Statement on Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point project

In response to media enquiries on the Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point (BCP) project today (October 24), a spokesman for the Development Bureau gave the following statement:

In 2008, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and the Shenzhen Municipal Government jointly announced the implementation of the Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point. The new BCP mainly serves the cross-boundary freight and passenger transport between Hong Kong and the eastern part of Guangdong. It will facilitate more convenient logistics connectivity between Hong Kong and the eastern part of Guangdong and adjoining provinces so as to further expand the service areas of the logistics industry in Hong Kong. The new BCP will help re-distribute the cross-boundary traffic amongst the crossings in the east, enhancing the overall handling capacity of the BCPs at the eastern side of HK and Shenzhen.

The proposed Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai BCP will operate "separate immigration and customs operations on both sides" and the design of the main block will be in line with the existing immigration and customs arrangement at other BCPs.

The proposed BCP and its Connecting Road will link up the Fanling Highway with the Shenzhen Eastern Corridor, and significantly shorten the travelling distance and time, as cross-boundary traffic will not have to travel through congested local roads in HK and Shenzhen. With the proposed Connecting Road and its four new interchanges, the existing road network in the North East New Territories will be improved and can cope with the future developments along the roads, including the traffic demands generated from the proposed Ping Che/Ta Kwu Ling New Development Area (NDA).

The spokesman clarified that Ping Che/Ta Kwu Ling NDA was outside of the Frontier Closed Area and there was no question of establishing any "special border region".

Since the announcement of the Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai BCP project in 2008, Development Bureau has publicly briefed and consulted Legislative Council and stakeholders on many occasions.

From January 2009 to July this year, LegCo Finance Committee had approved a total sum of $17 billion for carrying out works related to the proposed BCP,  including village reprovisioning works, reprovisioning of boundary patrol road, and the site formation works and construction of the Connecting Road. The afore-mentioned works have commenced or will commence in stages for commissioning the BCP in 2018.

Ends/Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Issued at HKT 22:11

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