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American cargo carrier Evergreen International Airlines Inc said on Wednesday it has increased the number of flights from Hong Kong due of high trans-Pacific demand.
Evergreen has six weekly Boeing 747 freighter flights a week instead of four per week and said it can't keep up with current demand.
"All flights are absolutely full and if we had additional flights into Hong Kong we would have no problem filling them because there is a lot of freight being moved and a backlog is building up," said Evergreen's vice-president Kersti Krepp told Reuters.
The additional flights on Mondays are to both the U.S. east and west coast - Columbus, Ohio then onto New York and Los Angeles. - Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax+44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
Korean Air Lines Ltd's cargo load factor dropped 3.2 percent in the six months to end-June this year compared to the same 1995 period, the airline's official traffic results provided to Reuters show.
The cumulative cargo tonnage carried to end-June was 448,000 tonnes, a rise of 8.2 percent over last year's 414,000 tonnes, the figures show.
International cargo in June was up 11.1 percent on last year to 60,000 tons, bringing the cumulative total to 335,000 tonnes, an 8.1 percent rise.
Domestic cargo in the month reached 16,000 tonnes, an increase of 6.7 percent from June last year, the figures show. The month's total cargo tonnage of 76,000 tonnes is 10.1 percent up on 1995.
Load factors for the month were 77.7 percent for international cargo in June down 0.1 percent last year. The domestic cargo load factor fell 1.8 percent to 38.7 percent. last year.
The cumulative totals are down 0.1 percent on the month compared to last June and 3.2 percent down on the year so far.
The international cargo flight tonnage kilometres (FTK) totals for June increased 16.4 percent to 407 million from 350 million last year.
The June FTK domestic total is up 10.3 percent from 5 million to 6 million. The cumulative FTK total is 9.1 percent higher at 2,315 million.
Korean Air also reported an 8.3 percent increase in the number of passengers carried in the first six months at 11,416,000. -- Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44-171-542-7706 Fax +44-171-542-5017
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Zhuhai, China Nov 5. (Reuter) China's flag carrier and largest airline, Air China is planning to restart flying to Los Angeles next year, Zhang Jinming, general director of the airline's advertising division said
The Beijing, Shanghai service would be "at least twice weekly" and use a Boeing 747-400 or Boeing 747 Combi aircraft, Zhang stated.
Los Angeles used to be part of the network but was stopped some time ago. Speaking through an interpreter, Zhang said it would be Air China's third service to the USA after San Francisco and New York.
Zhang was speaking on the opening day of China's first official air show held at the showpiece Zhuhai airport about 35 miles across the Pearl River delta from Hong Kong. Another major Chinese airline, China Southern Airlines, also confirmed at the show that it too was planning to start a Los Angeles service in March of next year.
Zhang also said Air China was expecting to soon announce a new service from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou to Sydney and Melbourne. He could give no further details.
A recent New China News Agency report said Air China planned to open both the US west coast and Australian routes last month. No reason was given by Zhang for the apparent delay. - Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542-7706 Fax+44 171 542-5017
| 15 |
Cathay Pacific Airways is to add a fourth daily flight between Hong Kong and the Philippines because of increasing demand, a company spokeswoman has told Reuters.
The increase comes three weeks after the Hong Kong government announced the successful conclusion of six years of negotiations with the Philippines over a new Air Services Agreement (ASA).
The Confidential Memorandum of Understanding reached did not reveal how many more flights, and what increase in seat and cargo capacity was negotiated but industry sources said it is around 15 per cent. The Government described the route as one of the busiest and fastest growing in Asia.
From October 27, the Airbus A340 flight will leave Hong Kong at 7.50 AM local time and return at 10.50 AM local , Cathay says.
"There is an increasing amount of traffic between Hong Kong and the Philippines and this extra flight has very good convenient connectinns with flights out of Hong Kong to the USA and Canada," a Cathay spokeswoman said.
Filipino flag carrier Philippine Airlines already offers four flights per day from Hong Kong. - Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542-7706 Fax+44 171 542-5017
| 15 |
China Southern Airlines is ready to start its first European service to Amsterdam on November 26, Ma Ting Wei, manager of the airline's advertising division told Reuyters.
Speaking at China's first air show held at the showpiece Zhuhai airport about 35 miles across the Pearl River delta from Hong Kong, Ma also said China Southern plans to start flying to Los Angeles in the middle of March next year. But plans to start a third international destination to Brisbane in Australia have not yet been finalised, he said.
The twice weekly non-stop service to Amsterdam and the Los Angeles link will both use Boeing 777 aircraft, two of which have arrived and two more will be flown into the carrier's home airport of Guangzhou within the next two months, Ma said.
Speaking through an interpreter, Ma said the new European destination will be the airline's 26th international route which opens up new opportunities.
"We hope it will be a success and is in response to customer demand. We expect good passenger and cargo numbers to be carried," he said.
The Amsterdam service is the result of an Air Service Agreement between the Dutch and Chinese governments which industry observers say took five years to hammer out. The agreement also allowed Dutch flag carrier KLM to fly to Beijing and Dutch cargo airline Martinair to fly a 747 freighter service into Guangzhou. A Martinair spokesman told Reuters last week that the service was due to begin this month but could not give a definite start date.
Freight forwarders say both the China Southern and Martinair connection will mean cargo which up to now had to be flown from Hong Kong to Europe will now eliminate cross border expense and save time. - Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542-7706 Fax+44 171 542-5017
| 15 |
Federal Express Corporation (Fedex) is planning to utilise another former U.S. military base in the Philippines, Fedex and Philippine officials told Reuters.
Senior officials from Fedex, which has its main Asian hub at the former U.S. naval base at Subic Bay, have made detailed visits to the former Clark U.S. air force base, which is trying to attract traffic to its special economic zone.
Operations Vice President at Clark International Airport Corporation, Tereso Isleta, said Fedex is expected to become the airport's first cargo operator next month with the first flight of breeding cattle from Australia.
"We have been very happy to show senior Fedex officials around and we have been to their main hub in Memphis to see how they work. The first flight of cattle from Australia is expected in the next few weeks. It is very important for us to see Fedex coming here and hopefully Clark will become a hub too and attract many more airlines," Isleta told Reuters in a telephone interview from Clark, north of Manila.
Asia Pacific public relations manager for Fedex, David Clarke, said the former base could be used as an alternative to Subic in case of bad weather and for charter traffic.
He emphasised his company's commitment to Subic Bay where Fedex recently completed the first anniversary of operations as its Asian hub.
Better known for its overnight express freight business, Fedex says the transport of live breeding cattle from Sydney, Australia would be flown into Clark aboard a Fedex McDonnell Douglas MD-11 specially adapted as an animal transport.
"It's a branch of our general operations. Charter has always played a role for us. Transporting cattle is a specialised business but we're also used to handling thoroughbred horses in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Middle East and we hope more business of this type will come our way," Clarke said.
Clark International Airport Corporation is funded by the Philippines government's Bases Conversion Development Authority, which helped establish the Clark Special Economic Zone, following the withdrawal of U.S. forces. --Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax +44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
An American airline has successfully completed a proving flight over Russian air space which the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said is an important milestone in the introduction of the Future Air Navigation System (FANS) on trans-Pacific routes.
The United Airlines Boeing 747-400 flight from Chicago to Tokyo's Narita airport on November 15 is expected to be followed by more pioneering trials over the next three weeks by Singapore Airlines, Japan Airlines and Cathay Pacific Airways Limited, said David Behrens, international programme officer of the FAA.
FANS, or Communication Navigation Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM), is the next generation air traffic management system which uses satellite navigation for the more efficient use of air space.
