The Hong Kong Airport Authority’s recently unveiled “Skytopia” mega-project, with its HK$100 billion (US$12.9 billion) price tag and promise of an arts hub, gourmet market and yacht marina, shows that the government is seriously misreading public sentiment. For one thing, affordable and good-quality goods and services are increasingly important to people. Take the Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek, for example. Its open-source AI platform that was developed at a fraction of the cost of leading US models but can perform at levels comparable to them has stunned the world – so much so that, soon after its launch, Wall Street witnessed one of the largest single-day declines in tech stocks. Other such products include Chinese-made electric vehicles, which are selling well in many countries because of their good quality at lower prices. The attraction of affordability and quality is not lost on Hong Kong residents, who are crossing the border to Shenzhen in increasing numbers for shopping, dining and even medical services that are cheap and good. With its Skytopia plan, the government has chosen to ignore these clear preferences. Under the development blueprint, the Chek Lap Kok site will be transformed into an airport city with an arts hub, a 600-berth marina for yachts, the city’s largest water recreation area and a gourmet seafood market. It also features the cluster of offices, shops, hotel and entertainment facilities the Airport Authority has named Skycity. The entire project is envisioned to be a landmark in Asia, boasting of tourism, cultural, entertainment and commercial facilities unrivalled by other aviation centres. It can be summed up in two words: “good” and “expensive”. As Ryan Ip Man-ki, vice-president of Our Hong Kong Foundation, noted, the project would “appeal to high-end and wealthy patrons”. For wealthy people, this might be great news. But for local residents, it is likely to be just another place in the city where they will not spend their money. The cost of living is a concern for Hong Kong people. According to Fidelity International’s 2024 Global Sentiment Survey, 72 per cent of Hongkongers are worried about the rising cost of living while 63 per cent are concerned about the economic outlook. Last week, the Post reported that Hong Kong people were feeling the pinch of rising costs and trying to make every dollar count, even though the official inflation rate remained low. This sentiment is reflected in the latest statistics for Hong Kong’s retail sales, which have fallen for 10 consecutive months, with a 9.7 per cent year-on-year drop last December, and a 7.3 per cent decline for the whole of 2024. Restaurants are also having a rough time. In a sign of the times, one of the restaurants closing down, Transformers: The Ark Restaurant, is relocating its Hong Kong outlet to Shenzhen. The news is even worse if we consider the many initiatives introduced last year to lift the economy – the multiple mega-events held, the expansion of the solo travel scheme to residents of eight more mainland Chinese cities, the increase in the duty-free shopping allowance for mainland visitors, and the resumption of multiple-entry Hong Kong visas for Shenzhen residents. With all this in mind, the upscale Skytopia plan looks out of touch with the reality on the ground. It fails to prioritise the needs of the public. Rather, Skytopia appears to cater primarily to wealthy tourists and investors. Even though the project may create some job opportunities for locals, it is possible that much of the revenue generated may just serve outside interests. An alternative approach could be to make Skytopia a place that competes with our neighbour Shenzhen for local dollars in terms of price and quality. It has the potential to become a utopia for local residents, offering budget-friendly and family-friendly leisure options and experiences. That would require the Airport Authority to look at its plan from a different angle. Instead of thinking about how to make things luxurious, it needs to explore different ways of lowering prices, such as by employing economies of scale, using competitive bidding or introducing operational efficiencies while making sure that quality is not compromised. Without this shift in thinking, Skytopia may end up resembling something from the 2014 dystopian film Elysium, where the rich live in a magnificent space station separated from the impoverished Earth. Of course, Hong Kong is not a segregated city like in the movie, but without thoughtful planning, Skytopia could illustrate the film’s central theme of how different the lives of the distressed masses and the affluent elite can be.