The developer that proposed a bridge connecting Hong Kong with Macau and Zhuhai more than 20 years ago will not bid for a role in its construction.
A source close to Hopewell Holdings said the company no longer saw a business role in the plan.
'Hopewell has transformed many years ago from a construction firm to an infrastructure developer, so it is not prepared to be the project's contractor,' the source said.
The comment came after Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen announced at the Guangdong-Hong Kong Joint Co-operation Conference on Tuesday that the bridge would now be funded by the three regional governments with support from the central government, instead of under the private sector build-operate-transfer model that was unveiled in February.
The future joint venture between the three governments will still tender out the construction work, and possibly the management of the bridge, to the private sector.
The bridge is acknowledged as the brainchild of Hopewell chairman Sir Gordon Wu Ying-sheung, who proposed it in the early 1980s.