"Aircraft which are FANS equipped will have the competitive edge with reduced costs all round. The technology will mean more direct routes, less fuel burned, more cargo carried, reduced air traffic controls costs, reduced errors and ground delays -- there is no turning back", David Behrens told this week's Asian Air Cargo Summit.
The U.S. was working towards a new bilateral agreement with Russia to develop air traffic control infrastructure in the Far East to open up air space to airlines flying between Asia and American cities such as New York, Chicago and Detroit.
"There have been a lot of problems in getting demonstration flights approved by the Russian authorities. The use of English which is the international language of the skies is still a major problem. This is another milestone in the development of FANS and the most successful proving flight to date although it is still early days," Behrens said.
Speaking after the conference Behrens said further advances are hoped for at the Informal Pacific Air Traffic Control Co-ordination Group meeting in Tokyo on January 20.
Airlines which have already invested in FANS cockpit technology are waiting on the go ahead for a new "fast track" routing across the central Pacific Ocean cutting up to an hour off journey times between Hong Kong or Taipei to San Francisco or Los Angeles. China Airlines, United Airlines and Cathay Pacific which is awaiting Hong Kong government approval to use FANS cockpit technology, could be the first airlines to benefit, Behrens said.
Korean Airlines, which has to make a big U-turn to avoid military training areas near North Korea air space, is also expected to make "huge savings" from FANS technology with a 40 minute saving on U.S. bound flights from Seoul when a new agreement with the North is signed, the FAA estimate.
Only about 70 Boeing 747-400 aircraft, the inter-continental workhorse of many airlines, are currently equipped with FANS avionics but that total is about to mushroom and all airliners will be FANS equipped by the year 2002, Behrens predicted. - Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax+44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
Hong Kong civil aviation department statistics show total air cargo handled in August by country rose by 6.7 percent compared with the same month last year.
Air cargo imports on both scheduled and non-scheduled flights reached 59,910.5 tonnes and 71,674.9 tonnes for exports.
The top 15 countries figures (rounded) are shown in tonnes in the table below in alphabetical order.
AUGUST 1996 ALL CARGO
Unloaded Loaded Pct change
from July 95
AUSTRALIA 2,675 2,327 -8.65
CANADA 1,836 1,508 8.95
CHINA MAINLAND 1,841 2,896 9.46
FRANCE 1,720 2,010 5.69
GERMANY 3,365 3,866 4.70
JAPAN 5,570 12,197 2.35
SOUTH KOREA 3,026 3,867 7.95
MALAYSIA 2,052 1.634 5.00
NETHERLANDS 1,142 1,167 4.70
PHILIPPINES 1,600 1,737 -6.12
SINGAPORE 4,430 3,945 12.30
TAIWAN 9,880 7,161 26.98
THAILAND 5,475 2,380 6.62
UK 3,378 3,850 13.72
USA 4.812 14,722 -1.15
- Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax+44 542 5017
| 15 |
Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited (HACTL) may retain its facilities at Kai Tak as a 'down-town' depot after the territory's new airport at Chek Lap Kok opens, its managing director Anthony Charter said.
Air freight forwarders in Hong Kong said they are putting new pressure on the Government to keep Kai Tak's twin terminals open. Charter said HACTL has now made new approaches to the Government but added that a final decision is not expected until next year when a team of planning consultants report on what should happen to the valuable land which the airport occupies.
"We would be very happy to protect this bit of infrastructure which would help freight forwarders get over some of the difficulties they have with the new airport. It makes sense not to see the highly automated facilities just knocked down. We are keen on the idea of serving the freight forwarding community in the future," Charter told Reuters.
HACTL's private franchise at Kai Tak is due to run out when the new airport opens in April 1998 and its terminal facilities returned to the Government for the nominal fee of one Hong Kong dollar. HACTL will then move into its new one billion HK dollar state-of-the-art Super Terminal at Chek Lap Kok which it says will be the world's largest air freight complex under one roof.
But some freight forwarders, especially smaller companies, are baulking at the high cost of moving to the new airport, said the Hong Kong Association of Freight Forwarding Agents (HAFFA). Many firms have invested heavily in infrastructure close to Kai Tak and fear large staff relocation costs and high rents at the new out of town airport, it added.
HAFFA has supported calls for Kai Tak's cargo facilities to be retained and said it first proposed the idea more than five years ago but HACTL management then rejected it.
"It would make agents life easier if, as we proposed, there was a town centre facility," said HAFFA's chief executive Pauline Hui.
DHL International (Hong Kong) Ltd is backing the call. Andy Tseng, DHL's area manager for Hong Kong and China said he's written a letter urging that Kai Tak's cargo facilities be retained as a consolidation centre.
Supporters said the terminals could be rented out to another operator or run by HACTL.
HACTL said the former is unlikely because they own the computer software which runs the highly automated centre. Another suggestion that cargo from Kai Tak could be taken by barge to the new airport as well as along the new toll expressway has been discounted by HACTL as too slow.
HACTL said its integrated and highly automated twin cargo terminals at Kai Tak handle more than 1.5 million tonnes from 70 airlines a year making it the second busiest international cargo airport in the world. About 20 per cent of Hong Kong's external trade passes through HACTL. The company has invested more than US$256 million in Kai Tak, excluding land costs, which is probably the largest investment in air cargo facilities worldwide.
Aviation analysts said much of that investment will wasted if the Kai Tak terminals are closed down.
The lobby to keep the cargo terminal open is running alongside another campaign to keep Kai Tak open as an airport for smaller commuter aircraft. The Hong Kong government says it has rejected that proposal but is being urged to rethink its long term policy by business interests including commuter aircraft manufacturers.
HACTL, which has a monopoly on all air cargo handling at Kai Tak airport, is jointly owned by Swire Pacific Ltd, Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd, Wharf (Holdings) Ltd, Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, China National Aviation Corp, CITIC Pacific Ltd and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. - Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542-7706 Fax+44 171 542-5017
| 15 |
British Airways said it will be able to carry an extra 70 tonnes of air cargo a week when its twice-daily passenger services between Hong Kong and London begin a new, shorter route over China later this month.
Chris Humphrey, BA's regional cargo manager Pacific said the new northern route over Chinese air space will mean shorter journey times for BA's Boeing 747-400 aircraft which won't need to carry as much fuel enabling the cargo payload to be increased by five to six tonnes per flight on average.
He said the new routing was negotiated during recent talks between the Chinese and British governments and also benefits BA's rivals on the route, Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd and Virgin Atlantic. Both Cathay Pacific and Virgin Atlantic said they are also due to start the new shorter route on October 27.
"The new routing via Urumqi in China will be a real benefit to us with the start of our winter schedule on October the 27th. It means a shorter distance, less fuel and more cargo. With the extra capacity it will generate of around 70 tonnes a week which is very close to getting another 747 freighter on the route," Humphrey said.
-- Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax+44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
British Airways plans to offer more passenger flights to Hong Kong but will not be changing the current wet lease freighter service to the territory, said chief executive Robert Ayling.
"We quite successfully expanded our cargo business by bringing in quite a substantial proportion of freighter capacity from outside the airline and I don't see why that should not continue. It's true Hong Kong is a particularly good market for freight and I am sure the air cargo industry will continue in the future," Ayling told reporters in Hong Kong. He is visiting the territory as part of a tour of key BA destinations with the theme 'Taking British Airways into the new millennium.' promoting how he will be "reinventing" the airline
"We have had a firm policy for the past ten years not to buy freighters and I see no reason to change that. I think if you asked KLM and Lufthansa, they would prefer to be in my position. I think we will continue to operate freighters but only on a wet lease basis not involving any capital expenditure," he added.
