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He also noted that small vehicles including taxis in North America and Europe operated on petrol and taxis in China and other Asian cities such as Jakarta, Bangkok and Taiwan were mostly petrol-drive.

"In many American cities such as New York, taxis clock up to 150,000 km a year compared with the local average of 100,000 km a year and there are no technical data to support that petrol vehicles can not be used intensively as taxis and minibuses in Hong Kong," he said.

Regarding a suggestion for a more stringent inspection and maintenance programme for light duty diesel vehicles, Mr Cooper said: "To be effective in minimising RSP emissions, a diesel vehicle would have to be inspected for every 10,000 km it travels, which practically means monthly maintenance for high mileage vehicles.

"This would be very costly and disruptive to the travelling public.

"The proposed diesel to petrol scheme is a sensible, pragmatic cost-effective approach to our most serious environmental problem - air pollution.

"Unless action is taken now, pollution from diesel emissions will continue to harm health, damage the environment and reduce enjoyment of life in the city."

End/Tuesday, November 28, 1995

External trade figures for October

Both re-exports and imports continued to show significant growth in October 1995 over a year earlier. Domestic exports however fell. These are shown in the external trade figures for October released today by the Census and Statistics Department.

Compared with the same month in 1994, the value of total exports (comprising re-exports and domestic exports) increased by $10.2 billion or 9.1% to $122.9 billion in October 1995.

Within total exports, the value of re-exports, at $102.1 billion in October this year, was $10.8 billion or 12% higher.