Hong Kong faces mounting pressure to deliver the Northern Metropolis, a massive initiative intended to boost the city's economic and technological innovation. The project, aiming to integrate with mainland China, must be completed within the next year and a half.

Hong Kong’s government is under mounting pressure to deliver the Northern Metropolis, announced in 2021, as it approaches the end of its term – less than 15 months and counting. The megaproject, to turn 30,000 hectares (74,132 acres) near the border with mainland China into a centre of international innovation and technology, is to be an engine to drive the city’s economic growth and housing – and the gem of its economic integration with the mainland. We are pressed for time. Beijing has long...