Hong Kong Development Council: Hong Kong will continue to lead supply and establish land reserves to speed up and improve the construction of the North Capital

The Zhitong Finance App learned that on September 22, regarding the policies and measures of the Development Council relating to the “Hong Kong First Five-Year Plan” and the “2026 Policy Address”, the Hong Kong Development Secretary, Ning Hanhao, said that the two documents indicate key points for Hong Kong's future development. Hong Kong will continue to lead supply, establish land reserves, speed up efficiency and quality, and improve the construction of Beidu, as well as help promote the yacht economy, make good use of AI, and enhance urban resilience.

The “Hong Kong First Five-Year Plan” mentions the need to continuously cultivate land and establish land reserves. The Northern Metropolitan Area (Beidu) also has a separate chapter, emphasizing the importance of speeding up efficiency in the North. In addition to the construction of new land, the “Five-Year Plan” also mentions the need to use new thinking to promote the renewal of old districts, comprehensively improve building safety management, and enhance the resilience of the city.

First, in terms of continuous construction, the output of land construction for the next ten years was announced last week. The production of ripe land is estimated to be about 2,500 hectares in ten years, 70% of which comes from Beidu. Plans relating to land use will be submitted to the City Planning Council (Urban Planning Committee) before the end of this year. Next, the 200-hectare priority development area in Daguling, Aotou, and some new development areas in Macaolong will all be submitted to the city plan, so all planning work should be completed one after another by the end of this year.

The goal for the next five years is to recover about 680 hectares of land, produce about 900 hectares of ripe land, and build about 70,000 public and private residential units on the ground. In the first five years, most of these housing units were public housing.

In terms of land use, out of this 900 hectares of mature land, it is estimated that more than 400 hectares are industrial land, or more than 40%, which highlights the importance of industrial development in Beidu. An additional 200 hectares are used for residential use, while the rest is for other infrastructure and community facilities.

To keep up with the pace of development, a multi-pronged approach is now needed to speed up construction in the north. The first aspect, which is also a very important aspect, is that the “Northern Metropolitan Area Development Bill” has now entered the stage of review by the Legislative Council section by section, with a view to passing it within this year. The Government will immediately submit the first batch of five subsidiary legislation. It is hoped that all the first batch of facilitation measures mentioned in this legislation will come into effect in the first quarter of next year.

Another important step is cost control, which is important for both government and private participation in construction. The authorities will always start with four major aspects: (1) Reviewing existing construction standards and requirements. (2) Actively adopt new procurement models, including the central procurement model, some of which are currently being tendered; (3) apply advanced technology and construction technology; and (4) further streamline processes.

With the formation of the Beidu Plan, land is being produced one after another. Currently, different policy bureaus are taking the lead in constructing a diversified industrial development system with Hong Kong characteristics to achieve integrated development of education, technology, and talents. For example, the Education Bureau takes the lead in university campus land in the university teaching district; the Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau (Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau), which is headed by Secretary Sun Dong.

As far as the Development Bureau is concerned, it has now been proposed to build an advanced construction industrial park in Beidu, and 30 hectares of land have already been reserved for this purpose. The first industrial park covers an area of about 10 hectares and is located in Yuen Long South. We hope to invite the market to submit a letter of intent for development in the first half of next year, and then tender in the first half of 2028. Another 20 hectares will be in the new development area in Ta Kwu Ling.

The authorities will also continue the diversified development model in Beidu. The next goal is to have the Fanling North “area” also put up for tender by the end of this year. Another important step is rural-urban integration. The “Beidu Guidelines for Promoting Urban-Rural Inclusion” will be officially announced later this year. They will also apply to the Finance Committee (Finance Committee) for funding to establish the HK$200 million “Beidu Urban-Rural Inclusion Fund”. It is hoped that next year they will accept applications and approve the first batch of projects to make good use of popular wisdom.

Currently, the Development Authority is promoting three land development projects to help promote the yacht economy. The first to be implemented is a comprehensive yacht, recreation and residential development project in Aberdeen. Statutory city planning procedures have already begun, and the goal is to tender in the first half of next year. Next, the second project is the former Lamma Quarry, which will follow. Hopefully, it will be the second tender project after bidding for the Aberdeen project. For the third project, located in Hung Hom, the authorities are currently conducting a detailed technical evaluation with the MTR Corporation. Comments collected earlier are also being considered.

Apart from talking about new land and new developments, there is no time to delay the reform of the old building maintenance system. Currently, in the case of the Development Bureau, two areas of work are being carried out intensively. First, we hope to strengthen the supervision of large-scale building maintenance through regulations. The regulations are the “Buildings Ordinance”, and we hope to submit the draft amendments to the Buildings Ordinance to the Legislative Council by the end of the year.

Another important step is legislative amendments on the one hand, and innovation to support owners who carry out building maintenance. The purpose of this service is to tender and evaluate bids for owners, and to have a stricter pre-inspection system for professionals, contractors and consultants involved in these maintenance projects. As an innovative service, we hope to adopt a new name when it is launched in the future, and how to implement this service, we hope to wait for the Independent Commission to submit its report in October before looking at the implementation model and which agency to use to implement it.

One of these steps will be launched soon, because no matter which agency performs this enhanced service, it must first establish a pre-screening list, and it is expected that applications will be publicly accepted at the end of September. The current goal is to have three lists: one is the consultant responsible for inspecting the building, one is the consultant supervising the project, and the third is the contractor carrying out the project.

Finally, urban resilience also includes making good use of artificial intelligence (AI). Of course, every bureau and department has to contribute in this regard. As far as the Development Bureau is concerned, it includes two major components: upgrading the “spatial data sharing platform” so that more information can be used by all departments and society. In addition, it is expanding the existing cross-departmental drone management platform and detection work, so that the information obtained by these drones can be shared by different public works departments; and the management of public works projects is optimized through AI.