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He emphasised that the premium charged was in line with assessments made by two independent valuers commissioned by the department.
Mr Pope said that Cheung Kong were required to ensure that at least 80 per cent of the car parking spaces were available to the public on an hourly basis. They are also required to provide at least 500 public car parking spaces within their development before the existing car park is demolished.
He added that Cheung Kong are required to provide 300 car parking spaces for use by occupants of the building in addition to the 800 spaces in the public car park.
End
External trade figures for April
There was a significant rebound across-the-board in trade performance in April 1996 as compared to that in March. Re-exports rose markedly, while domestic exports and imports also registered increases. These are shown in the external trade figures for April released today (Tuesday) by the Census and Statistics Department.
The value of total exports (comprising re-exports and domestic exports) increased by 14% over a year earlier to $116.1 billion in April 1996.
Within total exports, the value of re-exports rose by 17% to $98.9 billion. The value of domestic exports likewise returned to a positive growth of 1.8%, to $17.2 billion. Meanwhile, the value of imports increased by 8.4% over a year earlier to $133 billion in April 1996.
As the value of total exports in April 1996 was smaller than that of total imports, a visible trade deficit of $17 billion, equivalent to 13% of the value of imports, was recorded. This was nevertheless smaller than the deficit of $21.3 billion, equivalent to 17% of the value of imports, in April 1995.
For the first four months of 1996 as a whole, the value of total exports grew by 8% over the same period last year. Within this total, the value of re-exports rose by 10%, while that of domestic exports decreased by 4%. The value of imports showed an increase of 6.9%.