Tuen Mun To Macau example essay topic

SOME INVESTORS have applied to the government for permission to operate ferry services between Tuen Mun and Macau and the Pearl River Delta (PRD). However, the Transport Bureau has delayed approving their applications, greatly to the applicants' and residents' resentment. If there were such services, things would be much more convenient for north-western New Territories residents who want to go to Macau or the PRD, and it would be in line with Chief Executive Tung Chee-ha's strategic plan of making better use of the PRD hinterland. People cannot help asking why it remains impossible to offer the public such ferry services. The government has been saying it wants to remove obstacles to the market's smooth operation.

However, it has delayed approving those applications, whose approval would bring about new jobs. How does the government propose to justify itself? Nearly one million people live in Tuen Mun, Yuen Long and adjacent areas (north-western New Territories). At present, a citizen living there must take a one-hour vehicle ride to Tsim Sha Tsui or Central if he wants to go to Macau or the PRD by ferry. Such a ride takes almost as much time as a ferry journey from Central to Macau.

More important, Tuen Mun is nearer Macau and the Pearl River's mouth. It would take 10 minutes to 15 minutes less time for a jet foil to travel from Tuen Mun to Macau than from Central. If there were a Macau ferry terminal there, north-western New Territories citizens going to Macau could save more than one hour and some money. Two companies have applied to the government for permission to operate ferry services from Tuen Mun to Macau and Nan sha. Last year 19 million citizens left Hong Kong by sea. Most of them went to Macau or the PRD.

As one out of seven Hong Kong citizens live in north-western New Territories, one may infer that last year more than two million north-western New territories residents travelled to Macau or the PRD by ferry. If the government decided to have a new Macau ferry terminal in Tuen Mun, things would be much more convenient for them, and investors could do business. However, nothing has been heard about those companies' applications since they were submitted. In response to our inquiries, a Transport Bureau spokesperson said that, since the two existing Macau ferry terminals would not become saturated until 2011, there was no urgent need of building another.

It is baffling that officials think the government should not consider having another Macau ferry terminal until the existing two have become saturated. Why do they not consider stimulating growth by having a new terminal? The government owns ferry terminal facilities. Ferry companies pay it rents and berth charges, and passengers pay a tax. Last year the two terminals yielded almost $70 million in government revenue. Now investors have even offered to bear the cost of rebuilding the Tuen Mun ferry pier.

Why has the government hesitated? Ferry companies and land transportation service providers are competing for passengers. It must be realised that highway networks are becoming better and better in the PRD, and inter-city bus services there, more and more efficient. Conceivably, if there is a conveniently located ferry terminal, ferry companies can compete with bus service operators. The economy being in poor shape, businesses are extremely cautious about investing money. Some companies now want to offer the public new ferry services and are prepared to take all the risk.

The government ought to support them. When he was interviewed by this newspaper last month, Financial Secretary Antony Leung said that, though there was little the government could do to deal with economic woes, it could try to improve the business environment - remove what might impede the market's operation so that it would work better and function as it should. If investors may launch new ferry services, there will be new jobs, and things will be more convenient for citizens. Lamentably, they have encountered obstacles erected by bureaucrats. Seeing that, one cannot but heave a sign. October 2, 2001.