ENG-1987 — Page 305

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COMMUNICATIONS AND THE MEDIA

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additional benefits of fast and cost-efficient printing. An increasing number of Chinese language word-processors are being installed to meet demand.

Domestic exports of printed matter increased in value terms by 27 per cent over the previous year. Material printed locally with a total value of $2,258 million was exported, with the United States, China, the United Kingdom, Australia and Taiwan being the main customers. Books and pamphlets, newspapers, journals and periodicals accounted for over 62 per cent of exports of printed products. The biggest customers for this reading material were the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Overall, the printing and publishing industries contributed five per cent of the net output of the manufacturing sector.

Postal Services

Despite the growth in the volume of letters handled, the Post Office maintained its aim of delivering most local mail within 24 hours of posting.

In the case of airmail postings made at the four main offices - the General Post Office in Central, the Tsim Sha Tsui and Kowloon Central post offices and the International Mail Centre - the aim is to have the letter mail despatched on the same day if outgoing flights are available. Other airmail postings are generally despatched to their overseas destinations within 24 hours.

Two mail deliveries are made on each weekday in the urban and industrial areas, and one delivery elsewhere.

This year, 685 million letters and parcels - a daily average of 1.9 million - were handled, an increase of 11 per cent over the 1986 figure. About 4 788 tonnes of letter mail and 4 581 tonnes of parcels were despatched by air during the year, an overall increase of 13 per cent. The Speedpost service continued to grow rapidly, and is now available to 54 countries, including all of Hong Kong's major trading partners, such as Australia, Canada, China, France, West Germany, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States. During the year, 1 780 053 items were handled, an increase of 27 per cent over 1986. The Intelpost service was merged with the Bureaufax service of Cable and Wireless (Hong Kong) Limited on April 1 to form a joint public facsimile service called Postfax. The Postfax service is now available to 70 countries, including all the major countries trading with Hong Kong. It offers high-speed facsimile transmission of high-quality black and white reproductions of documents, handwritten materials, drawings and personal messages up to A4 size. Items can be posted at 31 acceptance offices, and will be ready for delivery overseas within a few hours.

Wong Tai Sin Post Office was reprovisioned to provide for improved and increased facilities to cope with rising postal demand in the district. The total number of post offices in the territory is 103.

The Post Office issued five sets of special stamps in 1987. The first issue, comprising four stamps and a souvenir sheet was released in January to mark the Year of the Rabbit, the second in the current Lunar New Year series. The second issue, depicting historical scenes of Hong Kong, was released in April.

New definitive stamps, comprising 15 sheet stamps and two reel stamps specially designed for stamp-vending machines, were issued in July. Commemorative covers were also issued with a hand-back service to mark the last day of sale of the old definitive stamps on July 11.

Another set of four stamps commemorating the centenary of the Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital and the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong was