XN000022-1995-10-24 — Page 2

1

JLG to meet in Peking

The thirty-fourth meeting of the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group on Hong Kong will take place in Peking between October 31 and November 2.

The British team will be led by the Senior Representative, Mr Hugh Davies. The other members of the British team will be Mr Nicholas Ng (Secretary for Constitutional Affairs, Hong Kong Government), Mr Alan Paul (Counsellor, Office of the British Senior Representative, Sino-British Joint Liaison Group) and Mr Sherard Cowper-Coles (Head of Hong Kong Department in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office).

End/Tuesday, October 24, 1995

Government stresses need for progress on port

The Government is determined to progress on planning for new container terminals to ensure that the port can meet rapidly growing demand.

This was the message given by Port Development Board Secretary, Mr Tony Clark, to a joint meeting of the German and French Business Associations today (Tuesday). He said the growth in port cargo throughput over the past five years was "little short of astounding".

"Even with a huge base - 11 million twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEUs) last year container traffic has surged a further 15 per cent this year.

-

"At present rates of growth and at present productivity rates (which are well in excess of anything, anywhere else) we shall still need Container Terminals 9 and 10, and the first three berths of Container Terminal 11 before the turn of the century," he said.

Mr Clark said Hong Kong could expect to face a very considerable volume of increased cargo both in the short term and beyond the end of this decade. Despite this, some people had suggested that new port facilities could be put on hold.