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Following is the question by the Hon Cheung Hok-ming and a written reply by the Secretary for Economic Development and Labour, Mr Stephen Ip, in the Legislative Council today (March 1):
Question:
It has been reported that the Government intends to lease out a total of three pieces of land in Tsing Yi South, Tuen Mun Area 49 and an area near to the Tai Po Industrial Estate to the logistics industry under short-term tenancies. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) when it will offer the above land for lease and how they are to be disposed (such as through open tender or by inviting applications from individual operators in the industry);
(b) of the duration of the tenancies concerned;
(c) given that the current traffic through the navigation waterway of the Rambler Channel is already very heavy, whether the logistics operations in the site in Tsing Yi South will involve sea or land transport; if sea transport will be involved, how the authorities will address the problem that such logistics operations will add to the traffic load of the navigation waterway; if land transport will be involved, whether the authorities have assessed if the existing supporting transport facilities in Tsing Yi can cope with such logistics operations; if they cannot cope, how such a problem can be resolved; and
(d) given that the site in Tsing Yi South was originally one of the proposed sites for Container Terminal 10, whether the project to build the terminal will be advanced or postponed as a result of the site being earmarked by the authorities for logistics purposes, and when the site for the terminal will be finalised?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) In response to the demand of the logistics sector for sites to accommodate logistics facilities, the Administration has identified several suitable sites for use by the logistics industry through Short Term Tenancy (STT) arrangement. We have consulted the Hong Kong Logistics Development Council and the Hong Kong Port Development Council on the proposed use of the three sites mentioned in the question and both Councils and the industry support the proposals. We plan to finalise the relevant tenancy conditions in the next few months so that these sites can be put out for open tender.
(b) We would work out the relevant tenancy conditions in the next few months. The sites would be leased out through STT and the tenure would depend on various factors including the long-term use of the site, as well as environmental and traffic concern.
(c) As the Tsing Yi South site has a seafront for marine access, sea-land intermodal cargo operation at this site is possible. Both the Marine Department and the Transport Department have assessed the marine traffic and land traffic implications and relevant conditions would be included in the tenancy to ensure that the operation of the site will not have adverse impact on the existing marine and land traffic.
(d) The Tsing Yi South site would be leased out through STT and would not affect the development plan of the Container Terminal 10 (CT 10). The Study on Hong Kong Port - Master Plan 2020 (the Study) completed at the end of 2004 identified two possible locations for the development of CT10, namely Northwest Lantau and Southwest Tsing Yi. We have not made a decision on the location of CT10 at this stage. As recommended in the Study, we have commissioned an ecology study on the Northwest Lantau site to assess its suitability for constructing CT10 from an ecology perspective. In parallel, we are also updating the Port Cargo Forecasts to work out the optimal timing for container terminal development. We will review the port expansion options when more data are available.
Ends/Wednesday, March 1, 2006
Issued at HKT 13:03
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