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"I welcome the steps which the Real Estate Developers Association is taking to inhibit speculation.

"And the Hong Kong Monetary Authority will continue to encourage financial institutions to take a prudent and responsible attitude towards mortgage lending."

End

Education an investment in quality: FS

A $45 billion Budget allocation for education in 1997/98 is an investment in quality and in Hong Kong's future, says the Financial Secretary, Mr Donald Tsang.

This year's allocation is a 7.7 per cent increase in real terms over last year's Budget.

Mr Tsang said the Government's priorities were to maintain and upgrade the quality of education to help sustain Hong Kong's development into the next century.

He said parents, educators, employers and the Government were concerned whether the education system could produce young people with the right professional, technical or vocational qualifications and skills.

As a result, extra resources will be pumped into spending on basic and tertiary education, language skills, special needs students and retraining.

In regards to basic education, specific initiatives include:

$300 million over the next two years to provide multi-media computers to all public sector primary schools and to establish Information Technology Learning Centres in prevocational and technical schools;

Continual reduction in class sizes and increase in number of graduate teachers in primary schools;

Converting 26 more primary schools to whole-day schooling; and

Improving financial assistance to needy students under the Textbook Assistance Scheme.