Greater Bay Area | Task force suggests leasing Zhuhai’s Guishan Island for port facilities

A group in Hong Kong is eyeing the relocation of the region’s container terminal, Kwai Tsing’s port facilities to Guishan, an island that falls under the jurisdiction of Zhuhai, in a bid to meet Hong Kong’s development needs.

The idea was just one of the 16 options that the Citizens Task Force on Land Resources suggested, noting that leasing the land and relocating the port facilities would free up some 300 hectares of prime land for housing.

This came after the SAR kicked off a five-month public consultation period on 18 options to boost land supply due to Hong Kong’s land shortage problem.

According to engineer Albert Lai, a member of the group responsible for initiating the idea, the move will help to facilitate regional cooperation under the Greater Bay Area scheme, the South China Morning Post reported.

Lai added that Guishan’s proximity to the Pearl River Delta would lessen time and logistical cost, as the proximity of Guishan would act as a short-cut, particularly for transshipments and the river trade.

“Hong Kong never wanted it because no chief executive in the past was ever that committed to long-term, interregional planning,” Lai said.

“The Greater Bay Area is a good opportunity to revive it.”

For the idea to be integrated, it would need to be authorized by a decree from Beijing’s State Council and adopted by the SAR’s law.

However, Lai recalled that the high-speed rail terminus in West Kowloon also involves Hong Kong leasing land to the mainland and placing it under national laws.

Beijing granted Macau jurisdiction over a plot of land located in the mainland, when it granted the lease of a square kilometer of land on the island of Hengqin back in 2009.

The University of Macau campus built there will be under Macau’s jurisdiction for 40 years. The span could be longer or shorter, depending on the consent of Beijing’s cabinet, the State Council.

In 2015, Beijing also green- lighted a marine area of 85 square kilometers that was to be placed under the SAR’s control, an area about which experts called for proper planning. LV