As the year ends, I should like to take the opportunity to thank you all very warmly for your support of WKCDA throughout 2010. It has been an eventful and fruitful time for us as a new Executive Team, with many young professionals also joining our ranks. Since August the project has evolved from abstract ideas to concrete concept plans, on which the public and stakeholders have been enthusiastic in giving us their views during the consultation. We will take the project forward in the coming year and the objective, by this time next year, is to present a detailed Development Plan to the Town Planning Board and begin the process of construction after its endorsement.

The past year was an eventful one for the West Kowloon Cultural District. The people and artists of Hong Kong began to see the WKCD take shape — from the conclusion of Stage 1 of the Public Engagement (PE) exercise, to the unveiling of the Conceptual Plan Options, to its international debut at the famous Venice Biennale, to the conclusion of the Stage 2 PE, and now a fresh round of anticipation of the exciting developments 2011 will bring.

The past few weeks has seen Mr Graham Sheffield, CEO of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, on a stakeholders engagement trail across the city to talk about Hong Kong’s most important arts and cultural project. Mr Sheffield participated in a number of events where he reiterated that the Authority needed to involve people from the outset so that the District and society can develop together because the WKCD would transform the quality of life in Hong Kong.