Admin & Civic Affairs
Paul Chan explains land situation
July 22, 2013
Secretary for Development Paul Chan says neither he nor his wife own any land in Hong Kong at present.Mr Chan said today that a company co-owned by his wife and family members bought a 20,000 square foot piece of farmland in Kwu Tung in 1994 for leisure farming.
His wife left the company and sold all her shares last October, and no longer has any interests in it. The company is not engaged in the property business, he said, and the piece of land concerned is uninhabited agricultural land, to which ex-gratia compensation does not apply.
In relation to the North East New Territories New Development Areas project, he said he made the necessary declaration according to the Code for Officials Under the Political Appointment System and System of Declaration of Interests by Members of the Executive Council, while the system for Executive Council members' declaration of interests does not require assets held by his wife to be declared.
He reported the matter to the Chief Executive last September, before his wife left the company.
He owns neither land nor property in Hong Kong. His wife, through a limited company, holds a residential unit with two car park spaces in Happy Valley and two connected office apartments in Causeway Bay for self-use. She holds no other land or property in Hong Kong.
