Leaders of the conference, exhibition and tourism sectors on Hong Kong’s largest island have welcomed policies announced by the special administrative region’s government to boost economic development in the area.

Hong Kong’s chief executive CY Leung’s 2014 Policy Address promised a Lantau Development Advisory Committee to develop a ‘Bridgehead Economy” based around the island of Lantau where the city’s international airport, AsiaWorld Expo, Hong Kong Disneyland, several hotels and tourist attractions are located.

The early stages of a bridge linking Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macau is being built off Lantau and near the AsiaWorld-Expo. The bridge, expected to be open in 2016, will reduce journey times between China’s special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau to destinations across the Pearl River Delta.

The Lantau Development Alliance – consisting of businesses and other orgnisations on the island – welcomed the news and the prospects of an East Lantau Metropolis as Hong Kong seeks to find solutions to a shortage of affordable housing and the limits of further development in more urban parts of the territory.

AsiaWorld Expo chief executive Allen Ha (left), who is also chairman of the alliance, said recommendations were earlier submitted to the government on how infrastructure projects balanced with conservation efforts would provide more job and business opportunities, particularly for the new town of Tung Chung.

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