BA says it currently offers a three times weekly service between London Gatwick and Hong Kong using a Boeing 747-200 freighter wet leased from Atlas Air Inc. It also has 14 Boeing 747-400 passenger flights a week to London offering belly cargo capacity. The airline says it hopes to increase the twice daily frequency when slots at Heathrow become available and before Hong Kong's new airport opens in 1998.
Rivals Virgin Atlantic recently said that it does not have enough capacity on the London to Hong Kong route and is considering replacing its popular but smaller Airbus A340 aircraft with higher capacity Boeing 747-400 aircraft to meet demand. But Virgin managers said it has no immediate plans to enter the freighter market. - Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax+44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
This is Reuters' 2nd ex-Hong Kong air cargo market report.
It will be published regulary until a new version is published at a later date.
HONG KONG, Oct 17 - (Reuter) Current average ex-Hong Kong air cargo market rates in Hong Kong dollars per kg for a 100kg shipment, with volume-to-weight of six to one.
Oct 17 Sept 30
EUROPE
HK-LHR 22.25 20.85
HK-FRA 22.40 21.09
USA
HK-JFK 20.70 20.50
HK-LAX 21.05 20.95
MIDDLE EAST
HK-DXB 15.80 15.18
ASIA PACIFIC
HK-SIN 9.10 9.06
HK-TAIPEI 4.10 3.90
HK-TOKYO 30.70 30.50
* The rates in this report were obtained by Reuters journalists on a confidential basis from a range of airlines, large forwarders and smaller cargo agents.
* All prices were quoted in Hong Kong dollars.
* The tariffs represent average calculated from a range of prices and are indicative of current market acitivity.
Demand for space has eased slightly as a recent backlog is cleared and some airlines provide extra capacity, but key ex-Hong Kong rates have continued to rise, Reuters research shows.
Airlines and freight forwarders report brisk business as the territory's traditional peak season gathers pace and high demand for space has allowed airlines on European routes to again raise rates for the second time within three weeks.
A rise of 50 HK cents a kg on October 16 follows a HK$2 a kg rise imposed on October 1 on key routes to Europe. Transpacific demand is also said to be especially strong allowing rates to firm slightly.
Pressure for cargo space is also being exacerbated by high demand on passenger flights which is reducing bellyhold capacity for many airlines.
Sam Chung, the chairman of the Hong Kong Association of Freight Forwarding Agents and director and general manager of Fritz Air Freight (HK) Ltd, said the market was very strong especially in his company's main sector, the United States.
"Every single flight is full but space should become a little better because some airlines are putting on extra capacity. In early October there was a backlog everywhere but that is now easing," Chung said.
He also highlighted the HK$2 a kilo rate rise on routes to Europe from October 1 with more "unfair rises" due to bite.
Two U.S. airlines have drafted in extra aircraft to cope with heavy trans-Pacific demand.
Polar Air Cargo is employing two additional Boeing 747 freighters between the territory and Chicago and New York.
"At the start of October it was really busy with a lot of airlines having a backlog in Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan. But right after China's national day and the mid-Autumn festival when a lot of factories closed down it gave us the chance to move a lot of cargo out of Hong Kong and gave us the chance to clear the backlog," said David Sung, Polar Air's Hong Kong sales manager.
More extra capacity on the trans-Pacific route has come from Evergreen International Airlines Inc which says it now offers six Boeing 747 flights a week instead of four previously. The additional flights on Mondays are to Columbus,Ohio then onto New York and Los Angeles.
"All flights are absolutely full and if we had additional flights. into Hong Kong we would have no problem filling them because there is a lot of freight being moved and a backlog is building up," said Evergreen's Vice President Kersti Krepp
There is also extra capacity being drafted onto a main European route. Lufthansa Cargo AG says it will put an additional freighter on the Hong Kong to Frankfurt route before the end of the month because of high demand.
The extra flight will increase the total number of flights Lufthansa operates to Germany in a joint venture with Cathay Pacific Cargo to 11 per week. September also saw an additional freighter being drafted onto the route increasing the number of joint freighter from nine a week during July and August to 10 now.
British Airways World Cargo ,which has three freighter flights per week between Hong Kong and London Gatwick wet-leased from Atlas Air, in addition to belly cargo space on its twice daily passenger flights to Heathrow, also reports a very strong market.
"This is the peak of the year and we have been very strong and are very pleased with our performance. Every available metre of space is full and we think that will carry on for the forseeable future," said Chris Humphrey, British Airways s regional cargo manager Pacific who is based in Hong Kong.
He said rates to Europe have increased to reflect the strength of the market and thinks another rate rise is justified.
"Fuel prices have gone through the roof. Yields are again at the same level they were last year but underlying costs are increasing, particularly fuel," complained Humphrey.
Mark Wilson, Managing Director of freight forwarders Benair Freight also said pressure for space has recently eased as a backlog is cleared.
"Space is tight but available which proves that the airlines are working together and not discounting too much. Rates have stayed firm and the airlines are trying to keep rates up," he said.
He said rates to Europe have recently increased by around 20 per cent and by 15 per cent to the U.S. Inter-Asian rates are stable where yields are traditionally stronger.
Stanley Hui, the chief operating officer of the territory's only all cargo airline AHK Air Hong Ltd, which flies 747 freighters both east and westbound, said he had no complaints especially about the trans-pacific sector.
"Unlike in previous years, there has not been that much additional capacity employed during the peak period. Demand both in and out of Europe is also firm and services to Japan are busy. After last year's record year and a slow start to this year we have high expectations about Japan," Hui said
The latest statistics from Hong Kong's Civil Aviation department show Tokyo-Narita to be the biggest importer of Hong Kong goods. 8,742 tonnes of air cargo was flown from Hong Kong to the Japanese capital during August, according to the statistics.
Hui also said he expected rates to Europe to continue to rise.
"We are not trying to be greedy but we can't lose money forever and all cargo airlines are trying to recover what we have lost," Hui said.
Many airlines report being especially badly hit by Hong Kong's seasonal monsoon winds. Northerly winds mean aircraft have to take off in a steep climb over densely populated Kowloon and payload has to be reduced.
Air France Cargo said all carriers were being affected on both European and trans-Pacific long haul routes by having to suddenly off-load pallets and a backlog of more than 400 tonnes built up in early October.
"Everybody is being hit by these weather conditions and customers are unhappy about having their cargo left behind - but so are we. It is the first time I've ever known so much having to be offloaded," said Philippe Bour, the airline's regional cargo manager for Hong Kong, China, Macau, Taiwan and South Korea.
Paul Choi, assistant general manager of MSAS Cargo International in Hong Kong said the back log has now eased, partly due to more cargo being flown from Macau.
Gemini Air Cargo flew its first McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 freighter into the Portuguese enclave from New York on September 27 with about 40 tonnes of cargo mostly destined to be shipped to Hong Kong. The airport which opened last November says Gemini is the fourth all cargo service to serve Macau on a regular basis and unlike Hong Kong has no severe space and slot restrictions or curfew.
Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Ltd (HACTL), which enjoys a monopoly on cargo handling at Kai Tak airport said after a "pretty lack lustre" first half the market has picked up during August and September which should continue in the traditional peak period towards Christmas.
HACTL reported a 7.1 per cent increase in throughput during September over last year whnn exports and imports rose by 5.5 per cent to 68,673 tonnes and 7.3 per cent to 49,063 tonnes respectively over September last year.
HACTL managing director Anthony Charter said transshipments "soared" 13.7 per cent to 16,775 tonnes "which interestingly may point to sign of a regional pick-up."
"There seems to be a shortage of capacity which is traditional at this time of year along with the hike in rates. I think this year we are seeing a slightly more positive outloook," Charter said.
