Issue of joint immigration checkpoints for both Hong Kong and mainland arouses concern
ALLEN.AUYEUNG@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 19 January, 2016, 2:57pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 19 January, 2016, 6:37pm
Construction of the West Kowloon Terminus, which has aroused concern among lawmakers Photo: SCMP Pictures
The principle of “one country, two systems” will not be sacrificed for economic efficiency, the transport minister insisted on Tuesday. But lawmakers still didn’t green-light extra money for the city’s portion of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong rail link.
The placement of immigration checkpoints serving both Hong Kong and the mainland at the link’s West Kowloon terminus remained a concern for lawmakers. Some said having mainland officials working in the special administrative region undermines the separation of the two systems.
The government had said that issue should be dealt with separately from the request for extra funding.
“The government repeatedly stressed co-location arrangements will be implemented in compliance with the Basic Law and the principle of ‘one country, two systems’,” said Secretary for Housing and Transport Anthony Cheung Bing-leung at the Legislative Council, as he tried to urge lawmakers to endorse its request for extra money to finish the railway project, which had been delayed to 2018.
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“[The government] will not, for economic efficiency, sacrifice ‘one country, two systems’.
“The government is still negotiating with mainland authorities on a feasible plan. As to how co-location arrangements will be implemented in the future, it still needs consensus of the community.”
Discussion over extra funding will continue this Saturday.
Including the meeting yesterday, the Public Works Subcommittee had so far met three times to discuss extra funding for the project. After securing the endorsement of legislators in the subcommittee, the government still had to secure the approval from the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council.
The MTR Corporation is currently short HK$19.6 billion to complete the railway project and has sought the amount by March.
To keep the project running, the government last year proposed asking the Legislative Council to approve the extra cash by February. The government would recoup almost exactly the same amount through a special dividend from the MTR Corp, subject to its shareholders’ approval.
The government expected the HK$65 billion it earlier allocated to MTR for the project would run dry by July.
If funding was not approved, the government said the project would be suspended, at an estimated loss of HK$4.8 billion.
New People’s Party lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun said the government had to explain the arrangement for joint checkpoints to the public sooner or later.
“How will you implement [the immigration facilities]? When are you ready to talk about it? You must have a timetable,” he said. “Today, you can’t say. In finance committee, are you going to talk about it there?”
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1902831/government-insists-one-country-two-systems-not-threatened
