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· 14 -
The spokesman said the Bill also sought to define continuing members by reference to their status as note- issuing banks. He explained that there were no explicit criteria in the Ordinance concerning eligibility as a continuing member.
As regards the rotation sequence of the Chairman banks, the spokesman said HKAB had proposed that SCB (the incumbent Chairman with an original term ending in 1996) should serve a one-year term in 1995, to be followed by BOC in 1996 and HSBC in 1997. The three banks will rotate in this sequence thereafter.
In addition, the Bill also sought to introduce a number of other amendments to the Ordinance, including amendments to cater for the introduction of a new interbank payment system in Hong Kong and changes to the authority for some of the powers now exercisable by the Governor-in-Council to ensure consistency with amendments proposed to the Banking Ordinance recently, and to relieve the burden on the Governor-in-Council for considering matters which do not involve major policy
issues.
End/Friday, May 26, 1995
External trade figures for April 1995
Both re-exports and imports registered substantial growth in April 1995.
Domestic exports, on the other hand, registered a slower increase.
These are shown in the external trade figures for April released today (Friday) by the Census and Statistics Department.
The value of total exports (comprising re-exports and domestic exports) increased by $10.0 billion or 11% to $101.4 billion in April 1995.
Within total exports, the value of re-exports, at $84.6 billion in April 1995, was $9.7 billion or 13% higher than a year earlier.
The value of domestic exports increased by $246 million or 1.5% over a year earlier to $16.9 billion in April. Meanwhile, the value of imports increased by $20.9 billion or 21% to $122.8 billion.
As the value of total exports in April 1995 was smaller than that of total imports, a visible trade deficit of $21.3 billion, equivalent to 17% of the value of imports, was recorded. This compared with a deficit of $10.5 billion, equivalent to 10% of the value of imports, in April 1994.