Firms to pledge support for Hong Kong’s Northern Metropolis after Beijing’s call

Firms will attend ceremony on Friday to show they intend to take part in the mega development, sources say

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The Northern Metropolis will be developed on land at the border with Shenzhen. Photo: Martin Chan

Published: 7:12pm, 25 Nov 2024Updated: 9:33pm, 25 Nov 2024

Major local companies as well as some mainland Chinese and overseas firms will pledge support on Friday for Hong Kong’s Northern Metropolis project in which they are invited to develop larger plots of land and build public facilities, the Post has learned, in a move echoing an earlier call from Beijing to back the city by taking “concrete actions”.

But analysts on Monday said the real estate sector would need more incentives and assurance from the government to participate in the megaproject amid uncertainties in the economy.

Insiders on Monday said the businesses would attend a ceremony to show their support and intention to take part in the mega development, which aims to turn 30,000 hectares of land near the border with the mainland into an economic powerhouse with new housing complexes.

The ceremony is expected to take place on Friday afternoon, three weeks after Beijing’s point man on Hong Kong affairs, Xia Baolong, called on business leaders and property tycoons to back the government’s long-term development drive.

Ahead of the ceremony, representatives of some major developers who earlier met Xia joined a delegation on Monday led by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu to learn about the latest developments in some Guangdong province cities in the Greater Bay Area.

Xia Baolong held a closed-door meeting with nearly 30 business representatives earlier this month. Photo: Handout.

The delegation includes Jardine Matheson Holdings chairman Pang Yiu-kai, Ian Fok Chun-wan, CEO of Fok Ying Tung Group, Adam Kwok Kai-fai, executive director of Sun Hung Kai Properties, and Peter Lee Ka-kit, chairman and managing director of Henderson Land Development.