XN000022-1995-03-21 — Page 20

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163 VMs return home voluntarily

A group of 163 Vietnamese Migrants today (Tuesday) returned to Vietnam under the Voluntary Repatriation Programme of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Comprising 78 men, 38 women, 27 boys and 20 girls, they were the 227th batch to go back under the programme.

The group brought to 673 the total number of Vietnamese Migrants who had returned voluntarily this year, and to 44,867 the total number of returnees since the programme started in March 1989.

End/Tuesday, March 21, 1995

Hong Kong's terminal throughput jumps 19 per cent

In the first two months of the year the eight container terminals at Kwai Chung and Stonecutters Island handled 1.15 million TEUS. That is a 19 per cent increase over the first two months of 1994.

In January, the terminals handled 665,703 TEUs, a rise of 18.43 per cent over the 562,126 TEUs moved in January 1994. In February, the terminal throughput was 482,398 TEUs, up 20.1 per cent over the February 1994 figure of 401,657 TEUs.

The lower February figures are a result of the terminals closing during the Lunar New Year holidays.

The 19 per cent increase in terminal throughput follows a record year in 1994 when Hong Kong handled more than 11 million TEUs. Of this total, the terminals handled 7.27 million TEUs, while 2.8 million TEUS were handled midstream and the rest was river trade.

So far, official figures for midstream and river trade throughput for the first two months of this year are not available, but Hong Kong's port seems headed for another record year.

End/Tuesday, March 21, 1995

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