1 Proposals for landing point revealed
Bonnie Chen, SCMP 17 September 2007
The government has suggested three landing points for the proposed Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge, with two of them requiring reclamation work.
According to an Islands District Council paper obtained by Headline Daily - sister paper of The Standard - the Highways Department said a 100-hectare, entry-and-exit point is needed to accommodate sufficient immigration, inspection and transport facilities.
It proposed either building an artificial island to the west of the airport island; reclaiming the northeastern part of the island; or undertaking reclamation at the western part of a logistics park planned for north Lantau.
But, according to the paper, there are drawbacks to all three options.
For the artificial island option, the design of the bridge would be more complicated in order to facilitate the movement of aircraft and ships. Buildings around the site may also affect air currents, having adverse effects on aircraft take-offs and landings.
For the second option, it would lengthen construction time as all the facilities along the coast of the airport island may have to be moved.
For the third option, since there would only be 100 meters between the reclamation area and Tai Ho Wan, a place with high ecological value, assessment of the impact on water quality and ecology would be needed.
The paper said the latter two options would bring more economic benefits. As the site for the second option is close to the airport, this would facilitate passenger movement between the entry- and-exit point and the airport. For the third option, since the site is near the logistics park, cargo movement would be easier.
Islands District Council vice chairwoman Chau Chuen-heung said she preferred the first option as the route would be more direct if the site and the airport island are adequately linked.
The other two options would mean a detour round the airport island to travel from the entry-and-exit point to the airport, which is not time and cost effective, she said.
The proposals will be discussed at a meeting of the Islands District Council on Wednesday.
2 Training takes top billing in debate on culture hub
Una So, SCMP 17 September 2007
The time is right to map out long-term planning for arts and culture, a forum on the West Kowloon cultural district was told yesterday.
Mathias Woo Yun-wai, a panelist on the RTHK program City Forum said arts education, the development of talent and cultural management training should start as soon as possible to accompany the arts and culture facilities to be built at the site.
Woo, a representative of the performing arts and tourism sector, called for a clear arts development blueprint to be formulated before the HK$19 billion funding is handed to the proposed West Kowloon Authority.
The most urgent area, he said, is basic art education, which is currently lacking in the school system. "Without arts education, where is the audience going to come from?"
The drama veteran said more young artistes are not turning professional since they cannot see the sector's future prospects.
He urged the Culture Commission to increase resources for arts education and talent training as soon as possible.
Ma Fung-kwok, a consultative committee member for the West Kowloon project, agreed that arts development should not wait until the cultural district is completed, and resources should be raised in stages over the next few years.
Vincent Fung Yin-ho, principal assistant secretary with the Home Affairs Bureau, said the project is not only a cultural development, but also a strategic investment. He said it is now time to look into training talented people and more resources for arts groups.
Fung said the Hong Kong Arts Development Council has been given an additional HK$10 million, on top of its HK$70 million annual funding.
He said that since 2000 there has been a gradual increase in the number of people visiting museums, with 4.6 million visits made annually.
Therefore, Fung said, the projected figure of more than one million visitors to the proposed M+ museum is realistic.
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3 Land auction beats forecasts Hopes for higher property prices boosted as Tai Po plot fetches HK$4.5b
Reuters, SCMP 17 September 2007
A Tai Po plot fetched HK$4.55 billion - 48 per cent above the asking price - in the government’s land auction on Monday, adding weight to forecasts for fast-rising home prices, partly fuelled by interest rate cuts.
The Hang Seng Index closed 1.2 per cent lower following the sale, however, led down by property shares, as the figure fell short of several high-profile predictions.
The sturdy bidding for the site could support shares in developers such as Sun Hung Kai Properties and Cheung Kong (Holdings), which have moved in almost perfect tandem with property prices over the past seven years.
Breaking the mould of subdued land auctions this year, the 238,000 square foot waterfront site sold for a little more than the HK$4.47 billion mean forecast garnered from five analysts.
The winning bidder was a consortium led by Sino Land and Nan Fung Group, which will each own 35 per cent of a project they believe will require HK$5 billion to HK$6 billion of investment, probably in a mix of houses and flats.
The consortium, which also includes equal stakes for KWah International and unlisted USI Holdings, owns land adjacent to the plot sold on Monday.
Hong Kong developers are snapping up land voraciously in mainland China because of limited growth in their home markets, but they still hope for a sharp rise in Hong Kong home prices to boost their main business.
The winning consortium will probably sell homes on the Tai Po site at HK$8,500 per square foot, according to analysts at DBS, 40 per cent above average prices on the secondary market in the area.
Some analysts, such as Eric Wong at UBS, expect average Hong Kong property prices to jump 30 per cent over the next year, as Hong Kong mimics expected United States interest-rate cuts and salaries continue to rise.
But others are more cautious.
“Unless the US cuts interest rates aggressively, say by 100 basis points, there won’t be much room for a cut in Hong Kong mortgage rates,’ an analyst at a major bank said. “Banks are operating at small margins.”
After a muted performance last year, when rising credit costs dampened home buyer demand, show-flats in Hong Kong have been busier in recent months. Average home prices climbed 8.1 per cent in the year to last month, and are about 70 per cent higher than a mid-2003 slump during an outbreak of the SARS respiratory disease.
Analysts argue Hong Kong people can afford to pay more, because property prices are still half the level of their 1997 peak.
A typical Hong Kong resident now spends about 35 per cent of income on mortgage payments, whereas in 1997 that measure of affordability was over 100 per cent because most home buyers were drawing down equity elsewhere.
The Hong Kong government’s revenues and low-tax policies are propped up by land auctions, which date back to the earliest colonial days when “tai pans” vied for plots that ended up accounting for much of their wealth.
The city forecasts that land revenues will total HK$38.5 billion in the present fiscal year, up from an estimated HK$36.8 billion in 2006-2007 - which was about a fifth of the government’s operating expenditure that year.
