Press Release - April 7, 2000

The Secretary for Transport of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, Mr Nicholas Ng, said today (April 7) that to achieve Hong Kong's vision of establishing itself as "Asia's World Class City", the Government was moving ahead with an ambitious transport development programme costing some C$44 billion over the next five years.

Speaking at a luncheon gathering of over 110 people organised by the Hong Kong Canada Business Association in Vancouver, Mr Ng said that the significant expansion of Hong Kong's railway and strategic road networks would facilitate not only urban development but also improve access into Southern China and beyond.

"This, I believe, will further prove the fact that, as the springboard to China, Hong Kong shall have no equal," he said.

Guided by the vision to be Asia's World Class City, Mr Ng said that Hong Kong's Transport Strategy was also underpinned by sustainable development.

In line with the policy of making railways the backbone of our transport system, he said, Hong Kong would be completing in the next five years six new railways with a total length of 64 kilometres costing some C$19 billion.

At the same time, the next batch of priority railways was being planned which would further increase the rail length from 200 km in 2005 to 250 km in 2016, and rail mode share from 38 per cent to 45 per cent of the public transport market, he added.

"By then over 80 per cent of the population would be living in catchment areas. The additional investment on this new batch will be around C$15 billion.

"The investment opportunities in the years to come are plenty," he said.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong's famous catalogue of bridges would be joined by two new additions in 2007 - the Tsing Lung Bridge and the Stonecutters Bridge.

The Tsing Lung Bridge would be the world's third longest suspension bridge and would form part of a strategic road link from Hong Kong to Mainland while the Stonecutters Bridge would provide an arterial access for container traffic. The international communities were welcomed to participate in the design and construction of these projects, the total cost of which amounted to some C$2.4 billion.

In positioning Hong Kong as the unrivalled transport hub in the region, Mr Ng said one key element of our long term transport planning was to look beyond the boundary of Hong Kong.

"With our economy becoming increasingly integrated with the Mainland, daily cross boundary vehicle trips have reached 28,000 and grow at 6 per cent per year. The average daily passenger flow stands at some 240,000 trips and grows at over 15 per cent per year," he said. "These figures top the table of any cross boundary traffic in the world."

To enable Hong Kong to handle this busy cross boundary traffic beyond 2016, plans were in hand to complete a new railway link to the Mainland in 2004, by when the Shenzhen Metro, the rail connection on the other side of the border crossing, would also come into operation, Mr Ng said.

Discussions were also going on with the Mainland authorities to complete a 5-km long bridge crossing called the Shenzhen Western Corridor about 2005 to connect the South China highway network to the airport and other parts of Hong Kong.

On the environmental initiatives in our transport strategy, he noted that these included a three-year programme to encourage the bulk of diesel taxis to change over to LPG; a pilot exercise to use LPG and electric cell for light buses and a consultancy study on the feasibility of introducing a trolley bus system in Hong Kong.

In the area of traffic management, Mr Ng pointed out that Hong Kong had been able to achieve a 25 kilometres per hour average speed in the urban areas at peak hours and what was being looking at now was a more integrated IT solution to enhance the efficiency of the whole transport system.

The Secretary also updated his audience on the latest economic situation in Hong Kong, noting that the Asian financial crises had given the territory the opportunity to restructure and reform its economy.

Hong Kong recorded an 8.7 per cent growth in the fourth quarter of 1999 and economic outlook for 2000 was even more robust, he said.

"We forecast GDP to grow by 5 per cent in real terms. The continuous growth of our economy in the medium term is underpinned by sustained growth and further economic reform and liberalisation in the Mainland, a clear trend which we are sure will strengthen following China's imminent accession to the WTO," he said.

He also talked about the partial privatisation of the Mass Transit Railway Corporation.

"Privatisation will make the MTRC a new benchmark in our equity market. It will be a new and unique blue chip. Depending on progress of the preparatory work and market conditions, the IPO can be launched sometime this fall," he said.

The Government, he said, intended to fetch about C$5.7 billion from the sale of MTRC shares over the next two years but would however retain majority shareholding for at least 20 years to signify its continued commitment to the Corporation.

Mr Ng is currently on a week-long visit to Seattle and Vancouver to update the community and investors there on the latest development in Hong Kong and in particular the transformation of Hong Kong's Transport Strategy in order to promote sustainable development in the region.

In Vancouver, he met with the Minister of Transportation and Highways of British Columbia, the Hon Harry Lali; the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, Mr John Weibe; Vancouver City Councillors and officials from the Vancouver Transport Planning Department.

During his stay in Seattle (April 3-6), Mr Ng made a presentation on Hong Kong at a breakfast seminar jointly organised by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in San Francisco, the Washington State Department of Transportation and the local organisations. He also attended a Government Leaders Conference organised by Microsoft.

For further information please contact Senior Information Officer, Stephen Siu at telephone no. (416) 924 5544.