Hong Kong authorities have shelved a controversial proposal to build a HK$700 million (US$90 million) exhibition hall at a prime waterfront site to showcase major development projects, including the Northern Metropolis.
The construction of the gallery on the Wan Chai North waterfront was announced in the 2023 policy address, and the budget was included in the government’s planned HK$30 billion financial application for the first-stage of the city’s innovation hub, known as the San Tin Technopole in the metropolis project.
In a reply to the Post, a spokeswoman for the Development Bureau confirmed on Thursday that the project would not go ahead after consulting public views.
“After getting views from society and the legislature about building the infrastructure exhibition hall in Wan Chai North and taking into account the work priority, the government has decided not to implement the project at this stage,” she said.
The spokeswoman added that an exhibition would be set up at a community centre in the Northern Metropolis and promoted online instead, to keep the public updated on the latest developments of the megaproject.
The decision followed criticism from lawmakers who questioned whether the plan made the best use of the prime site and authorities’ move to bundle the funding for the hall with that of the technopole.
Lawmaker Gary Zhang Xinyu supported the government’s decision to shelve the proposal, saying it was meaningless to build it on a Wan Chai prime site, which had nothing to do with the metropolis project.
“Wan Chai isn’t located in the Northern Metropolis. If people want to know about this development project, they’d prefer to go to the region to actually feel and observe the environment,” he said.
“The construction cost in Wan Chai is very high and it’s not value for money. If we really want an exhibition hall about the Northern Metropolis project, we can move it there, where we can find plenty of land at a much cheaper cost.”
Lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun also supported the government’s decision to halt the proposal.
“It’s not really worth it to make such a huge fuss, only to deliver so little,” he said on his social media page, adding that given the government’s current financial situation, the decision to stop construction was “very correct”.
Andrew Lam Siu-lo, deputy chairman of the legislature’s development panel, said there was no need to build the costly permanent exhibition hall given the ongoing deficit the government was facing.
“There is no urgency to build the permanent gallery costing as high as HK$700 million amid the high deficits that we are facing, not to mention the fact that it is not necessary to construct it in Wan Chai,” he said.
“There are a lot of ways to showcase the Northern Metropolis development. We can build a temporary one in other districts or expand the existing ones to exhibit its projects.”
The Northern Metropolis, announced in 2021, is expected to transform 30,000 hectares (74,132 acres) of land near the city’s border with mainland China, making it a potential new economic engine.
The technopole will occupy more than 600 hectares of land, with the first phase covering about 158 hectares, including around 43 hectares for innovation and technology and roughly 8.5 hectares for logistics.
It will also provide 5,500 to 6,000 public housing flats, and residents are expected to start moving in from 2031.
Under the original plan, the construction of the exhibition hall was projected to start this year, and would also showcase a major reclamation project off Lantau Island.
Development minister Bernadette Linn Hon-ho defended the project last year, saying the cost of the hall would be similar to that of constructing other government buildings, if the total gross floor area was considered.
Hong Kong already has the City Gallery at Edinburgh Place in Central. Spanning five floors, the gallery has 55 interactive exhibits featuring the city’s major planning proposals and infrastructure projects, as well as future development plans.
Hong Kong’s deficit was HK$115.9 billion as of the end of July. Seeking to allay concerns, a government source explained then that most of the revenue from salaries and profits taxes would be received in the latter half of the financial year. - SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
