A quaint way to put it: Hong Kong lacks the ‘necessary conditions’ to do the Lantau mega-reclamation…
The exorbitant [HK$580 billion] price tag for the reclamation has raised concerns, especially amid three consecutive years of government deficits.
It would total 1,000 hectares. Plans to use existing land in the New Territories will yield 30,000.
For well over a century, non-profit, non-government schools and hospitals have been granted land by the Hong Kong government on the understanding that they would serve the public good. But some of the institutions involved have since morphed into exclusive enclaves of the rich.
According to an SCMP story (HKFP one here), the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod cofounded the HK International School in Repulse Bay back in the 1960s. Nowadays, the school is debenture-hungry, charges around HK$250,000 a year in tuition and is sitting on a nest egg of HK$2.8 billion (unless that’s a typo). The church isn’t happy…
“The LCMS believes that HKIS today … has become a school for the rich and the privileged few, not an economically and socially inclusive school for all of Hong Kong as intended and agreed,” it said.
The church said the association had generated cumulative net operating surpluses of nearly HK$800 million over the past five years, with the amount in 2024 reaching almost HK$300 million.
“Personally, I find them grossly excessive. You look at the amount of their reserves, and if I were looking for money, I’d say: this is a great, nice job. But this is not a profit organisation. This is a charity. This is a non-profit. It’s not just for the rich,” [church official Christian] Preus said.
The church said the management had kept demanding more payments from parents, including regularly increasing school fees, selling priority access debentures, repeatedly seeking funding and donations even in cryptocurrency, and charging student training and competition fees, despite having substantial financial reserves.
It argued that the school should use the funds to reduce school fees and provide significantly more scholarships and financial aid.
It also revealed that the school had spent HK$1 billion to build a new “student activity centre”, which included two gymnasiums, four tennis courts, a fitness centre, an indoor golf simulator, a dance studio, indoor rock-climbing facilities and the institution’s third indoor swimming pool.
Third? Maybe the Greater Bay Area can hold the Olympics there.
Mark Simon adds…
HKIS very hostile to special needs, and the addition of large numbers of mainland parents has not added anything in terms of the school seeking out any type of roll in the community for the disadvantage[d].
A modest proposal: in exchange for continuation of their leases, require these schools and hospitals to admit (say) a third of their students/patients from the general public, for fees matching what it would cost the public-sector institutions. Otherwise, start paying market rents.
(We could add cheap land allocated a century ago for essential electricity, gas, dockyard and other utilities, which (after the companies were acquired by property giants) were later converted into far more profitable housing rather than returned to the government. Then there are private clubs. And let’s not forget commercial/residential mega-developments on sites granted for places of worship. But this is a city where the main museum complex is expected to convert real estate into luxury homes.)
The EU’s annual report (‘so-called’) on Hong Kong. While it criticizes developments in human/civil rights and local autonomy, most of it is a surprisingly thorough account of other economic and social issues. If I were the government PR department, I’d cut and paste big chunks of this for the official year book. Still – government not a fan.
with billions of dollars in cash reserves and the “goodwill” of the city’s moneyed elite, HKIS will squirm out of this pickle no problem. it’s not like a US christian institution has a card to play politically either. give it a fortnight and this will never be mentioned again
Let’s not forget the YMCA, with its multiple prime sites in Yau Tsim Mong, given it on the understanding it was to serve the public. Over recent years, it has whacked up its prices – for instance, an hour’s use of its hockey rink at King’s Park Centenary Centre was $600 in 2011, but now stands at around $1800.
I looked at my sister’s old HKIS yearbook from the late 80s. Judging by the number of Ngs, Kwoks, Chans and Chows in the student body, you’d be hard pressed to think there was any “I” in the HKIS.
Crickey, with that kind of money, the school could have HK’s top legal experts on 24-7 retainers. No doubt they could drag this out till the Second Coming of our Lord Himself.
“The need to construct sports complexes, modernise transport networks and expand accommodation capacity can saddle hosts with debt and infrastructure that often falls into disuse post-Games.”
Yea bring it to China where we do the building of pointless infrastructure and piling on of debt even when there isn’t an Olympics to subsidise.
Presumably the idea is that Hong Kong bears the cost, Guangzhou and Shenzhen hosts the sport, a bit like the ‘National Games’?
Fortunately if you market it as ‘Greater Bay Area’ no one will have heard of it and they’ll assume the Olympics are being sought for Tokyo, San Francisco or Morecambe.
“Let’s not forget the YMCA, with its multiple prime sites in Yau Tsim Mong, given it on the understanding it was to serve the public. Over recent years, it has whacked up its prices – for instance, an hour’s use of its hockey rink at King’s Park Centenary Centre was $600 in 2011, but now stands at around $1800.”
Holy shit YMCA can go fuck themselves.
I am guessing complaining about these self serving cunts to the lands department won’t help.