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looking for. 1.
Renovate rather than rebuild, Suen says 2.
Border zone plans on drawing board 3.
Improved flight info displays in airport upgrades 4.
Rejection of Tai O revamp 'against pledge on tourism' 5.
Cheung Kong wins approval for hotel 6.
Workforce: a solution to two problems 7.
AIG Tower rising soon on Furama Hotel site
1. Renovate rather than rebuild, Suen says Secretary
for Housing, Planning and Lands Michael Suen has called for a radical rethink
on the way urban renewal is carried out, saying buildings could be renovated rather
than rebuilt. Suen said solutions were needed for the problems faced by the Urban
Renewal Authority (URA), particularly its heavy expenditure. ``The URA usually
offers relatively favourable compensation to residents affected by redevelopment
projects,'' Suen said on a radio programme yesterday morning. ``It seems not a
large financial burden under a prosperous economy, but now it's necessary to consider
the matter.'' One of the possible solutions was the URA projects could be carried
out by revamping, instead of reconstruction, which was very costly. ``I believe
not everything has to be demolished and rebuilt during the redevelopment,'' he
said. ``Other options such as building revamps can be considered. Some cities
such as Shanghai and Guangzhou are doing very well by adopting this approach.''
He went on to note that the recent weak property market was mainly due to matters
of supply and demand, while a balance should be struck to maintain a healthy property
environment. He said there was no new housing policy to be launched until the
government released its population policy review by the end of the year. Suen
revealed the government was studying turning a site near the Shenzhen River into
industrial usage as part of cross-border development plans. But there were some
technical problems including sludge clearance, which needed to be solved before
the plan could be implemented, he said. [Source:
The Standard, 31 July 2002] 2.
Border zone plans on drawing board
A 90-hectare strip of green land along the Shenzhen border might be opened up
as a manufacturing centre. Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands Michael Suen
Ming-yeung said yesterday the government was considering the possible impact on
the environment and security. One of the major options being considered is to
develop the land - some of which was made available by rerouting the Shenzhen
River in an anti-flood project in the 1990s - as an industrial town. Shenzhen
authorities have also wanted to jointly develop the land with the SAR into a "free
trade zone" - an idea dismissed by Mr Suen as "like a horse flying in
the sky". Speaking of the industrial town option, Mr Suen said: "It
is still in its infant stage. Internal studies are being done. "We have to
first clear the mud. And there is no infrastructure or road leading to the area,
which is also close to the Mai Po wetland," he said on a Metro Broadcast
interview yesterday. "We cannot be too careful when trying to develop the
land." The proposal was first touched on in the Planning Department's 2030
planning study - a study for Hong Kong's development in the next 30 years, a spokesman
said. Apart from industrial use, there had also been proposals to develop the
closed area for tourism, he added. Rural leader and legislator Dr Tang Siu-tong
welcomed the idea. "Rural residents there would be more than happy if their
land could be put into more valuable use. No one is farming there and much of
the land is wasted," he said. "Some of the land is private and there
are graveyards on it. But if the villagers are properly compensated, this should
not be a concern." The restricted border area has served as a buffer to prevent
illegal immigrants. Visitors need permits to enter the area. Executive Councillor
Cheng Yiu-tong has been keen on the idea to encourage integration with Shenzhen.
A pro-Beijing unionist, he has repeatedly urged the government to open up the
border area for trade since he joined the Commission on Strategic Development
two years ago. But a source close to the government doubted if businessmen would
be interested in setting up factories in the border area, given the prevailing
economic climate. Meanwhile, Mr Suen said the cost of redeveloping urban slums
was too high. Urban renewal did not necessarily mean tearing down old blocks and
rebuilding new ones - with restoration an option, he said. He believed the present
practice of paying compensation to affected residents equivalent to the purchase
price of a seven-year-old home was too generous. [Source:
SCMP, 31 July 2002] 3.
