By the Hong Kong government’s latest reckoning, the city’s future lies to the north in the New Territories, in a 300 sq km area abutting Shenzhen, its nearest mainland neighbour. The grand plan is that the two will merge to create a technology-driven powerhouse to push forward Beijing’s Greater Bay Area idea.
The vision, designated the Northern Metropolis by Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor in her policy address in October, involves transforming a sleepy, largely rural, backwater with narrow roads and dotted with tens of thousands of three-storey village houses into a thriving hi-tech zone with 2.5 million people.
Therein lies the problem. As good as the proposal is, taking it from the drawing board to reality will require a power far mightier than local officials.
There is a good reason the New Territories, which accounts for about 86 per cent of Hong Kong’s area, remains largely undeveloped. It is firmly in the hands of descendants of the original inhabitants, quaintly termed by the government as “indigenous”.
That entitles men, when they turn 18, to a plot of land on which to build a three-storey house, each level of no more than 700 square feet – a luxury by Hong Kong standards. That guarantee and the rules that restrict how the property can be handled mean that projects are limited in scale.
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Hong Kong’s small-house policy: indigenous rights or unfair advantage?
Hong Kong’s small-house policy: indigenous rights or unfair advantage?
Evidence of the challenge lies in what the British colonial government was able to achieve in almost a century of occupation of the New Territories. Apart from a handful of new towns, its legacy is roads wide enough for one or two vehicles, an extensive drainage channel system and a mandatory public toilet in every village.
Walking with a friend from the Kam Sheung Road MTR station to his home beside the main route between Kam Tin and Tai Po revealed how difficult it will be to create even the most fundamental feature of a major new development: a transport network.
A single lane of traffic moves virtually bumper-to-bumper on either side of the road, which has a narrow footpath and then a line of village houses, each on its own plot of land.
As my friend pointed out, widening the road would require the government negotiating with each homeowner, who would probably hold out for the best possible price. From the roof of his home, with the skyscrapers of Shenzhen in the distance to the north, the landscape was dotted with those ubiquitous low-rise buildings, with patches of overgrown or rubbish-strewn land in-between.
People visit the border between Hong Kong and the mainland on February 13, with the Shenzhen skyline in the background. Photo: AP
If this was the mainland, turning the tranquil setting into a bustling concrete jungle would be done in no time. Shenzhen had around 30,000 people in 1979 and, four decades later, has more than 13 million.
But whereas Beijing and its provincial and local government representatives have a largely free hand to do what they like in the name of development, Hong Kong’s Basic Law protects land rights. Accentuating that point, Hong Kong’s highest court recently upheld the right of adult male indigenous New Territories villagers to receive land on which to build a house.
An estimated 42,000 homes have been built since the rule was put in place in 1972. Lam and other officials have therefore been realistic about their estimates as to when the Northern Metropolis will reach fruition – in 15 to 20 years and maybe even longer.
So where, exactly, did the idea for the Northern Metropolis originate? I assume it was from somewhere with limited understanding of Hong Kong’s laws and how the city’s legal system works.
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What is the Basic Law of Hong Kong?
What is the Basic Law of Hong Kong?
Of course, with the “improved” governance and elections, under which only patriots – read Beijing supporters – will serve in councils, advisory posts and the government, that could all change. With a rethink and legal backing of the way things are done, the idea could quickly be rubber-stamped by lawmakers and literally bulldozed into existence.
The mainland has made great leaps in development through being able to get things done quickly. It boasts by far the world’s most extensive high-speed rail network and is now gradually rolling out even faster mag-lev trains.
Artificial intelligence, digital payment systems, robotics and electric vehicles make its cities among the world’s most advanced.
Hong Kong’s laws offer protections, but they have also been holding back the city’s development. It is time our officials updated their ways and mainlandised how they think – for everyone’s sake.
