Hong Kong: First mooted by Hopewell Holdings' chairman Sir Gordon Wu back in 1983, finally the ceremony marking the start of construction on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge will be held today.
Donald Tsang, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), will witness the start along with officials from China's central governments, Chief Executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region, Macao's NPC and CPPCC members as well as the region's government officials and industrial representatives.
The project is estimated to cost more than 72 billion yuan ($10.5 billion), and is slated to be finished in 2015. The series of bridges, tunnels and roads will rival the longest bridges in the world and is designed to better connect Hong Kong with Macao and the Mainland.
Once the work is completed it will shorten the Hong Kong-Zhuhai trip from three hours to half an hour and the Hong Kong-Macao trip from three hours to one hour.
More importantly, it will give shippers on the western side of the Pearl river delta the option of using the world class facilities of Hong Kong port for their onward exports. The western side of the delta has always lagged behind in container terminal development, with Hutchison's investment at Gaolan being the principal port in the area. [15/12/09]
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