Hong Kong’s Town Planning Board has approved plans for a tech hub to be built in a green area dotted with fishponds, near the city’s boundary with Shenzhen.
The move was welcomed by the SAR’s development secretary, Bernadette Linn, who pledged to accelerate its construction in an interview with local government broadcaster RTHK.
The proposed San Tin Technopole will be located near the Shenzhen IT zone. The 600-hectare hub is seen as a strategically important project that will grow Hong Kong’s technology sector.
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A plan to reclaim 90 hectares of fish ponds in order to build it has sparked concerns about the complex’s environmental impact.
However, Linn said more than half the ponds had already been abandoned and added that the government would declare a 338-hectare wetland conservation park next to the new tech hub, should it go ahead, to make up for the loss of the fishponds.
Linn said that the first batch of land could be ready for development in 2026.