The Government respects and welcomes a decision made today by the Court of Final Appeal: the rulling reaffirms the Government decision to declare null and void a land concession – relating to five plots – that had previously been granted to a firm called Moon Ocean Ltd. The Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, has directed the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Mr Raimundo do Rosário, to initiate the relevant processes that will allow for the reallocation and reuse of the five plots of land. The plots are located in the area of Avenida Wai Long and Estrada da Ponta da Cabrita, in Taipa. The Land Law, the Urban Planning Law and other existing regulations will be the basis for the processes leading to such reallocation and reuse. The Government intends to use the five plots for the benefit of the public. The Government’s preferred choice is to use the land to build public housing. According to a construction proposal by the former concessionaire, Moon Ocean, the plots covered a construction area of 537,151.705 square metres, and had been earmarked for 4,000 housing units. This information would serve as a reference point when the Government seeks to develop public housing units there. The Government, as always, pays great attention to the needs of local people with regard to public housing. The Government is committed to allocating more land resources in order to satisfy the public’s needs with regard to such matters. As an example of this commitment, the Government has proposed building 28,000 units of public housing in the new urban zone known as Area A, a reclamation site. The Government has additionally pledged that public housing would be a priority consideration for development of any so-called ‘idle plots’, i.e., cases where leaseholders failed to develop a land concession according to the timetable and terms attached to the concession, and the land had, as a consequence, reverted to the Government. The Court of Final Appeal today upheld an Executive Order – issued on 8 August, 2012 – regarding the decision to declare null and void the concession contracts for the five plots located in the area of Avenida Wai Long and Estrada da Ponta da Cabrita in Taipa. The Court’s decision was on the basis that no “flaws” were found to exist in the Executive Order of 8 August, 2012. The Court of Second Instance had rejected, on 18 June, 2015, an appeal made by Moon Ocean, asking the court to nullify that Executive Order.
