Public Invited to Help Plan Tomorrow's Hong KongAll Hong Kong citizens were invited Wednesday to submit their ideas and views on the future shape of Hong Kong.Speaking at the launch of the first public consultation phase of Hong Kong 2030: Planning Vision and Strategy, Bosco Fung, director of planning of Hong Kong, said that community input would be essential to the success of this new planning study, which will create a framework for Hong Kong's physical development over the next 30 years. "In this age of rapid changes, the outlook and development pattern of Hong Kong as a city will inevitably undergo transformation. There are big opportunities and challenges before us and we need to confront them by planning at the macro-level," Fung said. "We need to address the important strategic planning issues arising from local population growth and our growing ties with the Pearl River Delta, which have implications on various spheres including population distribution, economic development, transport, infrastructure and environment," he added. The Planning Department, which is organizing the two-year study and facilitating the community feedback process, would be specifically looking for public comments - and, hopefully, a high degree of consensus - on determining the SAR's future land use, transport and other infrastructural needs, and environment. The consultation phase being launched today is the first of four rounds of public consultations that will be held in conjunction with four stages of the Hong Kong 2030 study over the next two years. Fung said that a major publicity campaign would be conducted during each of the four public consultation stages "to ensure we are providing enough information and encouragement to people to participate, and also to establish a dialog with the public and with various interest groups on the concepts and issues that emerge." |
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