The Northern Metropolis

The Northern Metropolis is the buzzword in Hong Kong at the moment and a topic we have covered over the last two years – see our last article from February this year looking at rail projects for the development.

If you are not familiar with it, the government proposes to develop vast swathes of the New Territories, increasing the population by 1.5 million and providing 650,000 jobs of which 150,000 will be in Innovation and Technology. You’ll be hearing a lot about it over the next few years.

The plan has huge implications for Hong Kong’s development. It was therefore interesting to attend the AmCham HK keynote address from Professor Anthony Cheung and hear from panel speakers on the opportunities and challenges in delivering this mega-project. As Professor Cheung mentioned, this is a bet on the future of Hong Kong. The government and industry are aware of the challenges – manpower and staffing being one of the critical issues. We will see how this development progresses over the next few years and how HK manages one of its biggest projects for many generations.