Billionaire to visit Louth in bid to build 'Nextpolis' city for Hong Kong citizens

New city: Hong Kong´s skyline, from where 15,000 residents may be set to relocate to a massive development called Nextpolis in Dundalk. Photo: Luciano Mortula

Noella Pio Kivlehan

September 02 2020 02:30 AM

Plans by a Chinese billionaire to build a new city for thousands of Hong Kong residents in Ireland are moving forward as he intends to visit the country in the coming weeks.

Under the plans, up to 15,000 Hong Kongers would relocate to a newly built development called Nextpolis near Dundalk, Co Louth, over the next five years on a 50km sq site, making it the country's fifth largest city. There has been debate over whether the idea would hugely boost the local economy or be dismissed as folly and sci-fi fantasy.

In July, it was revealed Chinese billionaire Ivan Ko, chief executive of the Victoria Harbour Group (VHG), was searching for a site to relocate 500,000 Hong Kong nationals, on an autonomous 500km sq plot in one of six Irish sites.

Mr Ko, who had been in talks with the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs before the Covid lockdown, has now scaled this figure back.

The group is attracted by low corporation tax among other reasons.

The proposal suggests a mixture of Hong Kong citizens and Irish living on the site.

Two weeks ago, Mr Ko, whose company is "dedicated to building a new city for the Hong Kong people", sent a representative to Dundalk to speak to Paddy Malone, the town's chamber of commerce spokesman.

The VHG spokesperson told Mr Malone that Dundalk was an area being considered as most favourable and that VHG wants to purchase land within a year, with 15,000 Hong Kongers being moved to Ireland by 2025.

"He said it would be everyone from bosses, to middle management, to operatives. It wouldn't be class or wealth-defined in any shape," said Mr Malone, speaking to Property Week.

Funding was not mentioned but Mr Malone added: "He was talking about putting in a bit of infrastructure, a university, a hospital and light rail."

Mr Ko is set to visit Dundalk at the end of this month. "[He] said expectation is that Ko would be coming to this region.

"That is as far as it went," said Mr Malone.

Dr Esmond Birnie, senior economist at the Ulster University Economic Policy Centre, calculated that: "Given the likelihood the Hong Kong émigrés would be qualified, expect some uplift to productivity, so a gain to Republic of Ireland GDP of 2pc is possible."

But some are worried about integration.

Martin McDowell, managing director of Belfast-based Osborne King, said Nextpolis was "a very unusual concept which could be either a fascinating opportunity or a disaster for Ireland".

He added: "Non-integrated immigration is not an attractive option, especially to a country that has struggled to even integrate its own people."

However Mr Malone said that in the meeting with the VHG representative: "It was accepted that whatever came would have to be integrated within the community."

Billionaire to visit Louth in bid to build 'Nextpolis' city for Hong Kong citizens

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