XN000022-1995-10-10 — Page 5

- 4

Mr Mak pointed out that the WG had commissioned a consultant to conduct three independent surveys covering international schools, families and employers.

"Based on the findings of the consultant, the Government estimated that an additional 7,400 international school places will be required by year 2000. About 70 per cent of them, that is, around 5,180 places or roughly equivalent to five average size international school of 1,000 places each, are expected to be provided by non-profit making international schools, similar to the present situation," Mr Mak said.

He pointed out that the additional requirement would be partly offset by projects in the pipeline, such as the French, Canadian and Japanese international schools which would provide approximately 3,000 additional places between 1997 and 2000.

"The demand and supply situation will be reviewed by the Education Department annually," Mr Mak said.

He pointed out that the Government would continue to provide land grants at nominal premium to non-profit making international schools under an improved procedure.

"The Planning Department will conduct a systematic search for suitable sites, appropriate sponsoring bodies will be invited to apply for land grants and the applications will be considered by a newly-formed standing committee to be led by the Education Department," he said.

Under the new package, international schools will be provided with an interest- free capital loan up to 100 per cent of the cost of building a standard design public sector school. The loan can be used for building new primary or secondary schools, or for extension projects to meet an identified demand.

"This represents a significant improvement over the existing arrangement whereby capital assistance is available only for secondary school expansion projects in the context of the Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS), and not to primary schools at all," Mr Mak explained.

Given the new arrangement for capital subsidy, the Government has decided that with immediate effect, no international schools will be admitted into the DSS. As for the four schools already admitted into the DSS, they will be phased out from the scheme gradually.