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Before a decision is made on a proposal to change the originally planned use of a housing block from rental flats to subsidised home ownership flats, the Home Ownership Committee of the Housing Authority takes into account the demand for rental flats from various categories including waiting list applicants, the demand for subsidised home ownership flats, the public housing construction programme, the housing production targets for both types of flats, and the number of vacated rental flats available for reallocation. The Committee will need to be satisfied that a change of flat use will not significantly affect the housing opportunities of those in need, including eligible applicants on the public housing Waiting List, and will not affect our target of reducing the waiting time for public rental housing. We are progressing towards meeting these targets. In the past 12 months, rental flats were provided to over 12,000 applicants on the public housing waiting list, and their average waiting time was reduced from seven to six and a half years.
End
Computerised system for the issue of HKSAR passport
Following is a question by the Hon Howard Young and a written reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Peter Lai, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Question:
Will the Government inform this Council of the progress in developing the computerised system for issuing the future Hong Kong Special Administrative Region passports; and whether a decision will be made for the system to start receiving data input, so that applications can be processed before 1 July 1997?
Reply:
Mr President,
The computerised system for the issue of HKSAR passport has two component systems, namely the passport personalisation system and the processing and, record system. The former is for printing personal data and lamination of the passport. The latter which includes an imaging system is for processing passport applications, record maintenance and data authentication.