Speaking on Wednesday, Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn Hon-ho declared the government has not resumed and cleared all the factory sites due to “the protection of the business activities.”

Hong Kong has 1,500 hectares of brownfield sites across the city, said Linn, around 800 hectares will be reclaimed by the government as they are incompatible with the surrounding environment and will be restored for the new development areas.

“The government is more than willing to offer help to simplify the process if the factory owners seek to relocate operations,” she said.

However, Linn dismissed the suggestion for the government to relocate lands with the same rents for factory owners in exchange for their current sites, noting it as being a “contradiction.”

“We have been providing subsidies to brownfield operators to ease their pressure for moving out,” she said, claiming authorities have given several years of buffer to allow factories to relocate.

A 41-year-old ice maker Turbo Ice announced yesterday they were on the brink of closing down as authorities plan to reclaim its Tuen Mun factory site for public housing plans.

It marked another iconic local factory making a last-ditch call for help, following Chi Kee Sawmill and Timber, one of the few remaining woodwork factories with over 70 years of history, who are said to be moving out of the factory site on government notice in July this year.