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.
Mark Bradley
You’re guessing right, old boy.
Lands Department couldn’t give a monkey’s.
Re YMCA, you forgot to mention the Boy Scouts gin palace on Austin. I got very un- Christian feedback from both parties some years ago at a meeting with govt officials (that was when tax payers could participate in district affairs) when I pointed out that neither party was providing affordable services to the local community in return for their nominal rent, tax free status and other privileges. TST in particular is grossly deficient in almost every community service stipulated in the Hong Kong Planning Standards and Guidelines.
Not only was there no positive outcome, the Girl Guides are jumping on the gravy train with the construction of a multi-storey development on Jordan. This in exchange for giving back their current home on a much smaller site on Gascgoine Road. They whinged that they are also entitled to MORE.
But why not when we have a government that bends over backwards to facilitate what are essentially commercial enterprises like the international schools and hospitals masquerading as not for profit NGO’s.
Most, is not all, of their leases have clauses that state that in exchange for land at nominal rent and other perks they should provide a certain amount of community services in the form of scholarships, assisted care, access to facilities, etc.
Few if any do.
Some action was taken re the opening the facilities at private recreation clubs under recent reforms but it takes a major attack on their operations, like plans to resume part of the HK Golf Club, to ignite a latent desire to provide opportunities to the less fortunate.
The issue is that the administration has consistently turned a blind eye to abuse of lease terms. In addition no annual accounts are published whereby the astute could identify questionable expenses.
Not only has it failed to monitor the activities of the NFPs paying nominal land rent, it has actively participated in depriving the community of services in order to facilitate their expansion. A recent example is the speed with which the Rosaryhill School on Stubbs Road was forced to vacate its premises in order to expedite the expansion of the private Dalton School.
Have any of the impacted students, particularly those with special needs, been given scholarships to Dalton?????
HKIS is only the tip of a very large iceberg as one pundit put it, ‘Public Land, Private Privelege, Nominal Rent.”
The Chinese Recreation Club just added a large looking indoor pool and a three story new club house probably with a fancy restaurant. Not sure what inflated membership
fee they charge but I’m sure the disadvantaged of HK rarely get to visit unless they’re brilliant future tennis stars. All the while paying a peppercorn rent I’m sure. Wonder how many senior civil servants and HK People’s Congress members are members there.