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fell victim to a land supply strategy that was insufficiently persistent
              and consistent, the consequences of which include its population intake
              constantly trailing the original planned capacity, as well as a chronic
              shortage of supporting facilities including hospitals, schools, and shopping
              space.

                     Nonetheless, Lantau Island also carries overwhelming significance
              in the development history of Hong Kong, in that it accommodates the few
              important large-scale infrastructure projects in the “Hong Kong Airport Core
              Programme”, or more commonly known as the “Rose Garden Project”, e.g.
              the HKIA and the North Lantau Highway.

                     Looking ahead, Lantau Island continues to bear crucial implications
              for the long-term development of Hong Kong. Needless to say, it is the
              potential source of an abundant amount of developable land to meet
              our needs. Equally importantly, situated at the heart of the Pearl River
              Delta, Lantau Island enjoys a strategic developmental advantage that is
              unprecedented in the history of the city. The massive flows of businesses
              and people upon the completion of the large-scale inter-city transportation
              infrastructure imply the investments in land formation, infrastructure
              and community facilities that we are making today will easily pay for
              themselves.

                     Moreover, given the several major land reclamation projects
              involved, the Lantau Development, unlike the NDAs in the New Territories,
              could see much higher development density in the way we establish
              our previous generations of new towns via reclamation. High-density
              development is desirable given Hong Kong’s famously efficient public
              transportation system. This is also conducive to the piloting of a wide
              array of schemes that improves urban living quality, including food waste
              recycling in public housing estates, centralised water-cooled air conditioning
              system and numerous smart-city initiatives such as the use of real-time
              statistics on road usage and bus route operations.


                     In a nutshell, the Lantau Development means much more than
              just another source of developable land supply. It embodies the last –
              and the next – bold, essential and visionary land development project of
              Hong Kong that would be critical for our long-term social and economic
                development.


























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