HACTL says it is on course for another record year and expects a rise of around four per cent which is a far cry from the 23 per cent growth in previous years but "still welcome." - Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 8982 Fax +44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
Hong Kong civil aviation department statistics show cargo handled in August totalled by region rose by 6.7 per cent compared with the same month last year.
Air cargo imports on both scheduled and non scheduled flights reached 59,910 tonnes and 71,675 tonnes for exports.
Regional figures (rounded) in tonnes are shown in the table below.
AUGUST 1996 - ALL FLIGHTS
Unloaded Loaded Pct change
from Aug 95
Africa 195 241 20.0
Asia - others 4,013 4,824 12.0
Australasia 2,996 2,676 -6.1
Continental Europe 8,850 9,449 1.6
Japan 5,570 12,197 2.4
Mainland China 1,841 2,896 9.5
Middle East 700 1,291 2.7
SE Asia 15,306 10,845 8.0
South America 66 65 -21.2
Taiwan 9,938 7,163 27.0
UK 3,380 3,850 14.0
USA/Canada 6,940 16,176 0.1
Total 59,910 71,675 6.7
- Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax+44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
Landing fees at Hong Kong's new Chek Lap Kok airport must be competitively priced compared to other airports in the region, the chairman of Cathay Pacific Airways Limited Peter Sutch said.
Reports of fees double those at Kai Tak airport have already caused alarm among airlines and representative groups such as the Orient Airlines Association.
As one of the main users of the new airport, industry observers say Cathay managers are especially concerned about the level of the new fees which will heavily influence long term profitability.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) Users' Group is one group closely watching the situation, Sutch noted at the ceremonial start of work on Cathay's new headquarters at the site of the new airport.
"As airlines compete against each other, so do airports such as Taipei, Singapore and Bangkok's new airport. It is important for the industry and the economy of Hong Kong that the airport is competitive for its users," Sutch said.
A spokesman for the Airport Authority, the body set up to manage Chek Lap Kok said the consultation process is still going on and the fee structure is expected to be revealed in the first or second quarter of next year.
Sutch said Cathay is considering raising passenger ticket prices and air cargo rates because of increased fuel costs.
"We are seriously considering reducing some of the increased fuel cost through higher ticket prices and cargo rates. As soon as a decision is made we will let you know," he said.
Airlines belonging to IATA agreed on Friday on a three per cent rise in air fares to cover higher fuel bills. -- Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax+44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
United Parcel Service of America Inc (UPS) said the first aircraft to use its US$4 million Asia-Pacific hub now under construction in Taiwan will arrive on September 10, Mark Sobolewski, UPS director of engineering for Asia-Pacific told Reuters.
He added that the first phase of the hub at Taipei's Chiang Kai Shek airport is due to formally open on October 10 and is on schedule to be fully operational by March next year.
Six Boeing aircraft -- two 747s, two 757s and two 767s -- are due to operate eight flights a day in and out of Taipei six days a week from March connecting the U.S. with the company's growing Asian network.
The fast package carrier confirmed this week that it had won traffic rights to operate five frequencies a week from Bangkok. Sobolewski says other cities to be linked to the Taipei hub are Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Osaka.
"The hub will enhance our service throughout Asia, make us more competitive and as this market grows we will have a reliable product and give a superior service. We have had very positive feedback from our customers especially in Taiwan," Sobolewski told Reuters from his Singapore office.
With the six aircraft, some brand new, the total investment in Taipei will amount US$400 million, UPS said. It added construction work on the first phase of the 4,800 square metres sorting office began this month.
The first Taiwan-based aircraft due next month will activate traffic rights awarded to UPS under the recent Japan-U.S. bilateral agreement, allowing packages to be picked up at Osaka's Kansai airport for distribution throughout Asia.
Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax+44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
British Airways World Cargo (BAWC) is to employ a fourth weekly freighter between Hong Kong and London from next year, BAWC's regional cargo manager Pacific, Chris Humphrey said.
"We will definitely be moving forward with a fourth freighter. We are very bullish about the prospects for Hong Kong and Chinese economic growth. There's definitely a growing market here and next year's handover from a cargo point of view is immaterial. Other concerns such as US-Chinese trade relations have a much greater impact," Humphrey told Reuters in an interview at the British flag carrier's Hong Kong regional headquarters.
British Airways currently flies three Boeing 747 freighters a week between Hong Kong and London Gatwick which are wet leased from Atlas Air Inc. Denver-based Atlas uses converted passenger 747's to fly for several major airlines on aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance (ACMI) long term, wet-lease contracts which BA says it is happy to continue because no capital costs are incurred.
The cargo executive said statistics proved how strong the Hong Kong market is for BAWC. Humphrey said statistics of all Association of European Airlines (AEA) carriers in the Asia Pacific Region showed BAWC enjoyed an 18.5 percent increase in market share between January and July measured by Freight Tonne Kilometres (FTK). The traffic average for AEA carriers, which included Air France and Swissair, both to and from the region was 8.2 per cent, he said.
He also said freight tonnage from Hong Kong to BA's world-wide network in the first half of the financial year between April and September increased by 31 per cent.
"That's a pretty dramatic increase which is indicative of the market's strength," Humphrey said. - Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax+44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
DHL Worldwide Express is investigating whether to have a new Hong Kong operations centre near the territory's new airport, its Hong Kong and China area manager Andy Tseng said.
The proposed centre would be in addition to and complement the express freight centre now under construction at Chek Lap Kok in which DHL has an equity stake.
It would also be in addition to the firm's existing town centre base near Tai Tak airport and its satellite depots across the territory. DHL recently invested HK$15 million in a new automatic handling system able to process 4,000 items an hour at its existing airport base.
"It is a vital decision for our future and a huge involvement. We must make sure we make the right decision for us and for our customer's changing needs in the future. It is difficult and we are collecting as much information as possible on what our customers want," Tseng said.
DHL say they have been approached by four real estate developers offering green field sites or existing buildings for conversion in west Kowloon, a mainly industrial area close to the new bridge and motorway link to the new airport on Lantau island.
Other air cargo companies are also reported to be considering off-airport sites because they fear high building rents and staff relocation problems at the new airport.
DHL says a viability study being conducted by a task force should be complete by the end of the year. - Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax+44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
The Hong Kong Shippers' Council is urging the government to tell airlines that a fuel surcharge on air cargo rates is illegal, the council's executive director Clement Yeung told Reuters.
Cargo managers from major airlines operating to Europe met in the territory on October 31 and some agreed to raise ex-Hong Kong cargo rates by HK80 cents per kilo from November 4 to try to offset increased jet fuel prices.
The Hong Kong Shippers' Council said it had written to the Civil Aviation Department urging it to outlaw the surcharge.
"We are reasonable people. We don't necessarily object to each and every increase but we feel the airlines should follow the rules by obtaining approval. Their case should be supported by facts and figures," Yeung said.
"In this case, it seems only a few airlines have decided to impose the surcharge. Others have not followed which begs the question: What is Hong Kong going to do about it and if airlines should be allowed to keep their surcharge? If they are, then it is a gross injustice to shippers and freight forwarders. The airlines should abide by the book and the governments should tell them it is illegal," Yeung said.
The council represents 15 of the leading trade associations in the territory including the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and the Chinese Manufacturers' Association.
The Federation of Asia Pacific Air Cargo Agents (FAPAA) is also reported to be opposing the fuel surcharge. A report in the South China Morning Post quoted its chairman Bernard Angeles as saying the airlines' surcharge bid might fail because they had not applied for approval from Hong Kong's Civil Aviation Department which he said was required by law.
-- Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax+44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
Cathay Pacific chairman Peter Sutch on Monday dug the first turf for the airline's new corporate headquarters in Hong Kong.
