The delightful and heart-warming Christmas is around the corner. How are you going to celebrate with your dearest friends and family? Will you throw a party at home or have fun at Lan Kwai Fong? Or would you like to join the crowd at the former Kai Tak Airport runway for a countdown and make a wish over the sound of ship's horn?  The latter choice may seem like a distant dream, but I would like to tell you that we are gathering pace to make this dream come true by taking forward the work of Kai Tak Fantasy.

Kai Tak belongs to the people of Hong Kong. As it has witnessed the parting and reunion of so many people and is laden with our memories with friends and family, the Kai Tak Development Area will be redeveloped for the enjoyment of the whole community. In the middle of this year, we invited members of the public through various activities to join the preparation work of the Kai Tak Fantasy - International Ideas Competition on Urban Planning and Design to offer views and ideas. After listening to public views on the competition requirements, we incorporated some of them into the competition document for reference by participants including professionals such as planners, urban designers, architects, engineers, surveyors and landscape architects. With their boundless creativity, we hope the entries can capture the passionate and energetic quality of Hong Kong through a planning design concept that can make us proud while inheriting the past and unleashing future potential to establish the brand of Kai Tak Fantasy.

The competition was launched at the end of last month. We have invited professionals from around the world to take up the challenge by entering the competition on or before January 3, 2014*, and bringing us their innovative ideas. The entries will be duly adjudicated by the jury panel while four of them will be shortlisted for public exhibitions in the middle of next year to solicit public opinions. The jury panel will take these opinions into account in the second round of adjudication.

The arrangements of the competition, the member list of the jury panel, the criteria for adjudication and the Stage 1 public engagement report by an independent advisor have been uploaded to the competition website. Details of the Stage 2 public engagement for the shortlisted entries will be announced on the competition website later on. To encourage public participation, we are now planning to invite all of you to draw inspiration from the shortlisted entries and suggest your own visions and ideas of how to make this a special place. Related details will be announced in due course.

I hope you will join us in the activities of the Kai Tak Fantasy competition. I am looking forward to seeing you all in Kai Tak!

* : The deadline has been extended from 3 Jan to 10 Jan 2014.