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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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