"This headquarters... is a firm, visible and concrete example of our commitment to Hong Kong," Sutch told guests and reporters at the huge airport construction site.
The US$448 million or HK$3.5 billion HQ at the territory's Chek Lap Kok airport will house almost all the airline's staff under one roof for the first time. Sutch described the new building as a very important stage in Cathay's 50 year history offering a "home from home" for more than 4,000 employees.
The move to th will open up many new commercial, business and marketing opportunities.
Hank Townsend, chief executive officer of the Hong Kong Airport Authority, the body set up to run the new airport assisted at the ceremony.
"We wish you success, luck and great prosperity in the future and welcome you as one of the family, as one of the tenants here at Chek Lap Kok," Townsend said.
The one million square foot complex, being built by Dragages et Travaux Publics (HK) Ltd, part of the French Bouygues Group, includes a 10 storey office block, a 23 storey staff hotel with 350 rooms and a leisure area.
Cathay hopes for savings and improvements in efficiency by not having its staff and 30 department offices spread aronnd Hong Kong. Managers hope to overcome staff concerns about commuting time to the new airport site on Lantau island.
The new airport is due to open in April 1998, and Cathay said its new HQ is due to be completed in August 1998.
-- Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax+44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
The head of British Airways World Cargo (BAWC) in Hong Kong, Chris Humphrey, said he is confident of a "dramatic improvement" in freight handling service standards at London's Gatwick and Heathrow airports.
One leading Hong Kong air freight forwarder said he is just one customer who is "appalled" at BAWC's handling of ex-Hong Kong cargo in London. One recent consignment took three and a half days to clear Gatwick, the forwarder said speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, adding he tries to avoid Heathrow wherever possible because of "indefensible" service standards. BA recently had its ISO service standard award at its main Heathrow cargo hub revoked.
Chris Humphrey, BAWC's regional cargo manager Pacific said he is aware of the problems and has assured customers that improvements are under way.
In an interview in Hong Kong, he said major changes to working practices at Gatwick, which receives Hong Kong's three freighter flights per week, had caused a "short term downturn in service standards".
At Heathrow, there have also been changes. BAWC's newly opened dedicated centre for freight from the Pacific region began handling Hong Kong cargo earlier this month. BA has said the centre will create a series of customer benefits and relieve pressure from its World Cargocentre hub.
"Again I am confident that we will see a dramatic improvement in our service standards there. I won't deny that we have had problems working in a very old building which is over capacity. We are aware of that and are working very hard to bring our working practices up to date and doing an awful lot of changes in a short time which is causing pain on the labour relations front. We lost the ISO from our main cargo hub but Pacific routes and cargo from Hong Kong still goes through an ISO qualified warehouse," Humphrey said.
"Things are getting better," he added. - Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax+44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
Lauda Air is enjoying "huge passenger growth" on the Hong Kong to Vienna route but cargo is disappointing, the airline's Hong Kong general manager Sunny Yu told Reuters.
While there's been a 34 percent increase in the number of passengers along with a 42 percent growth in revenue over the past year, cargo revenue is up to three per cent below last year's level, he said. Lauda's Boeing 767-300 twice weekly flight from Hong Kong to Vienna via Bangkok averages eight to nine tonnes of belly cargo with watches a particularly common commodity, Yu said.
"Cargo is staying at more or less the same level as it was last year. A small price war and overcapacity with ad hoc charters operating into Hong Kong are major obstacles. I'm not optimistic about getting cargo rates back to the good old days," Yu said.
He said the cargo situation is not mirrored on the passenger side where Lauda expects another double digit rise in passenger numbers this year. The current number of passengers flying between Hong Kong and Vienna is around 9,000, Lauda says.
The Austria carrier also said it's being constricted in adding more frequencies to Hong Kong from its Vienna hub because of slot restrictions at Kai Tak airport but hopes to eventually benefit when the territory's new, round the clock airport opens in 18 months time. - Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax+44 171 542 5017.
| 15 |
Major airlines operating cargo flights to Europe are to raise their ex-Hong Kong cargo rates by HK80 cents per kg from November 4 to try and offset increased jet fuel prices, airline officials told Reuters.
Stanley Hui, the chief operating officer of the territory's all-cargo airline, AHK Air Hong Kong Ltd, said an emergency meeting of airlines was held in Hong Kong this morning to discuss a fuel surcharge.
Among the airlines represented were Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, Lufthansa Cargo, Air France, Martinair and Cargolux, he said.
However British Airways World Plc -- a major carrier from Hong Kong to London was not represented, industry sources said.
"Fuel costs have escalated to such a level that it is only right and fair that the shippers share some of the cost because the impact on the airlines has been very obvious," Hui said.
Other carriers operating trans-Pacific routes for instance are also expected to follow suit with a similar increase, Hui added.
Philippe Bour, regional cargo manager for Air France in Hong Kong said his airline will apply the increase from November 4 along with Lufthansa Cargo. Cargolux, Air Hong Kong and other carriers would follow a few days later, he added.
"It is a world-wide problem. Fuel prices in France rose 51 per cent from June to October, in Asia they have risen 33 per cent this year and something has to be done. We hope this will help us," Bour said.
Another cargo manager said, "It is not a case of running out of patience but of running out of money."
Japan Airlines Co Limited yesterday reported a 60.7 percent slump in profits in the six months to September due to higher fuel costs and the yen's retreat against the dollar.
JAL said fuel costs had risen by US$128 million compared with a year ago.
Other major Asian cargo airlines in the region say they are watching the situation closely.
Ming Fai Lai, cargo manager for China Airlines in Hong Kong, said it is waiting before deciding to follow suit but said an 80 cents rise would only have a limited benefit.
"If all European carriers unanimously raise their rates then we will follow but it is not clear if they will all adopt the same policy. 80 cents may help a little bit but for the future I don't think it will help that much," said Lai. --Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax +44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
Hong Kong Dragon Airlines (Dragonair) is about to buy two new Airbus Industrie consortium aircraft and lease another to cope with increasing demand on its routes into China, industry sources told Reuters.
The proposed deal is for two new Airbus A320 aircraft for delivery in 1998 and 1999 with options for five more and one larger Airbus A330 on lease from next year, the source said.
A Dragonair spokesman said it could not confirm the reported acquisition but he said talks on new aircraft had been taking place.
The airline which currently has a fleet of seven Airbus A320s and four A330s, recently said it will need additional aircraft.
"It is common knowledge that we have a requirement for extra capacity and we have been talking to Airbus but no announcement has been made yet," the spokesman said.
Industry analysts said expansion would be seen as a vote of confidence in future business prospects after a difficult period trying to develop its regional network especially into China.
Slot restrictions at Hong Kong's crowded Kai Tak airport were a major constraint, they added.
Expansion would also benefit Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd which holds an 18 percent stake in the regional carrier by feeding more passengers and cargo on its international network and vice versa, analysts said.
Dragonair recently began new services to the Chinese city of Qingdao and Khaohsiung in Taiwan. It also has full scheduled cargo rights on two of its Chinese routes to Xian and Chengdu and says it has plans for additional Chinese services to Chongqing, Urumqi and Shantou.
Other shareholders in Dragonair are the Chinese state-owned China National Aviation Corp with 36 percent, China-backed CITIC Pacific Ltd with 29 percent and Cathay's parent, Swire Pacific Ltd with eight percent. --Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax +44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
Work will start on October 30 on Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd's new HK$1.6 billion headquarters at Chek Lap Kok, the main contractor, Dragages et Travaux Publics (HK) Ltd, said in a statement.
The subsidiary of the French, Bouygues Group said the work includes a 10-storey office building, a 333 room staff complex, a three-storey workshop and stores building and a three storey leisure centre with a total floor area of 102,630 square metres.
