TNAG-2601-FCO40-3789-Departure-of-Lord-Wilson--former-Governor-of-Hong-Kong--July-1992 — Page 78

1992-01-02 12:28 INFORMATION SERVICES DEPT

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852 521 7725 P.07/13

HOUSING

The Housing Authority (HA) had planned to stop offering loan which aimed at assisting people in buying their own flats in the private sector under the Home Purchase Loan Scheme in view of the poor response. But a member of the authority, Frederick Fung, suggested HA borrow money from banks to ease the cash flow rather than scrapping the plan totally, CR-C and a number of papers reported. He said that dropping the plan would pose hinderance the cash flow of the authority as the loan scheme would provide HA large amount of cash. He believed it was worthwhile to pay bank interest for the scheme for HA could save HOS flats for those in need. Mr Fung estimated that HA would no longer need to borrow money after two years when its financial situation improved. He added that he would make suggestion to increase the amount of loan to each Home Purchase Loan Scheme applicant from $130,000 to $170,000 in an HA special meeting next Saturday.

AIRPORT

The Government had decided to set up an inter-departmental working group to monitor the construction of the West Kowloon Reclamation project, ATV-Home and a few papers reported, quoting the Director of NAPCO, Raphael Hui. In an interview with the station, Mr Hui said that in order to minimise the inconvenience to the nearby residents during the construction of the West Kowloon Reclamation, the Government had allocated $10 million to set up the working group comprising members from the Environmental Protection Department and the Lands and Works group of departments.

Meanwhile, the Government would hire consultants to study traffic in West Kowloon and it was expected that the study would be finished in March or April in 1993, Mr Hui said.

JAMES BLAKE

The HK Economic Times today carried a prominent report in a personality interview with the Secretary for Works, James Blake, who said that he was proud of being involved in the construction of the new airport.

TAIWAN

Taiwan would continue to support investments in the territory after 1997, ATV and a number of papers reported, quoting a senior Taiwan official in HK, John Ni. Speaking to reporters after attending a public function, Mr Ni promised that Taiwan would continue putting investments to HK after 1997 and would use HK as an en-route for increasing investments in China. On the Government plan to demolish Tiu Keng Leng in 1993 and 1994, Mr Ni said that it was part of HK's development and was unavoidable. However, he promised to support compensation claims when the cottage area was to be re-developed. On emigration problem, Mr Ni said that the Taiwan Government also welcomed HK people to reside in Taiwan on condition that they had fulfilled their immigration requirements.