ENG-1992 — Page 441

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POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION

It is estimated that some 60 per cent of the people were born in Hong Kong and some 34 per cent in China.

More statistics are given at Appendix 28.

Immigration Department

The work of the Immigration Department falls into two main streams, controlling people moving into and out of Hong Kong, and providing travel documents and registration facilities for local residents. The work embraces such diverse fields as the issue of travel documents, visas and identity cards, naturalisation, and the registration of births, deaths and marriages. Considerable effort also goes into detecting and prosecuting those who breach the immigration laws and repatriating those who have entered Hong Kong illegally.

Immigration policies are framed to limit permanent population growth, and to control the entry of foreign workers. Every effort is made to streamline immigration procedures for Hong Kong residents, tourists and businessmen. At the same time the department aims to prevent either the entry of undesirable persons or the departure of persons wanted for criminal offences.

To take full advantage of advanced information technology and to improve the efficiency, quality and cost-effectiveness of services provided to the public, the department is implementing a long-term information systems strategy. The new system is likely to take four years to come on line. By that time, the department's productivity is expected to improve by between 10 and 15 per cent.

Much of the department's work requires international co-operation both to facilitate legitimate travel and to stop illegal immigration. Immigration officers make regular visits overseas to maintain and enhance liaison with colleagues in other immigration control enforcement agencies.

Immigration Control

Passenger traffic continued to increase in 1992. During the year, 77.0 million passengers travelled in and out of Hong Kong, up 11.4 per cent on the 69.1 million in 1991. Movements to and from China also increased by 14.0 per cent, from 42.1 million in 1991 to 48.0 million in 1992.

The number of visitors from Taiwan also increased from 1.4 million in 1991 to 1.8 million in 1992, up 28.6 per cent. Multiple visit permits, introduced in June 1990, and the 'Jumbo' multiple visit permits introduced in June 1991 were well received.

During the year, a total of 365 000 residents of China visited Hong Kong: 160 000 individually and 205 000 in groups, up 22.1 per cent on the 299 000 in 1991.

To facilitate passenger traffic between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, opening hours at the Lo Wu Terminal were extended from 144 hours to 16 hours from July 1.

Vehicular traffic to and from China continued to increase in 1992. To relieve congestion at the border crossing points, opening hours at Man Kam To were extended from 12 hours to 15 hours from July 1. Since then the crossing points at Lok Ma Chau and Sha Tau Kok have opened half an hour earlier.

Legal Immigration

During the year, the number of new arrivals from the mainland remained at about 28 400. Of these, 11 128 were wives, 12 457 were children and 1082 were husbands of local