Expedite N Metropolis with incentives, lawmaker says

A veteran banker and lawmaker says the SAR government should expedite the development of Northern Metropolis by leasing land to enterprises on preferential terms, and raising capital through a cross-boundary fund.

In an interview with RTHK, Ronick Chan also called on authorities to form an Asian gold-trading alliance – in line with the city's goal to build a commodity trading ecosystem.

His proposals for the mega project, for which 30,000 hectares of land has been earmarked, were made as the government raced to publish Hong Kong's inaugural five-year plan in the third quarter of the year.

Chan urged officials to lure enterprises by granting them development rights in exchange for their research and development assets and investment guarantees.

"In Hong Kong, we have a... track record of using the land-use rights to attract large-scale projects to move into a particular area or region," he said.

"By having a land-use right, also what we call a build-operate-transfer (BOT) model, it could greatly reduce the investment costs for those companies.

"It will [also] greatly improve their overall financing model, so that they can have much more sustainable capital flows to support their investment in the next five or 10 years' time."

Chan, who is an adviser at the Bank of China (Hong Kong), also proposed a long-term, dual-currency fund to be issued in the SAR and Shenzhen, to raise capital both on the mainland and from overseas.

On a separate note, the lawmaker is pushing for the establishment of an "Asian Gold Alliance" with economies in the region to cement the city's status as a trading hub of the precious metal.

The government had earlier set a target of securing 2,000 tonnes of gold within three years. Chan suggested officials seek reserves from the People's Bank of China (PBoC), and place them in local vaults.

"If the PBoC is willing to put just a small portion of their gold reserves in Hong Kong, that could greatly enhance the confidence from the neighbouring countries," he said.

"That could be a pilot scheme, [and we can] start with a small-scale first. The objective is not to replace the Shanghai Gold Exchange's position, but to collaborate together to make our overall influence in the worldwide market much more substantial."

Edited by Raymond Yeung ...