‘Avoid boring’: Hong Kong’s waterfront expansion to embrace creative ideas from private sector, Paul Chan says
- HK$6 billion set aside in new budget for promenades and open spaces
- Harbourfront Commission recommends studying waterfronts in Singapore, Sydney and Copenhagen
Hong Kong’s finance chief said on Sunday that the city’s waterfront expansion would factor in creative input from private operators in Hong Kong and abroad, after advisers urged him to avoid “boring” government-run spaces.
Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po also announced that a new promenade connecting Tamar and Wan Chai would be opened by the end of 2020, completing a 3km waterfront walk from Sheung Wan to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Last month, Chan said he would set aside HK$6 billion (US$764 million) in the 2019-20 budget for new waterfront promenades and open spaces, and to improve facilities in the harbour area.
Since then, members of the Harbourfront Commission had urged city officials to study how cities such as Singapore, Sydney and Copenhagen used public-private partnerships to turn waterfronts into leisure and nightlife districts.
On Sunday, on a pre-recorded radio programme, Chan gave the strongest confirmation yet that some of the harbourfront projects might be realised through public-private partnerships.