The last consultation session of the government's planned development in north west New Territories took place afternoon today. The development plan has become a controversial topic because of reports and interviews from the chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, and various related groups. These reports and interviews, published in some newspaper in mainland, mentioned plans for developing several areas close to the boundary between Hong Kong and Shenzhen in order to make it more convenient for people from Shenzhen and other mainlanders to shop, work, send kids to schools, buy properties and live. These areas were dubbed by Leung himself as "special administrative regions in the special administrative region (HKSAR)", which people from the north would be able to enter without visas. This, he mentioned, would be part of a greater plan of merging the two cities of Hong Kong and Shenzhen.
During the consultation session, the secretary of development, Paul Chan Mo-Po, was booed whenever he spoke. When he was asked why he did not revoke the plan facing such a large opposition, he said he did not want to, but when he was asked why he came to the consultation in the first place, he said he wanted to listen to the residents and citizens. When asked about the interviews about Leung's plan, Chan said that the coverage was about "the development of north west New Territories" which was different from "the development of new towns in north west New Territories", the topic of the consultation session today. He had to be guarded by tens of security guards and policemen when he left after the three-hour consultation session.
The consultation period for the development plan ends on 30th September, and will not be extended.
