HONG KONG, March 30 -- Chief Executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Donald Tsang defended the HKSAR government's plan to build a new government headquarters at Tamar site while urging the Legislative Council to give the project a start as early as possible.

During his representation of the HKSAR's priorities during the his remaining tenure to the Legislative Council on Thursday afternoon, Tsang urged the council to approve early funding proposals for the project since building the new headquarters " will help ease the unemployment problem of local construction workers."

Launching major infrastructure projects is an important initiative in ensuring Hong Kong's prosperity, Tsang said, adding he hoped they would support the funding proposal for building a new government headquarters at Tamar, an opening ground with waterfront landscape by the Victoria Harbor, as soon as possible.

"The Tamar development project is ready to be implemented," he said in the passionate address. "It will not only resolve the issue of inadequate accommodation and facilities for the government secretariat and the Legislative Council, but will also provide more open space for the public in the heart of the city."

In response to a suggestion that the former Kai Tak airport site might be a better location than Tamar, the chief executive stressed there would be some landmark projects there..

"We have looked at Tamar as a site for a long time," he explained, adding the Executive Council, Legislative Council and judicial bodies of Hong Kong must be joined together for the sake of efficiency.

The Legislative Council gave its approval to use Tamar as a new government headquarters site three years ago but criticism and demands for more improvements for the construction plans still continued.

The HKSAR has promised to lower the height of the new government headquarters tower to 130 meters from 180 meters while narrowing the size for the two main buildings to two hectares.

"We have discussed this development for a long time," Tsang said. "We should be able to spend and not drag our feet anymore because thousands of construction workers are waiting for work from the project."