ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE TRANSITION
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can travel as easily as possible to third countries once the SAR is established. It will also be necessary to work out the actual arrangements for the issue of travel documents other than HKSAR passports after July 1, 1997.
Land Commission
The Sino-British Land Commission was established in 1985 in accordance with Annex III to the Joint Declaration and will be dissolved on June 30, 1997. Its function is to conduct consultations on the implementation of the provisions of Annex III on land leases and other related matters. It meets in Hong Kong and had 33 formal meetings up to end 1996. It last met in November 1996.
The Land Commission has made solid progress since its establishment. It has reached agreement on 26 legal documents to be used in various types of land transactions covered by the provisions of Annex III; on effecting by legislation the extension of New Territories leases in accordance with paragraph 2 of Annex III; and on the principles for dealing with special purpose leases. In 1994, agreement was reached on arrangements for granting the land required for the new airport at Chek Lap Kok and the Airport Railway. Land grants for a River Trade Terminal in Tuen Mun and the development of Container Terminal No. 9 were agreed in 1995 and 1996 respectively.
As at December 1996, the two sides agreed to make available, during the 1996-97 financial year, a total of about 310 hectares of land. This takes to 2 874 hectares the total amount of land that the Land Commission has agreed to make available since its establishment.
Under the terms of the Joint Declaration, premium income obtained by the Hong Kong Government from land transactions is, after deducting the cost of land production, to be shared equally between the Hong Kong Government and the future SAR Government. The Hong Kong Government's share of premium income is put into the Capital Works Reserve Fund for financing public works and land development in Hong Kong.
The future SAR Government's share is held in a trust fund, called the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government Land Fund, established by the Chinese side of the Land Commission. The fund is managed under the direction and advice of an investment committee, which includes prominent bankers in Hong Kong, as well as a monetary expert from the Hong Kong Government. By June 30, 1996, about $105 billion had been transferred to the fund. This represents the future SAR Government's share of premium income since the Joint Declaration came into force on May 27, 1985.
The Basic Law
The Joint Declaration provides that the basic policies of the People's Republic of China regarding Hong Kong will be stipulated in a Basic Law of the HKSAR adopted by China's National People's Congress (NPC). The Basic Law Drafting Committee and Basic Law Consultative Committee were established in 1985 to undertake the drafting of the Basic Law and to canvass public views on the drafts. The first draft was published in April 1988, followed by a five-month public consultation exercise. The second draft, endorsed in February 1989 by the Standing Committee of the NPC for further consultation, reflected many of the views