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Hong Kong’s new administration should speed up building new infrastructure to ensure success of Northern Metropolis plan: experts

  • Scheme for high-end economy will require policy support that fosters collaboration between Hong Kong and mainland cities, experts say
  • Former government adviser Ling Kar-kan says new administration should expedite building of transport network in area

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The Lok Ma Chau area is included in the Northern Metropolis scheme. Photo: May Tse

Hong Kong’s new administration should speed up the construction of infrastructure if it wants to ensure a mega hub planned for the northern New Territories near the mainland Chinese border will be a success, experts have said.

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The Northern Metropolis scheme, a blueprint for a high-end economy, would also require consistent policy support that fostered collaboration between Hong Kong and mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area, the experts added on Thursday.

The government plan, which was laid out by former chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor in her 2021 policy address, aims to transform 30,000 hectares of rural area covering Yuen Long and the North district near the border into an economic and residential hub, housing up to 2.5 million people in the next two decades.

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Ling Kar-kan, a former government adviser on the scheme and an ex-planning director, said the new administration should expedite the building of a transport network in the area to catch up with the land development process.

Ling Kar-kan, a former government adviser on the Northern Metropolis plan. Photo: Dickson Lee
Ling Kar-kan, a former government adviser on the Northern Metropolis plan. Photo: Dickson Lee
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