Tam Chun-kwok, one of five hopefuls vying for a lawmaker seat in the New Territories North constituency in Sunday’s Legislative Council election, said the strategic development of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s Northern Metropolis is a “key reason” behind his legislative run.
Other candidates running in the constituency are Michael Liu Tsz-chung, Yiu Ming, Shum Ho-kit, and Kent Tsang King-chung.
Speaking to China Daily, Tam, whose constituency would cover much of the 300-square-kilometer development, said the mega-township — envisioned as the city’s “new growth engine” — will enter a “key development phase” in the near future.
Tam said that the Northern Metropolis was included in the itinerary of a central government publicity delegation during a recent inspection tour to Hong Kong, during which the delegation briefed the community on the spirit of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China’s fourth plenary session.
Tam interpreted this as a clear signal of the project’s high-priority status in aligning Hong Kong’s future development with national strategies.
The session adopted top-level recommendations for formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), a key policy road map set to guide the country’s socioeconomic development.
READ MORE: Chan: It’s vital to accelerate Northern Metropolis project
Tam pledged to help expand a university cluster and foster a multidimensional “industry-academia-research-housing” innovation and technology (I&T) ecosystem within the Northern Metropolis — an integrated platform designated to more fully harness Hong Kong’s research prowess and where scientific breakthroughs can be systematically translated into market-ready products, he said.
Hong Kong is home to five universities consistently placed in the global top 100 by major ranking bodies with a strong track record of research excellence, “and a future university town in the Northern Metropolis will certainly sharpen the city’s long-term competitive edge in attracting high-caliber talents.”
On Northern Metropolis’s eventual materialization into a national and even global I&T hub, Tam promised to promote dedicated laws to draw major tech enterprises from across the nation and abroad to place their Asia-Pacific research and development centers in the zone, thereby accelerating high-tech growth throughout the area.
