17 November 2006

The Honourable Henry TANG Ying Yen, GBS, JP
Financial Secretary
The Government of the HKSAR
12/F, West Wing, Central Government Offices,
Lower Albert Road, Central,
Hong Kong.

Investment in Infrastructure Facilities

 Thank you for sparing time from your busy schedule to arrange the meeting on the coming Budget on 13 November 2006. Following is a recapitulation of my views/comments presented on the occasion.

In order to cope with the increasing cross-boundary vehicular and passenger traffic arising from the closer economic cooperation between Hong Kong and the Pan-Pearl River Delta Region, the HKSAR must give priority to the development of cross-boundary transport infrastructure.

Serious consideration should be given to the option of including a rail link in the proposed Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge. It is more cost-effective to incorporate the rail link in the proposed Bridge rather than build a separate rail link on its own at a later stage. But a swift decision on the subject is necessary. Further delay in constructing the Bridge will be detrimental to the interests of all parties concerned including Hong Kong.

The construction of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail should be expedited too. Instead of running on tracks of existing West Rail as proposed by the HKSAR government, the Express Rail should have a separate route alignment so as to allow the trains to run at full speed in Hong Kong section. A city to city express train service should never be connected to a local urban train system. As for road link, the construction of the Eastern Crossing at Sha Tau Kok should start without further delay.

Other planned railway projects, such as the Sha Tin to Central Link should also be put back on track as soon as possible. There is no point and indeed it does make no sense in keeping these projects under wrap pending the merger of the two railway corporations. With regard to the Route 10 project vetoed by the Finance Committee in 2002 despite the endorsement of the Public Works Subcommittee of which I chair, it is high time for the HKSAR government to fine-tune the project and table it at the LegCo again.

The above-mentioned infrastructure facilities are necessary for the future development of Hong Kong. Besides, their implementation will also create more jobs for the construction industry which remains at a very sad state.

I hope that these projects will be amongst government’s initiatives included in the coming Budget.

Ir Dr the Hon Raymond Ho Chung-tai