The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) is entering into a new phase of infrastructural development which will give ample opportunities to Canadian companies, while the new airport at Chek Lap Kok -- one of the world's biggest infrastructure projects -- is opening three months later.

Speaking to a gathering of professionals and business people at the Hong Kong Canada Business Association's luncheon in Toronto today (Friday), Mr Donald Tong, Director of Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office (Canada) of the HKSAR Government, described Hong Kong as "a hub of infrastructural developments of unparalleled global significance", and outlined a blueprint on new opportunities for the architecture, engineering and environmental business community.

The HKSAR Government has announced that it will invest in the next four and a half years C$43.5 billion in infrastructural development to stimulate economic growth, raise the competitiveness of Hong Kong, increase land supply and provide more jobs. "These new infrastructural projects will be of a much larger scale and will exceed the new airport projects which cost C$29 billion," said Mr Tong. "In other words, even more and better business opportunities for you."

He said the largest portion of infrastructure spending will go to transport. The government will invest C$4.6 billion in the next five years to implement a number of ambitious programmes for the planning and building of a series of new road projects, including the widening of the Tolo Highway and improvement to Kam Tin Road in the New Territories and widening of the Island Eastern Corridor on Hong Kong Island.

Mr Tong said the Government is also looking at the possibility of building the Central Kowloon Route -- a dual-two-tunnel linking West Kowloon and Southeast Kowloon. A detailed design consultancy study and site investigation works are expected to commence in May, and these road projects will cost more than C$9 billion.

"Hong Kong, with its limited space, cannot build new roads forever," Mr Tong said, while explaining why the Government also plans to develop rail transport to the extent that it is economically viable to reduce reliance on road transport. He said that more than C$20 billion has been set aside for railway development in the next five years. The projects include the West Rail, the Tseung Kwan O extension of the Mass Transit Railway, the Ma On Shan Link, and another railway linking Hung Hom to Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon.

The biggest of these projects is the 54-kilometre West Rail which will run from Kowloon to the border where a new crossing will be established to connect with mainland China's rail system. Mr Tong reminded the audience that the pre-qualification of many special purchase and detailed design and construction contracts would commence in the third quarter of this year. "So, I am not talking about a project that is still several years down the road. It is a project with lucrative contracts -- your business opportunities -- which will be available in the next few months."

Mr Tong said the phenomenal growth of Hong Kong as a manufacturing, service and financial centre has tended to overshadow the fact that Hong Kong is operating the world's busiest container port, which handled 14.6 million TEUs (20-foot-equivalent units) last year. The Government's latest Port Cargo Forecasts show that by 2016 there will be a demand for Hong Kong to handle 33 million TEUs a year.

"To cope with this demand, Hong Kong is planning a completely new container port on Lantau Island with twice the capacity of the present port at Kwai Chung," he said, adding that more than 64 per cent of cargo passing through Hong Kong is entrepot trade with mainland China. "Despite the upgrading of mainland China port facilities, Hong Kong is likely to remain the hub port for the region well into the next century."

According to the recently completed Territorial Development Strategic Review, Hong Kong's population will increase from 6.63 million to 8.1 million by 2011. "Our investment in infrastructure is, fundamentally, aimed at providing better life. One of the priorities of a good life is adequate housing and Hong Kong has one of the most ambitious housing programmes in the world," said Mr Tong, adding that the Government plans to build 85,000 housing units a year over the next decade.

Mr Tong said Hong Kong is also planning some long-term projects which would go beyond the year 2003, such as the C$4 billion highway linking North Lantau and Yuen Long and development of residential and commercial areas in the Kai Tak Airport, Northwest New Territories, Northeast New Territories, Hong Kong Island South and Lamma Island.

Mr Tong stressed that Hong Kong continues to uphold the rule of law and emphasizes on level playing field in assessing and awarding contracts. He said 77 per cent by value of the C$17 billion contracts for the new airport projects were awarded to overseas firms. He said that such practice ensures that HKSARG would get the best value for money for investment in these projects. He added that some of the statutory bodies responsible for the C$43.5 billion projects would raise commercial loans to partially fund these massive undertakings.

Explaining why Hong Kong is undertaking such large infrastructure projects when Asia is weathering the economic downturn created by the recent financial turmoil, Mr Tong said Hong Kong is better placed than any Asian country in the present downturn. "Don't forget we have US$96.7 billion foreign reserve and no government debt," he said. "In 1997/98, we had a record budget surplus of C$13 billion, more than double the surplus forecast at the beginning of 1997, and we forecast a healthy real growth of 3.5 per cent in 1998." "We firmly believe that the year 2000 will usher in the Pacific Century, and we are determined to take a leading part in building the prosperity of the Pacific Rim by maintaining the pace of our infrastructure and developments," Mr Tong concluded.n