Hong Kong seeks to complete Northern Metropolis legislation this year to speed up development, city leader says

2026-03-17 - 06:35

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee has said the government plans to complete legislation for the Northern Metropolis in 2026 to speed up the mega-project’s development along the city’s border. Beijing top official Xia Baolong (third from left) visited a tech park in the area of the Northern Metropolis in February 2025. File photo: GovHK. Lee spoke during a weekly press conference on Tuesday, hours before the government is expected to submit documents for the Northern Metropolis legislation to the Legislative Council (LegCo). Lee said a public consultation for the legislation would start “immediately” once the documents are submitted. Announced in 2021, the Northern Metropolis is a large-scale project to transform 30,000 hectares of land in Hong Kong’s rural areas near the border with mainland China to provide more homes and to deepen the city’s integration with Shenzhen. The proposed Northern Metropolis bill aims to “break down barriers of laws” to allow more “flexible” planning, Lee said on Tuesday. The government also seeks to introduce multiple measures to speed up the development, he added. Lee told LegCo in May that he was “burning with anxiety” about the development of the Northern Metropolis after Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, visited a tech park in Northern Metropolis. Following Xia’s five-day visit to Hong Kong in June, Lee said that he had promised Xia to accelerate the development of the Northern Metropolis, TVB reported. Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee meets the press on April 8, 2025. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. Lee announced in September that he would chair a new committee dedicated to fast-tracking the Northern Metropolis development plan. Hong Kong’s first 5-year plan Lee also announced on Tuesday that the government would be “making every effort” to formulate its first five-year plan as public consultation is set to start in the fourth quarter of 2026. The chief executive said in February that Hong Kong would launch its first-ever five-year blueprint in tandem with China’s, with him personally leading a cross-departmental task force to drive the plan. He said the blueprint would outline the country’s development goals and that the Hong Kong government would develop new mechanisms in line with it.