The new building is scheduled to be completed in stages from January 1998 with an overall construction period of 22 months, the statement added.
The new airport at Chek Lap Kok is due to open in April 1998.
Dragages said it is also building the new base maintenance facility for Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company Limited (HAECO) and Cathay Pacific's new flight kitchen at the Chek Lap Kok.
-- Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax +44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
DHL Worldwide Express plans to strengthen its role as market leader in China by opening 14 new offices and employing another 600 staff within the next three years, said the company's area manager for Hong Kong and China, Andy Tseng.
DHL celebrates its tenth anniversary of China operations next month "far ahead of our competitors and with 30 per cent market share", Tseng told Reuters in his Hong Kong office near Kai Tak airport.
Tseng said China may win 10 per cent of all DHL sales within Asia by the year 2000. DHL expects to expand its Chinese network to 26 by the end of this year and 40 within the next three years from the current 19. The new offices, to include Harbin, Pudong and Kunming, are in 50-50 joint ventures witrh Chinese partners, DHL said.
DHL's China venture began in 1986 when it set up a joint venture with China's largest forwarding company Sinotrans. DHL says it received another boost three years ago when it became the first joint venture to offer express links between domestic Chinese companies.
"Choosing the right partner was vital as is demonstrating a long term committment to China. We have demonstrated that," Tseng said.
Like all fast freight companies trying to do business in China, Tseng says the lack of infrastructure is a handicap but DHL is leading the way by expanding its network.
"The distribution network and lack of freight links has been identified as the key problem. But service quality and flexibility is particularly important in China," he added.
The 20 year veteran with DHL said that unlike rivals such as Federal Express, it enjoys a competitive advantage in China by not having its own fleet of aircraft running in competition with Chinese airlines. Tseng says he wants to strengthen the company's "very good" existing relationships with third party local airlines such as China Northern and China Eastern.
Tseng also said the average express shipment is getting heavier and pointed to the marketing success of DHL's Jumbo Box as offering a simple one price product which customers find easy to understand. But he said DHL has not yet started offering the Jumbo Box to customers in China. - Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542-7706 Fax+44 171 542-5017
| 15 |
Japan Airlines (JAL) is expanding its new express cargo service called "J Speed" to meet rising demand for rapid deliveries throughout Asia, a JAL spokesman told Reuters.
The recently introduced system guarantees delivery for shippers facing urgent deadlines on high volume cargo routes and also offers late acceptance at the departure airport and early delivery, he added in a statement.
Next on the J Speed network is a proposed service from Bangkok to Tokyo with plans for a gradual expansion over JAL's entire international network, JAL says.
Kazuto Yamamoto, JAL's assistant vice president, international sales and marketing department for freight and mail said he had high hopes for the new service which aims to boost high-yield cargo sales on key Asian routes.
"There is great potential on certain routes and we're looking closely at future expansion in the near future," he told Reuters.
The busy Tokyo Narita - Manila sector was chosen for the J Speed launch. With average annual growth in the Japan-Philippines market over the past three years of 50 per cent, JAL said there is an increasing need for an express service.
The flag carrier said there is usually a two hour deadline before departure from Japan while some regular cargo has to be accepted the day before.
J Speed cargo is accepted up to an hour before take off and, because the air waybill is faxed to Manila, the cargo is cleared through customs before the flight arrives, the airline says.
JAL said customers are prepared to pay a premium price.
"Yes, there is clear demand for this service on busy routes - from Narita to Manila and from Jakarta and Singapore to Japan. Shippers are prepared extra for the "on board" guarantee. The rates vary in each market," Yamamoto said.
The service has now been extended from Singapore and Jakarta to Japan. JAL also said it plans a return service soon from Japan to Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok and is also studying a service to Singapore.
JAL insists J Speed is a response to customer demand and not a competitive response to aggressive marketing by U.S. carriers.
"United Parcel Service and Federal Express Corp have many cargo products and services including door to door small package operations. J Speed is not such a small package service. It is an airport to airport guaranteed on board service featuring the latest acceptance of shipments at airport of departure with rapid clearance and delivery to consignees' agents at airport of arrival," Yamamoto said.
Typical shipments include high technology components but JAL says some cargoes are ineligible - valuables and fresh produce cannot use J Speed. --Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax +44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
A labour shortage is threatening to delay completion of Hong Kong's new airport, a senior airport official has told Reuters.
The official, Clinton Leeks, director of corporate development for the Airport Authority Hong Kong, the body set up to oversee completion and run the HK$49.8 billion airport at Chek Lap Kok, said an additional two to three thousand construction workers are needed if the opening target of April 1998 is to be met.
Trade unions in Hong Kong are expected to resist attempts to import more workers from overseas. The Confederation of Trade Unions has said contractors should give priority to local tradesmen.
"I am not sounding an alarm just stating the facts. If we don't get these two to three thousand extra workers then certain things are at risk but we hope it won't come to that," Leeks said in an interview from his Hong Kong headquarters.
One specific skills shortage is of electrical and mechanical workers, not just at the airport but throughout the territory's increasingly sophisticated construction industry. The government is aware of the problem through twice monthly regular meetings to discuss progress. Despite the shortage, all construction work is on target at the moment, Leeks said.
This latest warning of a potential delay comes three months after a senior official from the Mass Transit Railway Corporation said 5,000 imported workers were needed to ensure the vital airport rail link was completed on time.
In a statement, the Hong Kong Government said 5,000 or 18 per cent of the new airport and related infrastructure's total labour force is imported.
The Special Labour Importation Scheme is set at 17,000 giving "ample" room for more imported workers providing local workers are given priority and their rights and benefits safeguarded, the statement said.
The Government also said the scheme has recently been made more flexible.and contractors facing a genuine shortage are encouraged to use it.
-- Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax+44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
Polar Air Cargo is to start new services to New Delhi, Dubai, Bangkok, Kansai in Japan and Manila within the next four months, the all cargo carrier's executive vice president Jack Kane said.
Speaking after the handover of Polar's first Boeing 747-200 and 14th 747 freighter in all, Kane said the new acquistion from Air Hong Kong will offer longer ranges, higher weights and reduced fuel consumption for the company's Asian network which is about to rapidly expand.
Polar is awaiting final U.S. Depart of Transportation approval to begin flying to Kansai after agreement with the Japanese transportation ministry that Polar should become the third U.S. all cargo carrier, he said.
"The indications seem very favourable," he said.
The U.S.-based airline has also won permission to fly to Bangkok and expects to start services to Manila in the first quarter of 1997. With approval for Kansai, and new services to London and Amsterdam which began in April, Kane said the way is now opens for a round the world service to begin early next year.
"In the next 120 days we will inaugurate services to New Delhi, Dubai, Bangkok, Kansai and the Philippines," Kane told reporters.
When the Kansai operation begin, Polar expects to offer four cargo flights a week from Hong Kong to the U.S. west coast and five or six to east coast all via Anchorage . The 747-200 means Polar no longer has to stop in Khabarovsk in Russia to refuel.
Polar does not have rights into China but has been holding discussions with Chinese airlines on a possible joint venture. Kane declined to name the possible partners but said Polar has already cooperated with China Eastern on charter cargo flights.
Kane said Polar intends to start operating a second 747-200 aircraft, an ex Philippine Airlines Combi which is to be converted, in the first quarter of next year. The company's long term strategy is to acquire two or three 747-200 aircraft each year for the next five years bringing the fleet total then to 23 or 24 aircraft.
