XN000022-1996-03-20 — Page 6

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The 1995 Annual Report is the eleventh such report. It contains a survey of major events in Hong Kong during 1995. Topics covered include visits to Hong Kong by government ministers and overseas visits by the Governor and the Chief Secretary of Hong Kong.

They also include constitutional development, contacts between Hong Kong and China, human rights, Vietnamese migrants, emigration and nationality, infrastructure, general economic and social conditions, law and order, legal and judicial systems and civil service.

Copies of the Annual Report and the Chinese translation will be available free of charge to members of the public from tomorrow.

They can be obtained from all District Offices, the Government Publications Centre, Low Block, ground floor, Queensway Government Offices, 66 Queensway, Hong Kong, and the Marketing Section of the Information Services Department, 17th floor, Siu On Centre, 188 Lockhart Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong,

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Government aims to provide effective transport system

The Secretary for Transport, Mr Haider Barma, said the government's fundamental policy objective was to provide an effective transport system which would meet the economic, social and recreational needs of Hong Kong.

Speaking at the post-Budget press conference today (Wednesday), Mr Barma said this approach had served the community well.

He said in practice this meant expanding and improving the transport infrastructure; improving the availability and quality of public transport and managing road use to reduce congestion and giving priority to public transport.

In the past five years, the Government have spent a total of $25.6 billion on capital projects on transport. In the next five years, it will spend another $28.6 billion at 1995 price level.

Referring to the reduction in the total expenditure on transport by 9.1 per cent, Mr Barma said this arose mainly because expenditure on the Airport Core Programme related transport projects had peaked in 1995-96.