Improved flight info displays in airport upgrades
Hong Kong Airport Authority is upgrading its database and e-mail systems from
direct attached storage (DAS) to a storage area network (SAN) environment. The
infrastructure, provided by data-storage powerhouse EMC, will help Chek Lap Kok
airport save administrative costs by consolidating data from a heterogeneous environment
on to a single platform with centralised management and protection. The implementation
will be carried out in three phases. The first, which improves the e-mail systems
of employees for internal and external communication, should be completed by the
end of next month. The second phase will cover the airport's operational data,
and is expected to be finished by the end of December. The last phrase, which
improves flight information displays in the terminal, will be completed in April
next year. Gabriel Leung, EMC Hong Kong's general manager, said the solutions
would help the airport save manpower, lower the total cost of ownership and improve
productivity. "We have spent a year studying the airport's existing system
and seeing how improvements can be made to make it more robust," Mr Leung
said. According to EMC, the Airport Authority purchased two Symmetrix storage
systems for remote mirroring, linked to the authority's other servers by a Connectrix
fibre channel switch, and software including EMC Control Centre, Symmetrix Remote
Delivery Facility, TimeFinder, PowerPath and ESN Manager. EMC has six consultants,
five engineers and eight sales, marketing and pre-sales engineers on the project.
No financial details have been disclosed. The authority would move all its data
into a SAN environment and the two remote mirroring back-up sites used for developing
and testing, said Mr Leung. "EMC is the only vendor to provide such a cost-effective
solution. We are experienced in providing help in data storage and disaster recovery,"
he said. Based on reports by International Data Corp and Gartner Dataquest, the
DAS market was expected to be reduced from US$17 billion last year to US$10.1
billion in 2005, while the market of networked storage, software and services
would grow from US$31.8 billion to US$54.9 billion. Hong Kong Airport Authority
is the statutory body in charge of the operation and management of the airport.
The airport handles more than 33 million passengers a year and more than 50 flights
per hour. It has the ultimate annual capacity to handle nine million tonnes of
cargo and 87 million passengers. [Source:
SCMP, 31 July 2002] 4.
Rejection of Tai O revamp 'against pledge on tourism'
The government has dismissed a suggestion that it fund better infrastructure for
Tai O's stilt-home dwellers, drawing criticism that the decision will affect the
village's tourist potential. The Hong Kong Institute of Architects presented a
proposal to the government last year for overhauling the Lantau village's sewerage.
Under the proposal, the government would build three temporary biological treatment
plants and connect them with each individual household. The government was also
urged to build fire breaks and widen the narrow fire corridor on the podium supporting
the stilt houses. But the institute's president, Professor Lau Sau-shing, said
he was recently told by planning officials that the government would not adopt
the proposal. "The government says that if villagers will not make the sewage
connections and fire safety improvements themselves, it will just sit back and
tolerate the situation," he said. The seaside village, on Lantau's southwestern
tip, is believed to date back more than 300 years. It is Hong Kong's oldest remaining
fishing village. Its domestic waste is dumped into the sea, creating an eyesore
and bad smells at low tide, while the village faces constant fire hazards. A fire
in July 2000 razed a third of the 270 stilt homes, although no one was injured.
"While the government says heritage and tourism are so important, I cannot
comprehend why they've decided to step back from the provision of infrastructure.
I thought [improving] Tai O was one of their tourism pledges," Professor
Lau said. A spokeswoman for the Housing, Planning and Lands Bureau said the stilt
homes' hygiene and sewerage issues would only be tackled in the long term. Vice-president
of Tai O Residents' Rights Concern Group Chan Sui-ming said villagers were "poor
people" and many might not be able to afford the sewerage connections, which
meant hygiene problems would continue to mar tourism development. "What do
you think tourists will think about Hong Kong when they come here and see the
mess?" he asked. Mr Chan questioned the government commitment to revitalising
Tai O, saying red tape had slowed down rebuilding of the burned-down houses. Two
years after the fire, only 10 had been rebuilt, he said, mostly due to land officials'
rigid procedures. Mr Chan complained: "The government spends so much money
on Mickey Mouse and the cable car [to Lantau's Big Buddha], but it did not bother
to spend any on Tai O at all. "If we have to provide all the infrastructure,
what's the role of the government?" 
The
government has rejected an infrastructure proposal for Tai O village. [Source:
SCMP, 31 July 2002] 5.
