The Development Bureau (DEVB; Chinese: 發展局) is an agency of the Government of Hong Kong responsible for urban planning and renewal, land administration, infrastructure development, building safety, landscape, greening & tree development, water supplies, flood prevention and heritage conservation.[1]
The Development Bureau of Hong Kong was created on 1 July 2007 as part of a governmental reorganisation introduced under Donald Tsang.
Responsibility for urban planning, environmental protection, and lands administration originally fell under the Planning, Environment and Lands Bureau when the Hong Kong SAR government was established in 1997.
The Planning and Lands Branch oversees the urban planning and redevelopment in Hong Kong. Its responsibilities include ensuring a sufficient land supply and optimising land use, implementing urban renewal plans and maintaining a land administration system. The divisions under the Planning and Lands Branch are:
The Works Branch of the Bureau focuses on the management and implementation of infrastructure, as well as heritage conservation and maintenance in Hong Kong. The divisions under the Works Branch are:
Heritage, Programme and Resource Division
Works Policies and Infrastructure Projects Divisions
The plans to redevelop Kowloon East, an industrial area that spans along the Victoria Harbour between Kwun Tong, Kowloon Bay and former Kai Tak Airport, was first announced in a policy address on 12 October 2011.[7] The redevelopment plan would transform Kowloon East into a second central business district in addition to Central. In June 2012, the Development Bureau founded the Energising Kowloon East Office as an entity under the Works Branch to steer and oversee the development of this area.