"Our commitment is to provide our customers with a global network and let them compete against the integrators," Kane said. -- Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax+44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
Israel's flag carrier El Al is to start using a Boeing 747 on its once weekly Tel Aviv to Hong Kong service as part of a drive to increase tourism and trade with the Middle East, Abraham Roter, the carrier's the airline's general manager for China, Hong Kong and east Asia said.
From the end of this month the 747 will replace a smaller Boeing 767 which flies via Tashkent. The 747 will be a direct flight from Israel to Hong Kong which will stop in Bombay to refuel on the return leg, Roter said.
El Al said it was the only airline offering a direct link to the Middle East, as opposed to carriers such as Emirates which fly to the Gulf, and which offers good connections around the Mediterranean region. The larger aircraft will increase cargo capacity from 10 upto 24 tonnes and increase passenger comfort, Roter told Reuters in an interview from his Hong Kong office.
El Al is holding a series of seminars with travel agents to try and entice more tourists from Hong Kong. Current passenger levels to Tel Aviv are between five and six thousand a year.
"We believe that the market has big potential because Hong Kong people are big travellers and we are offering them a wonderful destination which is just 10 hours away," Roter said.
Israel does not have an Air Services Agreement with Hong Kong and Roter said if demand increases the carrier could utilise its second weekly flight allowed under the current informal arrangement. -- Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax+44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
Investment bankers Salomon Brothers forecast "phenomenal" long term growth prospects for Thai Airways International Ltd and said management is "finally getting serious" about cargo.
In a recent 24 page equity research report, its Hong Kong based author Peter Negline recommended traders buy Thai shares below 50 baht because of the carrier's good prospects.
"Thai has phenomenal long term growth prospects resulting from a strong local economy," the report said.
In an analysis of Thai's strengthens it noted its global alliances with Deutsche Lufthansa AG and United Airlines and its regional competitive advantage because it is closer to European markets and the stability of the baht currency.
"A robust Thai economy should support strong passenger and cargo traffic growth. We assume Thai's improved service and price competitiveness will support higher load factors," Negline told Reuters.
In his report's Forecast Assumptions, Negline says economic growth on the whole should remain robust but warns of lower yields.
"This should continue to provide an ongoing platform for solid growth in passenger and cargo traffic. At an operating level, the airline is likely to suffer from further yield declines in both passenger and freight operations. However, through fiscal 1997/98, management should be able to ensure costs fall as fast, or faster, than the corresponding yield decline - largely due to the lower operating costs of the new aircraft fleet," the report said.
It also highlights opportunities for growth in lower operating costs through cargo.
"Thai has only really started to focus on growing its cargo business over the last two years, (over the last four years, freight revenue tonne kilometres (RTK's) have grown at only 11 per cent per annum) which is on the low side compared with other regional competitors. Thai has improved its freight load factors from 60 per cent in 1991 to 71 per cent in 1995, although cargo still represents only about 13 per cent of total revenue. Volume increases have been at the expense of yield declines. The recent announcement of a joint lease with Lufthansa indicates management is finally getting serious about this market," says the report.
Earlier on Tuesday the Thai Cabinet approved a proposal to allow Thai Airways to take a 40 percent stake in a new cargo company. -- Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax+44 44 171 542 5017,JG 2987 7212
| 15 |
All-cargo airline Polar Air Cargo is to take delivery of its first Boeing 747-200F series aircraft at Hong Kong's Kai Tak airport on December 13, an airline statement said.
The handover of the aircraft fresh from a 'C' check at Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company brings the number of B747s in the Polar fleet to 14, it added.
The carrier's chief executive officier, Ned Wallace said in the statement that Polar's fleet will increase by two to three 747's each year over the next five years. The next 747-200F is scheduled for delivery in first quarter 1997, he added.
Industry observers say Polar has a reputation for being a low cost airline using first generation former passenger 747 aircraft converted to carry around 100 tons of cargo.
The U.S. based carrier said it is anticipating a "significant jump" in its Asian operations if the U.S. Department of Transportation finalises a "tentative" decision awarding Polar the new U.S.-Japan all-cargo route.
Polar said the Department of Transportation's favourable evaluation was partly due to its proposal to increase using Anchorage, Alaska as a hub to trans-load traffic between Asia, South America, Europe and the U.S.
"The final award of the Japan route will mark the culmination of a three year strategy by Polar to create an effective global network of operations. As we extend our geographic reach, we enhance our competitiveness by giving our customers the market access and route flexibility they need," Wallace added.
--Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax +44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
Virgin Atlantic Cargo said it will begin flying a new, shorter route on its Hong Kong to London service later this month which will cut an hour off the journey time and enable an extra six tonnes of freight to be carried westbound and two tonnes eastbound.
The division of Virgin Atlantic Airways says China gave permission for the short cut after recent negotiations with the British government which also benefits British Airways Plc.
Virgin's pilots are due to begin the new northerly route via Beijing and then over Russia and Germany on October 27. The southerly track currently used is over Thailand, Bangladesh, Tashkent and Turkey.
Brinkley Chan, assistant manager for Virgin Atlantic Cargo in Hong Kong told Reuters that the new routing offers significant benefits for both passengers and cargo capacity.
"It is a much welcomed boost and will mean quite a dramatic increase in the amount of cargo we are able to carry For the passenger it will mean one hour's less flying time," Chan said.
He said Virgin's Airbus A340 aircraft will require 50,000 pounds less fuel enabling eight tonnes of cargo to be carried with a full passenger load from Hong Kong and an extra two tonnes from London.
Until now during the winter months between November and February, Virgin has been able to carry only two tonnes of belly cargo and during the summer months four tonnes from Hong Kong. Weight penalties are less east bound, it added.
Virgin says Britain's airlines will be following in the footsteps of Germany's Lufthansa which has been flying the short cut across China for the past two years. -Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 8982 Fax +44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
Pilots in Hong Kong are becoming better connected thanks to the Internet, says the general secretary of the Hong Kong Aircrew Officers' Association, John Findlay.
The association says it is now giving each of its 700 members an e-mail address so they can stay in touch no matter where they are flying.
Findlay told Reuters in an interview that his members already find out what's happening by using a telephone modem to access the association's bulletin board. With 300 members based outside Hong Kong, the association says it's becoming increasingly popular. Committee members who are also airline pilots constantly flying all over the world also can stay in touch with union business via their laptop computers.
"We've had the bulletin board for two and half years now and its very well used. It's fairly sophisticated and updated daily so pilots can access our newsletter. It also has its other uses like a leisure forum and a 'for sale' site," Findlay said.
Now members will be able to send and receive messages by e_mail anywhere in the world and the eventual aim is to have a website page specifically for Hong Kong pilots, he said.
"It's the way to go," Findlay said. - Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax+44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
Virgin Group's cargo unit in Hong Kong thinks it will move significant amounts of air freight from the territory to South Africa via its new service to Johannesburg from London.
"We think there is a big market out there which is rising and that we can compete effectively via London," said Brinkley Chan, Assistant Manager for Dyna Trans (Hong Kong) Limited, Virgin Atlantic Cargo's Hong Kong agent.
Chan told Reuters that Virgin is offering a dedicated LD-3 container for South African bound cargo on its daily flights from Hong Kong to London.
He said Virgin's new, three times a week service to Johannesburg from London which began on October 2 can do well despite being a "second class carrier."
Virgin will begin flying a new shorter route to London from Hong Kong overflying China on October 27 which will permit it to carry an extra six tonnes of freight westbound.
Direct services to South Africa from Hong Kong are flown by Cathay Pacific and South African Airways.
Chan says other airlines offering indirect competition on the route include Singapore International Airlines in Singapore, Brazil's Varig via Bangkok, Gulf Air via Abu Dhabi and Emirates Airline via Dubai.
