Letters | From Lantau Tomorrow Vision to Kau Yi Chau Artificial Islands: name change has not made the reclamation plan more rigorous

Readers discuss the Hong Kong government’s proposal to build artificial islands for development, and the scale of the environmental challenge for life on Earth

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The sea facing Kau Yi Chau is shrouded in mist on February 10. Given its immense cost, complexity and risks, the government must think through the Kau Yi Chau Artificial Islands project before starting work. Photo: Jelly Tse

Published: 2:30pm, 6 Jun 2023

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Given its immense cost, complexity and risk, the Kau Yi Chau Artificial Islands reclamation project has been imposed upon the public by successive administrations with a cavalier attitude and unsupported assertions.

It has undergone several iterations. Proposed by then chief executive Leung Chun-ying as East Lantau Metropolis in 2014, it then became Lantau Tomorrow Vision in 2018 under his successor Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor. John Lee Ka-chiu’s administration then changed the name to Kau Yi Chau Artificial Islands. While justifying the project as providing land for housing, the government has presented it with three related but different strategic focuses.

East Lantau Metropolis was supposed to drive the development of Lantau. Lantau Tomorrow Vision was meant to aid Hong Kong’s integration with the Greater Bay Area. The Kau Yi Chau Artificial Islands project is now marketed as an extension of Hong Kong Island into the sea.

But in all three versions, the government has made the same quantitative and qualitative presentation. Quantitatively, it is 1,000 hectares, 500,000 residents living in about 210,000 flats, with a central business district. Qualitatively, the same slogans and buzzwords are used: green, sustainable, intelligent, liveable, carbon neutral, innovative, etc.

Projects with different strategic focuses require different approaches in planning and implementation. In this case, the same package has been presented to the public over the past nine years. This is akin to selling the same liquor in three bottles and calling it wine, beer and champagne. Armed with a crude analysis of the project’s costs and revenue, officials would be laughed out of any bank or investment house if funding were solicited.

The capital requirement of HK$580 billion (US$74 billion) is based on 2022 third-quarter costs. By the time construction begins in 2025 and assuming construction spans 20 years, the money-of-the-day value that must be set aside may approach HK$1 trillion, accounting for inflation between now and 2025 and during the 20-year implementation period.