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1. Fast rail is planned to link west Pearl cities

2. Chan sees $18b in land bank

3. Pledge to speed up bridge study

1. Fast rail is planned to link west Pearl cities
Olivia Chung, The Standard 23 November 2002

The Guangdong government has unveiled a plan to build a 20.8 billion yuan (HK$19.6 billion) high-speed railway linking Guangzhou and Zhuhai and the boom towns in between on the west side of the Pearl River.

Provincial authorities would present the plan to the Central Government and construction could begin once Beijing had approved it, the Nanfang Daily, the official Guangdong Communist Party newspaper, said.

The Guangzhou-Zhuhai railway is part of the Guangdong government's ambitious plan to build a high-speed rail network linking all the major cities of the Pearl River Delta by 2020.

The Guangzhou-Shenzhen railway serves the east side of the Pearl River, and the government plans to build more sections to link major towns. There is also a proposal to build a magnetic levitation railway, similar to one being tested in Shanghai, between Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

If the proposed Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge, now under discussion between Hong Kong and mainland authorities, goes ahead and includes a rail line, the whole delta could be ringed by high-speed rail.

The 114.2-kilometre main line of the Guangzhou-Zhuhai railway will start at Dashi in Guangzhou's Panyu district, where it will connect with the yet-to-be-built No3 line of the Guangzhou Metro. It will terminate at Zhuhai's Gongbei border checkpoint.

Authorities in Gongbei would reserve space and facilities in case it could be linked to Macau in future, Nanfang Daily said.

In Zhongshan city's Xiaolan town, halfway along the main line, a 25.6-kilometre extension will be built to link to Jiangmen city. According to the plan, the section between Guangzhou and Xiaolan will begin operating in 2006. The whole line will begin operating in 2008. It will have 14 stations catering to booming Pearl River Delta towns such as Shunde, Ronggui, Xiaolan, Zhongshan and Jiangmen. Trains on the Guangzhou-Zhuhai railway could reach speeds of 200 kilometres per hour, which would allow passengers to travel from Guangzhou to Zhuhai in just 47 minutes. The fare would be about 50 yuan per person from Guangzhou to Zhuhai, or about 0.5 yuan per kilometre.

Once the railway was in operation, residents along the line would be able to commute to work between cities, the Nanfang Daily said.

A feasibility study shows that by 2011, the Guangzhou-Zhuhai railway will carry 250,000 passengers each day. This will increase to 410,000 in 2018 and 775,000 in 2033. The railway is expected to earn revenue of 1.93 billion to 2.29 billion yuan.

As it was an infrastructure project, the Guangdong government would give incentives in project-related land reclamation, taxation and property development, the newspaper said.

The provincial government, and city governments along the route, would partially fund the project. Guangdong would also welcome local and overseas investment.

Analysts said the network would strengthen the delta's efforts to become a key logistics centre in China and improve transport between the region's east and west.

2. Chan sees $18b in land bank
Eli Lau, The Standard 23 November 2002

Hang Lung Properties' chairman Ronnie Chan expects the company to generate up to HK$18 billion in the next four years by developing its existing land bank.

Speaking after the annual general meeting yesterday, Chan expressed confidence in the company's future despite the government freezing land sales until the end of 2003.

``Our current land reserve - enough to build 4.6 million square feet of flats - is sufficient to fetch HK$16 billion to HK$18 billion,'' Chan said.

``This sale volume is equivalent to nearly 80 per cent of Hang Lung Properties' total assets.''

He believed Hang Lung had the highest profit margin of all local developers, and expected it to maintain this status in the next 10 years.

He said the land reserves - mostly located in town areas - were large enough to support the company until 2006, given that it launched about 1.15 million square feet of gross floor area for sale every year.

``So there is no impact for us regarding the government's land sale suspension,'' Chan said.

The company was not in a hurry to roll out residential projects as the market still remained sluggish.

The company's cost of funds was around only 2 per cent.

Chan said the sale of its residential project at Hoi Fai Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, would be postponed to next year as ``we don't want to sell the development at a low price''.

``Over the last few years, I believe only the Leighton Hill project by Sun Hung Kai Properties managed to make a profit,'' he said.

``But we won't take such a high risk.''Asked whether the company would be at a disadvantage because of a lack of farmland lots, Chan said there were plenty of favourable sites to be explored, such as in West Kowloon and Tseung Kwan O.

