The Development Bureau jointly held the Land Supply Forum with five professional institutes last Saturday. Professionals from different fields gathered together to brainstorm plans and strategies for land development. I am delighted to find that both the media and the community have participated in many follow-up discussions on the subject. This is a good start for the Government, professional institutes and the community in working together to explore land use planning and development issues using a rational and pragmatic approach. I would also like to take this opportunity to respond to some of the concerns and queries raised in the community in the past week.
One of the concerns is Hong Kong’s population density. Compared with other cities in the world, how densely populated is Hong Kong? I said at the forum, "Hong Kong has a population of more than 7 million residing in a land area of 267 square kilometres. The population density stands at 27 000 persons per square kilometre, far outstripping that of developed cities such as Singapore. In terms of population density, only two cities - Dhaka in Bangladesh and Mumbai in India - are comparable to Hong Kong."
According to a survey report by the US research organisation Demographia released earlier this year, which consolidates data and statistics on the population, area and density of more than 1 000 urban areas with a population of more than 500 000, there are 75 cities with a population of more than 5 million, among which the three cities with the highest population density are Dhaka in Bangladesh; Mumbai in India and Hong Kong. Their population density is 43 500, 32 400 and 27 300 persons per square kilometre respectively. Among the major cities with a population of more than 5 million and the top-ranked 20 in population density (see table), only Singapore and Seoul, Korea have a similar level of economic development to Hong Kong. Their population density is 10 900 and 10 400 persons per square kilometre respectively, which is only about 40 per cent of that of Hong Kong, while all major cities in Europe, the United States, Japan and the Mainland have a population density of less than 10 000 persons per square kilometre. From these figures, it is not difficult to recognise how densely populated Hong Kong is in the global community.
I do not mean to “degrade” Hong Kong here, but would like to outline the actual situation objectively. As I mentioned in the forum, being such a densely populated area, we should indeed be proud of Hong Kong’s highly efficient transport facilities and convenient living environment. We should also be thankful to the generations of people who have contributed to building Hong Kong.
We have to prepare for the future. I have repeatedly explained our multi-pronged approach to land supply. Please think about this: is it really feasible to meet housing demand in Hong Kong solely by further increasing population density on developed land, given that this small city is almost the most densely developed place in the world? In fact, we have been increasing development density in the urban areas and rezoning sites for residential use, whenever planning terms permit, to cater for the short-term imminent housing need. Nonetheless, members of the community have expressed concern about population density, ancillary facilities and transportation. We need to recognise and understand that there is very limited room for expansion no matter how hard we work. Hence, while appreciating the public’s concern about the development of Green Belt sites on the fringes of built-up areas near the existing urban areas and new towns, we should not give up on expanding the territory of urban areas as a means of meeting housing demand. Apart from utilising existing land and expanding developed land as far as possible, we must look for new land for development through integrated planning and infrastructure upgrade, as well as studies on various technical conditions (e.g. reclamation, rock cavern and underground space development, and more). Otherwise we will never be able to overcome hurdles in housing, economic and social development brought about by land shortage.
On the other hand, there is recurring discussion that priority should be given to the utilisation of vacant land in urban areas, sites under temporary uses and brownfield sites in the New Territories. If you have been paying close attention to our work, you might have noticed that we have been taking these suggestions seriously. As mentioned repeatedly in the past, relevant information has been uploaded to the Development Bureau’s website (www.devb.gov.hk/en/issues_in_focus/the_land_area_analysis/index.html). Nevertheless, those 1,000 hectares of seemingly available vacant land in the urban areas and sites under temporary uses are usually found next to existing buildings and roads. As for sites that are larger in size with no planned use, we have been exploring the possibility of rezoning for suitable uses through various planning studies. Let’s think about it. Is it really possible for us to develop these “1,000 hectares of vacant land” with ease regardless of the surrounding environment, actual circumstances and whether these are fragmented sites? If it is so, will we be accused of “grabbing land blindly”? As for the conversion of brownfield sites for high density development, this would be our source of land supply in the medium and long terms. The development of brownfield sites has also been included in a number of projects, including the Hung Shui Kiu New Development Area and the Housing Sites in Yuen Long South.
We are open to different views on specific solutions to increase land supply, and are following up actively on feasible suggestions raised by different sectors of the society with an aim to formulate proposals for public discussion in a step-by-step manner. Land use planning and development are not simply “everyone’s business”, but are the responsibility of the Government and society for our next generation. Hence, I sincerely hope that when stakeholders raise their views on different arguments, they will also offer constructive solutions to problems. We have to work with one heart to make a breakthrough, and strive for the well-being of Hong Kong as a whole.
Table: World urban areas with highest population density – with over 5 million population (Top 20)
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Source: (http://www.demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf)
# According to www.demographia.com, some of the population estimates of 2015 are actual figures, while some others are calculated from base year population estimates.
* Provisional estimate by the Census and Statistics Department as at mid-2015
25 October, 2015
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