Cheung Kong wins approval for hotel
Cheung Kong (Holdings) has secured approval to build a hotel incorporating a split-type
air-condition system on the waterfront of Hunghom. A government official said
the Buildings Department had approved in principle a hotel development that would
comprise five 18-storey hotel blocks over a basement, providing a total of about
1,700 rooms with an average size of more than 600 sq ft. A Buildings Department
spokesman said the developer was applying for a patent for a franchise of its
particular air-condition system design. She said the department had been asked
by the developer not to disclose further details about the hotel development for
reasons of commercial confidentiality. According to a professional practice note
set by the government, hotel development has to be facilitated with conventional
air-condition systems for the whole block and to provide sufficient back-of-house
facilities to serve the guests. However, the original building plan submitted
by Cheung Kong was in breach of the above guidelines and was rejected by the Buildings
Department in April. One source said Cheung Kong had revised the plan to include
more space provided for sufficient back-of-house facilities and convinced the
Buildings Department that it could be operated as a licensed hotel. He said the
department was also convinced that the new air-conditioning system introduced
by Cheung Kong could suit the needs of hotel guests. "It is a special design
to incorporate split-type air-condition units as a supplementary cooling system
for the guest rooms," he said. He said Cheung Kong had demonstrated that
the split-type air-condition units were introduced for energy saving reasons and
a central air-condition system would also be used. The developer had appointed
an expert for research purposes to show the new system was energy efficient, while
the comfort of the hotel guests could be enhanced, he said. The site, spanning
2.03 hectares, was acquired by Cheung Kong for HK$1.09 billion through an auction
last August. The company also paid HK$655 million for a neighbouring one-hectare
commercial plot at last October's auction. It had proposed to build 1,380 rooms
in three 30-storey hotel blocks over a three-storey car parking podium on the
site. The application was rejected due to the lack of sufficient hotel facilities
and the guest rooms being provided with split type air-conditioning units. A buildings
official said the case was subject to further discussions in the buildings authority
committee, pending further details to be submitted by the applicant. [Source:
SCMP, 31 July 2002] 6.
Workforce: a solution to two problems
Early last year I noted the government's conservative and futile approach in the
administration of industrial land use, particularly its failure to catch up with
the information age by making the under-utilised industrial buildings available
for promotion of the hi-tech industry. In this regard we have fallen behind other
places in the region in adjusting our industrial land-use policy to attract information
technology investments. Since then, the government has made progress. The Town
Planning Board has rezoned about 165 hectares of surplus industrial land to "other
specified uses" termed "business" and 47 hectares to other non-industrial
uses, such as residential development and community facilities. The business zone
provides more flexibility in land use. Three types of economic activities are
allowed in such a zone. Clean industrial, office and commercial uses can co-exist.
Another major step taken last year by the planning board in relaxing restrictions
on industrial use took the form of Guidelines No 25A. Under this set of guidelines,
IT and telecommunications industries, research, design and development centres
related to industrial, IT and telecommunications uses are permitted in the industrial
zone. Not only could IT and telecommunications industries benefit from this relaxation
on industrial uses, the entertainment industries and education institutions may
as well. Apart from Guidelines No 25A, which promotes the use of industrial buildings,
John Tsang, the then Secretary for Planning and Lands, announced late last year
that government wanted to test the possibility of developing old industrial buildings
into lofts. Loft living first started in New York in the 1950s when artists moved
into abandoned industrial buildings because of the low rent and large spaces suitable
for their working purposes. There are plenty of interface problems in the introduction
of a residential element into an industrial building. There have been reports
of some rudimentary lofts being started in Hong Kong. However, any major move
to convert industrial buildings for unrestricted residential use may affect the
balance between the supply and demand of residential accommodation and should
be handled with care and sensitivity. Soon after the issue of Guidelines No 25A,
the market saw a surge in industrial premises transactions. However, the case
of industrial buildings long lying fallow does not seem to have been resolved.
According to news reports, a 3,296 sq ft mid-floor industrial unit in Tsing Yi
Industrial Centre was recently let for HK$1.20 per square foot per month, a record
low in Hong Kong's industrial property market. Turning to another set of statistics,
unemployment has surged to 7.7 per cent and is climbing. Some say the figure could
reach double digits. In the meantime, restaurants and other parts of the service
sector keep laying off staff or close altogether, and prospective college graduates
are pining that the gloom overhanging the job market does not look likely to lift.
