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Hong Kong’s leader says she hopes opposition councillors will support new Southern district initiative, despite not consulting them on it
- Chief Executive Carrie Lam characterises the newly unveiled plan to encourage tourism to southern Hong Kong Island as ‘non-political’
- One opposition councillor says many of the ideas included in the initiative actually originated on the council, but implementation remains an open question
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Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has expressed hope that the opposition-controlled Southern District Council will support her newly announced “Invigorating Island South” initiative, even as she admitted that she had never sought their opinion before publicly announcing the measure.
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Lam told a radio phone-in programme on Thursday that she hoped that the Southern District Council’s 17 members, 15 of whom are pan-democrats, would support her “non-political” initiative, which was unveiled in her annual policy blueprint on Wednesday.
The programme seeks to transform southern Hong Kong Island into a tourism and leisure hub featuring a revitalised Ocean Park and renovated cultural facilities in Aberdeen and Wong Chuk Hang.
The goal, she said in Wednesday’s address, was to “develop the Southern district into a place full of vibrancy, vigour and velocity”, where people could “work, live, enjoy creativity, leisure and have fun”.
However, Lam acknowledged on Thursday that she had not sought the views of the Southern District councillors on the high-profile project in their backyard, citing the need for secrecy surrounding her policy initiatives.
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