Assessing institutional relations in development partnerships: The land development corporation and the Hong Kong government prior to 1997

This paper interprets and develops contemporary notions of partnership in r elation to Hong Kong's Land Development Corporation. It demonstrates how su ch agencies are likely to become overdependent on their private-sector part ners or ineffective in policy delivery, unless endowed with adequate powers and resources. In this context, it suggests that the LDC's capacity to pro mote urban renewal was undermined particularly by the institutional require ment to assemble redevelopment sites in multiple ownership principally thro ugh negotiation. While seeking to explain this weakness in relation to the socio-cultural context of Hong Kong, it warns that, in applying the Western experience of partnership elsewhere, full account must be taken of local c ircumstances and constraints.