Chairman's Desk
Forward-Looking Plans to Transform Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s physical landscape and business environment will be transformed in the decades to come by the Northern Metropolis Development Strategy. This ambitious plan, announced by Chief Executive Carrie Lam in her latest Policy Address, will see a large tract of land redeveloped to create homes, businesses and transport links. 

The Northern Metropolis aims to ease the acute shortage of housing that has been such a major challenge for the city for so long. The new residences will enable the population of the area to reach around 2.5 million people, more than double the current levels. 

Hong Kong’s high cost of housing has for many years created a burden for ordinary citizens and made it difficult for businesses to attract and retain international talent. Building more homes on such a large scale should go a considerable way to addressing this deep-rooted problem.

But it is about more than housing, as the Northern Metropolis will also become home to large-scale technology parks. This will give the city more physical space to develop innovative high-tech businesses, and a flourishing IT sector will also provide a complement to our finance-driven central business district.  

The location of the development will allow easier access to the Mainland Greater Bay Area (GBA) cities, helping to facilitate cooperation with the many innovative companies across the border and ensuring it is part of this key economic development. 

The scale and ambition of the Northern Metropolis project will reshape our city, creating many new opportunities for Hong Kong businesses. Here at the Chamber, we are ready to engage and advise on how these proposals can be transformed into concrete solutions, and to share our expertise as the plans start to take shape. 

This exciting development is not the only ambitious plan laid out in the Policy Address. The Chief Executive also introduced a number of tough measures on sustainability. As part of the city’s carbon-reduction efforts, Hong Kong will phase out the use of coal for electricity generation by 2035 – a relatively early target by global standards. This is in addition to targets for cutting carbon emissions in buildings, developing greener transport and reducing waste, alongside plans to make the city a hub for green finance.

These sustainability targets show that Hong Kong is committed to creating a greener city for all our citizens, and will go hand-in-hand with the drive to build new homes and develop new business districts.  

While the Chamber welcomes these long-term plans for Hong Kong’s future, right now, many of our members are focused on when the border will re-open. We hope that Hong Kong residents who have been fully vaccinated, and with a recent negative test, will be able to travel to the GBA without the need for quarantine in the near future. This will enable us to get back to business, and also to start playing our part as the Northern Metropolis begins to take shape.

 

Peter Wong
[email protected]

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