He said the company would expand its property business in Shanghai but would not dilute investment in Hong Kong. Chan supported the government's nine-point plan to revive the local property market.

He said stopping the sale of subsidised flats might benefit the company as it concentrated on mid-sized developments.

However, Chan slammed the government for freezing the release of land from the application list as the measure would distort free market forces.

``As a financial city, I don't think Hong Kong should insist on keeping its land prices at a low level, although I won't agree that they have to be as high as the peak of 1997,'' Hang Lung's chairman said.

``Flat prices have fallen by more than 60 per cent over the last five years, and we are bound to lose if land and home prices continue to fall.''

Asked whether Hong Kong should issue bonds to address the deficit, Chan said that would be only a short-range strategy, not a long-term solution.

``Hong Kong should not repeat the experience of those Western countries which address heavy debts by issuing bonds,'' he said. After a three-hour meeting with Premier Zhu Rongji and other local developers earlier this week, Chan praised Zhu as a ``brilliant leader with a clear mind''.

Hang Lung Properties shares fell 1.33 per cent to close at HK$7.4 yesterday.

3. Pledge to speed up bridge study
NG KANG-CHUNG, SCMP 23 November 2002

A feasibility study on a flagship cross-border bridge linking Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai is being speeded up, with hopes of a report next month, the transport chief said yesterday.

And Lantau Island, where the Disneyland theme park is being developed, has been identified as a likely access point to the bridge on the Hong Kong side.

Secretary for Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao Sau-tung said at a Legislative Council panel meeting that Lantau was close to Macau and that the bridge could help boost tourism if it could be accessed from the island.

Her remarks came after Premier Zhu Rongji gave a push to cross-border projects during his visit to Hong Kong this week.

"The government is conducting a feasibility study on the project. We shall try our best to speed it up. And it is hoped an initial report could be completed by the end of the year," Dr Liao said.

She added: "You will appreciate the government is facing a deficit problem. We hope more private firms could take part in the building of infrastructure."

Legislator Lau Kong-wah, of the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong, called for a longer-term planning of infrastructure projects.

"We should be more pro-active. Now Shenzhen has started planning an eastern link to Hong Kong. We should start negotiating with Shenzhen."

Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa said on Thursday Mr Zhu had ordered the speeding up of efforts to improve the cross-border flow of goods and services, to help Hong Kong's economy.

Mr Tung said the premier's action could help secure an early go-ahead for the building of the long-awaited bridge.

Beijing would help co-ordinate the views of the Guangdong authorities, the chief executive said.

However, Mr Tung also warned against under-estimating the ecological impact, the financial arrangement and the engineering of the project.

Last month, legislators, the Mass Transit Railway, Kowloon-Canton Railway and the Airport Authority, called for a halt to the controversial Route 10 project in the light of plans for the Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai bridge.

But Dr Liao yesterday maintained a final decision on Route 10 had not been made.

The bridge project was initiated by Zhuhai government in the late 1980s. Spanning about 30km, it would have linked Tuen Mun and Zhuhai via the Lingding islands. But the project was later shelved because it left out Macau.

Last year, the chairman of Hopewell Holdings, Sir Gordon Wu Ying-sheung, presented the revised bridge proposal to link Lantau with Zhuhai and Macau.

At a Legislative Council transport panel meeting yesterday, Dr Liao also said the government was planning a package of measures to improve border traffic.

Lok Ma Chau is the largest and busiest vehicular border crossing, handling about 68 per cent of all cross-border traffic or 23,300 vehicles a day. The volume of cross-border traffic at Lok Ma Chau increased by 60 per cent between 1996 and 2001, from 4.99 million vehicles to 7.96 million.

Measures included:

Widening the roads to San Tin interchange, which leads to Lok Ma Chau crossing;

Additional coach lay-bys at the land crossings at Man Kam To and Shataukok; and

Installation of more surveillance cameras on roads to boundary crossings to monitor the traffic flow.

At the meeting, panellists also told officials to stop a nearly-completed project to erect noise barriers along a section of Tolo Highway, pending a review.

Legislators said the barriers were so high they blocked nearby residents' views of the Tolo Harbour, and that the colours of the barriers were "unpleasant". Officials were also criticised for over-estimating the costs of the project. In 1998, the government asked for $5.93 million funding for the noise barrier project. But latest estimates put the costs at $140 million.