, polluting and poor taxpayers.

"In the past, we accepted everybody, but now because of land scarcity we believe polluting companies that do not pay much in taxes are not worth attracting," he said. "So we have raised the threshold."

Mr Pang said companies were also wasting land by investing in labour-intensive industries and building one-storey factories. He insisted they upgrade or relocate.

Pan-Pearl River Delta co-operation is also a priority and dozens of Zhongshan farmers have moved to Jiangxi , where they can buy cheap land to establish plant nurseries.

Paul Y-ITC Construction Holdings yesterday announced a special dividend totalling $957.2 million, following the December sale for $1.15 billion of its 19.5 per cent stake in Australian engineering outfit Downer EDI.

At 70 cents per share, it represents the highest dividend, special or otherwise, paid by the firm in 10 years.

The company, controlled by Hong Kong dealmaker Charles Chan Kwok-keung, also said it was considering ways to pass on proceeds after disposing of its stake in China Strategic Holdings but did not give further details.

Mr Chan's listed flagship companies, Paul Y-ITC and Hanny Holdings, announced a complex deal in April, whereby they would sell a combined 30.63 per cent stake in loss-making China Strategic to Nation Field, a British Virgin Islands company controlled by Shanghai businessman Gao Yang.

China Strategic will be restructured before the sale. About 90 per cent of its assets will be stripped out and placed within an unlisted holding company, Group Dragon Investments (GDI). China Strategic shareholders would then be given shares in GDI on a one-for-one basis. The restructured China Strategic, which would retain battery manufacturing and trading operations, will be sold to Mr Gao's firm for $52.11 million.

In a filing last month with the stock exchange, China Strategic said the date for issuing a shareholders' circular, detailing the restructuring agreement and financial terms of the deal, would be delayed until July 29.

Coincidentally, Paul Y-ITC said it would pay the special dividend for the disposal of its interests in Downer on or about the same date.

Recent months have seen Paul Y-ITC streamlining its profile by disposing of non-core assets and spinning off sister firm Paul Y Engineering.

The company intends to sharpen its focus on mainland infrastructure and port businesses.

Paul Y-ITC is currently constructing a deepwater cargo port at Yangkou in eastern Jiangsu province, at the mouth of the Yangtze River.