In a village on the outskirts of Hong Kong, Wong Chin Ming is inspecting zucchini, watermelon, cherry tomatoes and turnip in its books. For 19 years, he was raising crops here on the site of what was previously a factory. Soon after, his farm from the map will be eliminated to make way for a tremendous development, which China hopes to be the Hong Kong answer to the silicon valley. The government places 300 square kilometers (116 square miles) for the project, which is more than twice the size of San Francisco.
It is called “Northern Metropolis“However, at the present time, nothing but.quarantinePatients during the Covid-19 epidemic sitting empty. Northern Metropolis will not grow organically for decades such as California Sectarian Technology Center near Stanford University or sparkling skyscrapers in Hong Kong, where companies and citizens enjoyed more self -rule from the Communist Party’s rule before the governmentBreakageIn 2020.
Real estate developers in particular express reservations about investing in the northern capital, for fear of making huge financial obligations amid a sharp decline in Hong KongProperty. Specialists are asked to maintain environmental impact, and some locals do not want to leave their home. But with opposition in Hong Kong, now strongly restricted, citizens resigned from all aspects of life for change. The government says the northern Metropolis is to replace 4,500 families so far. “If they are forced to develop this place, we cannot prevent it from happening,” says Wong on his farm. “We will only take it because it comes.”
Carrie Lam, former leader of Hong Kong, Northern Metropolis in 2021, suggested as a way to increase land supplies for development. Beijing expressed his frustration that homes in the city were the lowest affordable in the world. The Hong Kong government has spent the next few years planning the region, which constitutes a third of the city.
The northern Metropolis will be built on the ground along the Shenzhen River, which separates Hong Kong from the Chinese mainland and contains seven border crossings. Its plan is divided into four regions: technology, logistics, border trade and environmental tourism. There will be new subway stations, including a cross -border railway for Huntna, the third largest city in China through GDP. Official plans invite buildings with advanced technology companies and research facilities as tenants and more than twice the population of the region. “As a decisive investment for social and economic development in Hong Kong, the northern capital has topped the government’s agenda,” the Hong Kong administration says in a statement.
The project captured the urgency because the traditional economic columns in the city,financeandReal estateDo you stumble with tension between China and the West, whose conflicting interests have often been a brilliant Hong Kong for a long time inBudget. “We need to diversify in terms of our economic engines.”
Northern Metropolis can align the city more with the mainland and the economic goals of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Li tells me that this development will help the city integrate in the Greater Gulf region, a region that includes 11 Chinese cities south. It can also be used as a platform for exporting advanced Chinese technologies, by registering it in the city, according to Carlos Lu, a professor at the College of Governance and Policy Sciences at the Chinese Hong Kong University. Many countries consider the city less threatening than China the mainland. “Hong Kong must find a new model to revive the economy,” he says. “The government cannot return to how things are running in the old days.”
Hong Kong authorities expect the cityRich familiesTo invest in North Metropolis. In the city, the government owns lands, and companies buy the right to develop them for a specific period, usually 50 years. Nobody knows how much it will cost the northern capital. The government has put the number in tens of billions of dollars, but other estimates were much higher.
At a meeting in Chentyn late last year, Xia Paulong, the Supreme Chinese official who supervises Hong Kong, urged a group of businessmen and executives to take “concrete measures” to support the city’s growth and participate in projects, including the northern city. Steve Tsang, Director of the China Research Center at SOAS University in London, describes Beijing’s position: “If it isElite businessFrom Hong Kong does not make contributions to the economy as Beijing sees appropriate, there is no reason that prevents them from treating them well. “
Hana Jeong, Chair of Evaluation and Consulting Services at Hong Kong tells CBR Group Inc. The expensive initiative “comes at an inappropriate time when everyone needs money.”Office rents40 % decreased since its peak in 2019.
Another reason that developers may find investing in Northern Metropolis is unattractive. The government is facingDisabilityTesting the idea of converting more costs to private companies in three invitations to provide bids. They will be responsible for electricity, water pipelines and other infrastructure, which the government previously provided.
Real estate companies have raised concerns with the government about this change, according to persons familiar with the discussions. The construction of the infrastructure years can add to projects, which makes it difficult for developers to assess land prices and risks, according to Patrick Wong, a great analyst in intelligence Bloomberg. “It is a big problem,” says Wong, who is expected to be careful in giving.
Jeong of CBRE says that local developers possess in such large investments when companies are weak, the state -owned Chinese companies, which have more access to cash, will have a great presence in Northern Metropolis. The government says it is considering developers’ observations and can reduce their burden by making more payment for construction and other attractive arrangements.
“We believe that the packages that will be presented will be of good commercial importance to the market,” she says in her statement. About twenty companies, including Hong Kong and mainland, Chinese, contractors, blocs, and e -commerce logistics company, have expressed interest in submitting offers experienced by the government. Bidding begins in the second half of this year.
Brian Wong, Lieber, asks the research community research, a research tank in Hong Kong, about the environmental cost of the Northern Metropolis. He says the region “has a lot of distinctive landscape and human landscape, and it will be a waste if this landscape is destroyed to develop that is not fully achieved.” The government says, when it is possible, it tries to maintain active agricultural lands and turn the bors intoWet landsHabitos also encourage sustainable urban agriculture, including on rooftops.
The villages in the TA Kwu Ling area will be among the first to disappear and give way to North Metropolis. The government wants to make the region attractive to universities. In 2028, construction is scheduled to start on thousands of new apartments for teachers and students. At Sing Ping, a rural village in the area just 20 minutes from the Chinese border, the residents are concerned. Amirld Lee lived throughout her life in a house by her parents in the 1960s. About 50 families of two floors are running near the fields where their food is planted.
Although the government will compensate the population, it tells me that it expects it to be sufficient. People who live in homes such as their salary can receive compensation worth $ 12,816 Hong Kong ($ 1633) per square meter, which is the average number of demand price in the region. If their income is low enough, it is qualified to move to subsidized government housing. It is preferable for the government to move the village to the near landing. “We lived here for six or seven decades,” she says. “Why do they have to force us to go out and replace us with a group of very different things?”
This story was originally shown on Fortune.com
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