HKFP asks why the Northern Metropolis vision-plan switched from being a high-tech zone to a university hub. Simple answer: bureaucrats are desperate to identify new economic roles for Hong Kong, but need to find ones in which the city has a comparative advantage vis-a-vis Shenzhen, which the whole area adjoins. And they can’t.
Hong Kong can’t compete with Shenzhen’s far lower costs. Bureaucrats’ obsession with keeping the city’s land valuations high ensures that Shenzhen will be a much cheaper place to do most sorts of business.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s core differentiators are fading. Rule of law and the old ‘freewheeling’ press are being downplayed in favour of an emphasis on ‘national security’. An emphasis on ‘integration’ with the Mainland and promotion of a more national/Chinese/patriotic mindset are making the place feel less distinct, and some would say less international.
Hong Kong’s one killer app is a lack of capital controls, but even the financial services sector has steadily become more focused on the Mainland, which is now heading towards a slowing economy.
Since Shenzhen already has a large tech cluster, there is no point in trying to reproduce one on this side of the border. So fancy university parks are apparently the way to go. (As HKFP points out, Shenzhen has those as well.)
Another approach would be to devote all that space in the NT to decent quality but affordable housing and business space, and let entrepreneurs develop whatever businesses they think best without landlords killing them off after the first three years. But that’s presumably too horrifying for local officials to envisage – and perhaps not ‘Five-Year Plan’ enough.
The bureaucrats are similarly – and perhaps more embarrassingly – desperate when it comes to boosting tourist numbers.
The special Peak path lights themed display concept project has died, and the HK Tourism Board are promising to restore the natural-ish beauty they wrecked, to public outrage.
Things tourists like: street food (Hong Kong shuts down daipaidongs); authentic heritage (HK removes neon lights, fruit markets, etc); authentic experiences (HK promotes light shows and other contrived gimmicks); walkable urban environment (HK prefers devoting street-level space to Alphards); good value for money (HK prefers high returns for landlords).
Given that the city is already overloaded with visitors, perhaps we should be grateful that the Tourism Board continues its decades long authentic cultural heritage-tradition of being a joke.
At Town Planning Board a month ago, the District Planning Officer for Fanling North stated that SCHOOLS ARE AN INDUSTRY.
The board then approved that schools could be built within an Industrial Park without having to apply to the board for scrutiny of the plans. This in response to an amendment proposed by a representer who was obviously a front for interested developer(s).
Clearly compromising the health and safety of minors is no obstacle when it comes to paving the way for unbridled development.
No wonder youth mental health issues—including anxiety, depression, and severe psychological distress – are on the increase here when the focus is on monetising education instead of providing kids with a solid foundation and the groundwork for their intellectual, emotional, social, and moral development.
Tourism Board is a satirical marvel. Have you not seen those signs they’ve put up declaring “Old Town Central” — just in time for the bulldozing of the post office?