Suddenly one sees the emergence of the two essential conditions favouring manufacturing
industries, namely cheap land and ample labour supply, both skilled and unskilled,
coming together again in Hong Kong. One would therefore ask whether and how the
government could create an environment where ample labour supply arising from
our own unemployed could be made available to attract investments in manufacturing
industries in Hong Kong. The reality is that while there are no jobs, the unemployed
must rely on government welfare support. The money is given and received presumably
with reluctance on both sides. The assumption is that one feels more dignified
to be self-reliant or at least earning for one's keep. In the circumstances, one
wonders whether the government could not enter into arrangements with industries
to make available those able-bodied unemployed now receiving welfare support as
the workers that these industries need. The government may have to continue providing
financial support to the families of these able-bodied unemployed until their
earnings exceed the level of welfare support. But as long as such employment opportunities
are available, the government would at least be relieved of a part of the burden
of carrying the able-bodied individuals alone. It probably should mean that when
an able-bodied individual refuses to take up such a job or quits without good
reason, he or she should also be disqualified from further automatic welfare.
Moreover, with new industries operating in Hong Kong, there will certainly be
corollary benefits for our ports, banks and other parts of the service sector.
This will no doubt re-absorb some of the others of our unemployed who were laid
off in the course of the ongoing economic contraction. If there are no able-bodied
unemployed in Hong Kong who are willing and able to meet the demand for unskilled
workers, then importation from the mainland may be considered. This merely puts
Hong Kong on a par with Shenzhen and other major industrial cities of China that
all utilise workers from other regions to augment the local labour supply, but
we will only do so after our own unemployed, whose maintenance is borne by the
government, have been presented with the right of first refusal to take up such
jobs and transition from welfare to what is known as "workfare". Since
the government is willing to consider allowing a residential element in industrial
buildings, perhaps "loft-living-Hong-Kong-style" should be developed
alongside the new industries as quarters of the workers and factory staff whether
hired locally or abroad. With the provision of food from factory canteens and
board from factory lofts, the workers would be more assured of a decent living.
The availability of cheap industrial space and low cost workers against the well-developed
infrastructure and ready supply of other talents should make Hong Kong attractive
again as a destination for industrial investments. The generation of economic
activities utilising the now under-used resources of the community could help
re-ignite an important economic engine of Hong Kong. As these resources are existing,
the economic benefits could be felt very soon after the first major investor starts
taking up the offer. There will no doubt be endless debates over why manufacturing
industries are subsidised in this manner and not other businesses. Sociologists
too may have their views on the implications to society if the welfare system
were modified in this manner. Labour union leaders will certainly voice their
opposition to the sudden lowering of industrial workers' wages in Hong Kong. The
logistics and administration aspects will also call for some careful thoughts.
In structuring the scheme, government will have to bear in mind the World Trade
Organisation Agreement on Subsidies and Countervaling Measures as well as anti-dumping
regulations of the US and other countries. There are many other ramifications
in such a move. However, the obvious benefits of this approach to the economic
and social needs of Hong Kong, fast developing into a crisis, is certainly worth
exploring. Angela Lee is a partner in the Hong Kong Office of Law Firm Baker &
Mckenzie. 
Under
the new flexibility in land zoning, lofts in old industrial buildings could offer
accommodation for workers. SCMP photo. [Source:
SCMP, 31 July 2002] 7.
AIG Tower rising soon on Furama Hotel site
As demolition of the Furama Hotel nears completion, work will soon begin on the
construction of a 39-storey grade-A office block, AIG Tower. Designed by Skidmore,
Owings and Merrill, AIG Tower is modelled on the sail of a junk, reflecting Hong
Kong's trading-port heritage. Facing the harbour on a 24,424-square foot site
at 1 Connaught Road, Central, it is expected to be completed in 2005. American
International Group (AIG) senior vice-chairman and co-chief operating officer
Edmund Tse said the office tower would cost HK$4 billion, including land value,
construction and interest charges. The 185-metre building will be AIG's Hong Kong
headquarters. Project partners are Singapore developer CapitaLand and Hong Kong's
Lai Sun Development. The building provides a total floor area of about 450,000
sq ft, with a typical floor area at 14,000 sq ft to 18,300 sq ft. CapitaLand vice-president
Cheng Shin-how said he expected a satisfactory return. Part of AIG Tower will
be pre-leased in 2004. He is not concerned about demand because AIG will take
up a substantial portion and there will be no new office supply in core Central
during 2004 and the first half of 2005. AIG and CapitaLand will each hold a 35
per cent stake and act as project managers while Lai Sun will own the remainder. [Source:
SCMP, 31 July 2002] |  |
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