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Noting that the People's Bank of China has also been invited to join the BIS, Mr Yam said: "This goes to show that the international financial community is fully supportive of the 'one country, two systems' policy enshrined in the Basic Law."
Hong Kong and China are also independent members of other international organisations such as the Asian Development Bank and the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation.
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Sites in Area 44 of Tuen Mun will be cleared
The Marine Department tomorrow (Tuesday) will seal off the road access to the waterfront sites in Area 44 of Tuen Mun where cargo operators are continuing to occupy the waterfront illegally and will proceed to clear the sites, said the Assistant Director of Marine, Mr Raymond Tang, today (Monday).
"We hope the operators would co-operate with the Marine Department by vacating the Area 44 sites which is required to be handed back to the Lands Department," Mr Tang said.
He said the new Tuen Mun public cargo working area (PCWA) in Area 16 which was opened on August 10 with much better facilities and road access was now available for them to continue their cargo handling business.
Mr Tang admitted that some operators resist moving to the new Tuen Mun PCWA because they object to the berths in the new PCWA being managed as "fast- working" berths.
He said the fast-working berth arrangement would improve the cargo throughput in each berth and the availability of berths to all users.
Flexibility in the application of fast-working berths will be applied and no cargo handling will be affected by the arrangement which is also well practised in the other PCWAs.
The operators in Area 44 insist on the new PCWA to be operated under the old system of berth management which is criticised by the Director of Audit and Public Accounts Committee. The old system of berth management is susceptible to abuse and monopolisation.
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