7
The main provisions of the Bill include amending the definition of "financial year"; deleting the requirement for HKIEd to obtain the approval of the Financial Secretary for borrowing or fund raising activities and empowers HKIEd to invest its funds; specifying the term of appointment for a member of the Council of HKIEd; and removing the requirement for HKIEd to submit to the Governor for his approval a programme of HKIEd's proposed activities and estimates of its income and expenditure for the next financial year.
The Bill will be introduced to the Legislative Council on October 9.
End
External trade figures for August
The external trade figures for August 1996 released today (Friday) by the Census and Statistics Department showed that both re-exports and imports increased over a year earlier, while domestic exports fell.
The value of total exports (comprising re-exports and domestic exports) increased by 3.1% over a year earlier to $124.9 billion in August 1996. The value of re-exports increased by 6% to $106.7 billion, while the value of domestic exports decreased by 11% to $18.2 billion.
Meanwhile, the value of imports increased by 0.7% over a year earlier to $132.1 billion in August 1996.
As the value of total exports in August 1996 was smaller than that of total imports, a visible trade deficit of $7.2 billion, equivalent to 5.5% of the value of imports, was recorded. This was nevertheless considerably smaller than the corresponding deficit of $10.1 billion, equivalent to 7.7% of the value of imports, in August 1995.
For the first eight months of 1996 as a whole, the value of total exports grew by 4.6% over the same period last year. The value of re-exports rose by 7.4%, while that of domestic exports decreased by 8.3%. The value of imports showed an increase of 2.9%.