4
The spokesman added that the Attorney General, the only official member in the IPCC, would relinquish his membership of the IPCC with effect from January 1, 1996.
"This is in line with the Government's policy to enhance the independence of the IPCC," the spokesman said.
"The IPCC will have a lot to do in the coming year. We are confident that the Council will benefit from the contribution of the new team."
Apart from monitoring and reviewing complaint cases made by the public against the Police, the IPCC is discussing with the Government on the proposal to implement a trial Lay Observers Scheme.
A joint IPCC/Security Branch/Police comparative study of police complaints systems in other countries is also under way.
End
External Trade Figures for November 1995
In November 1995, both re-exports and imports continued to increase over a year earlier, while domestic exports fell further. These are shown in the external trade figures for November released today (Friday) by the Census and Statistics Department.
Compared with the same month in 1994, the value of total exports (comprising re-exports and domestic exports) increased by $5.4 billion or 5.1% to $112.7 billion in November 1995. Within total exports, the value of re-exports, at $93.8 billion in November this year, was $7.0 billion or 8.1% higher. The value of domestic exports, at $18.8 billion, decreased by $1.6 billion or 7.9%. Meanwhile, the value of imports increased by $7.9 billion or 6.7% to $124.9 billion.
As the value of total exports in November 1995 was smaller than that of total imports, a visible trade deficit of $12.3 billion, equivalent to 9.8% of the value of imports, was recorded. Although this was larger than that in October, it was nevertheless still substantially smaller than the peak figures of $21.3 billion and 17.4% recorded in April this year.