Rotary Club of Hong Kong South Meeting Report

President Bob welcomed Rotarians and Rotariannes to our JOINT MEETING with Quarry Bay.

Fellowship Chairman PP Stephen Tsai - Quarry Bay introduced the following visiting Rotarians :

Rtn Alan Wong, IPP John Sellery, Rtn Paul Hu from Quarry Bay.

The following Rotarians introduced their guests:

Mr Noshir Pavri, a guest Club 888 subscriber, Rtn. Sam Nariman,

Mr Verma Ip, Guest of our speaker.

Mr David Tory, Guest of PP George.

ANNOUNCUENTN:

August 31st : District Governor Visit. All directors and officer is to meet DG before 12:00 noon. Members attendance is required.

Sergeant-at-Arms Ernie collected a total contribution of HK$740.

Our Speaker Mr. John Latter

Mr John Latter is the Project Director of Cyberport Management Ltd. In 1979, he was posted to HK. In 19184 as senior engineer responsible for major infrastructure projects such as the Tuen Mun - Yuen Long Light Rail Transit. From '89 to '99, Mr Latter worked on property development including Cityplaza, Taikoo Shing, Taikoo Place, and Festival Walk for Swire Properties Ltd. He has been involved in high level negotiations with the HK Government over the MTR and KCR interchanges, complex road re-routing as well as the conceptual design and reclamation of Telegraph Bay.

Phase 1 and roadwork.

The Cyberport Phase 1 with offices, apartments, retail will be located in the previous golf driving range. Mr Latter emphasized that they don't prefer the current road work, namely the Route 7. They prefer a public transit system of MTR or LTR with a possible tunnel through Mt. Davis. One of the possible ending of the transit is the current driving school.

Design and possibility

The Cyberport management studied several high tech buildings around the world : 3Com in CA, USA; Sony Center in Spain; Metreon, and many others. The design was won by the company ARQUITECHONICA. Cyberport main building (see will be one long building like a dragon with apartments, hotel, and retail space.) Furthermore, many shared facilities are available specifically for hi tech companies. Those share facilities will be data center, webcast, gym, teleconferencing.

Phase 1 will be tentatively on sale in the first quarter of 2001. Phase 1 includes:

Offices: 23,000 sq.m.

Retail : 1,400 sq.m.

Apartments 9,750 sq.m. [72 units]

Initially, the government has hoped that the office market price is to be set at international standard of HK$12 per month per sq.ft. But Cyberport project has already been over subscribed.

Rtn Thanks our speaker in his short, sharp, and gracious way. President Bob noting that Cyberport will be a possibility of our future club membership growth of 10,000 business persons.