Chan said the main ex Hong Kong exports bound for South Africa will be electronics, clothing and general freight. - Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542-7706 Fax+44 171 542-5017
| 15 |
Freight forwarders in Hong Kong say they have been warned that there will be a 20 percent increase in transpacific air cargo rates from the territory when the peak season starts on September 1.
Anthony Lau, vice-chairman of the 260 member Hong Kong Association of Freight Forwarding Agents Ltd (HAFFA), told Reuters that the 20 percent increase in the run up to Christmas was not surprising.
"I think it is fair and in line with expectations," Lau said.
He added it will apply to cargo destined for both the U.S. east and west coasts.
Warning notices had been received from the major transpacific carriers including Northwest Airlines, China Airlines, Japan Airlines, United Airlines, Evergreen International Airlines and Polar Air Cargo, Lau said.
-- Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax+44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
Airbus Industrie is for the first time in Asia marketing cargo space aboard the world's largest civil transporter, the consortium's press relations manager in China, David Velupillai, told Reuters.
Speaking at China's first airshow being held here, he said the Airbus A300-600 Super Transporter fleet has 800 hours a year available for wet lease. Known as the Beluga because of its giant, whale like appearance and cavernous 7.4 metre high jaw-like door, it is one of the world's most unusual aircraft which Airbus said can carry more voluminous freight than any other.
The first two of an eventual fleet of four aircraft are being used to transport large sections of fuselage and the wings for the Airbus family which are made near Chester, England and are flown to Toulouse for assembly. Other fuselage sections weighing up to 45 tons and 30 metres long are transported from Spain and Germany.
When the aircraft are not busy doing that, Airbus says it hope it can profit from wet leases of other outsize cargoes such as helicopters, aircraft engines and space satellites in which field China is a key world player with its Long March launcher.
"No other aircraft in the world can carry such large and unusual loads. The thing about satellites is they need to be transported whole and cannot be broken down for transport. It is a niche market but one we think there are opportunities in," Velupillai said.
Airbus said its large transporter has already been used to carry a satellite module which will form part of space station Alpha from Turin in Italy to Toulouse . Other projects include ferrying aviator Richard Branson's balloon to Morocco for his aborted round the world attempt.
The Beluga made its air show debut at Paris last year but is not being exhibited in China.
The twin engined purpose-built jets replace veteran four propellor engined Super Guppy aircraft which Airbus said are destined to become museum pieces. - Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax+44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
Virgin Atlantic Airways said it is considering replacing its Airbus Industrie A340 aircraft with higher capacity Boeing Co 747-400s because of high demand between Hong Kong and London.
But aircraft availability and scheduling preclude an immediate change, David Woodward, general manager commercial for the Virgin Atlantic Cargo division said in a statement.
"The Hong Kong service has been highly successful, in fact we have suffered too little capacity. There is a possibility though of the aircraft change happening in the near future," he added.
Another senior Virgin executive said earlier this year that the carrier was hoping to increase its daily flights from Hong Kong to London to 10 a week.
He also said Virgin has plans to start a London to Shanghai service.
Industry observers say lack of slots at the territory's overcrowded airport is thought to be a big stumbling block and larger aircraft would be a short-term solution until Hong Kong's new airport opens.
Virgin's assistant manager in Hong Kong, Brinkley Chan said there has been no progress on a proposal to add a freighter to its fleet because of low market rates between Hong Kong and Europe and low yields.
--Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 8982 Fax +44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
Asiana Airlines is to take delivery of a third new Boeing 747-400 freighter next month to replace a wet leased DC-10 cargo aircraft on the Seoul to New York route, the airline's cargo marketing and sales director, T.S. Kang said.
The South Korean carrier uses two DC-10 freighters wet leased from U.S. operators Gemini Air Cargo and World Airways for its six flights per week to New York.
The World Airways freighter is to be returned and Gemini's retained until the end of next year to continue to fly three times a week to New York with the new Boeing flying the other three, Kang told Reuters in a telephone interview from Seoul.
The 747-400 will offer Asiana extra cargo carrying capacity as it carries more than 100 tonnes compared to around 65 tonnes for the DC-10.
"The new 747 which is about to be delivered will replace one of the DC-10s which is being returned. One 747 equals two DC-10 flights and is a welcome addition to our fleet," Kang said
Asiana has two 747-400 and one 767 freighter and has plans to expand its cargo aircraft fleet to 10 by 2005.
Kang said Gemini has now received permission from Korea's Ministry of Transportation and Construction to fly into Korea under its own name. Gemini specialises in offering its converted aircraft to established airlines on wet lease contracts known as ACMI - aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance.
-- Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax+44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
Air Hong Kong Ltd (AHK) chief operating officer, Stanley Hui said the August 25 start of its first trans-Pacific service means the airline is now firmly headed in the right direction.
The head of Hong Kong's only all-cargo airline told Reuters in an interview said it was "an important milestone towards a much brighter future."
However Hui said the cargo carrier did not make any money in the first half of 1996 suffering, like many others, from low yields.
Last year AHK made its first ever profit and although Hui would not disclose the exact amount, he said it was "very healthy" after "huge losses" in the past.
Four years ago, things were so bad that the airline was just a telephone call away from going under, industry sources said.
But then a new management team was installed, Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd came to the rescue by taking a 75 percent stake, loss-making routes were cut, old aircraft were retired and three newly converted Boeing 747-200s acquired, Hui added.
The new aircraft are able to carry 25 tons more tonnes than the carrier's old aircraft and complete with a new Chinese wheel company logo signifying brisk business, they began a twice weekly service to Chicago on August 25.
When Air Hong Kong's third converted 747 leased from Cathay Pacific for 15 years joins the fleet in October, the Chicago service will become three times weekly.
Hui says the new route has been possible with the leasing of the three former combi 747s which formerly flew with the Brazilian airline Varig.
The aircraft, converted at Boeing facilities in Wichita, Kansas and at Hong Kong Aero Engine Services Ltd, will give AHK a much higher aircraft utilisation rate from 12 to 14 hours per day.
AHK existing fleet of older 747s are being returned to the leasing company.
"We're talking about more expensive aeroplanes but they're more reliable, with better payload and can help save on maintenance so it's a good investment for this company."Hui said.
Cathay Pacific has handed its once weekly Chicago service over to AHK in order to concentrate on its own new twice weekly freighter service to New York which also started on August 24.
The new U.S. services have been made possible after a new air agreement was drawn up between the U.S. and Hong Kong government.
AHK also fly to Dubai, Brussels and Manchester five times a week and twice weekly to Osaka. It has applied for a twice weekly service to Seoul in South Korea on Friday.
Hui said there has been a 20 per cent drop in cargo selling rates over the past six months.
"But I'm not surprised, the market is very competive, very seasonal and slow in the first half. We have seen a slower market this year consequently rates have dropped, tonnage is down, rates and yields are down but I think we are seeing a nice recovery. Developing for us and Chicago will help that. It is a very important gateway for us," Hui said.
--Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44-171-542-7706 Fax+44-171-542-5017
| 15 |
Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd said it has retired the last of its Lockheed TriStars.
Cathay's 19 TriStar airliners in the carrier's old green and white livery have been a familiar sight in the Hong Kong skies since 1975 flying more than 487,000 hours and millions of passengers. At its peak the fleet was logging 609,000 kilometres every week - equal to the moon and halfway back.
"It is more than a piece of metal. The TriStar has got character and it's a bit of a thoroughbred," said veteran Cathay pilot Captain John Bent.
The three engined L1011 airliners have been gradually phased out over the past two years and replaced in a US$9 billion fleet replacement programme on Cathay's regional and medium-haul routes by new, twin engined Airbus Industrie A330-300 and Boeing 777-200 airliners offering greater fuel efficiency, passenger comfort and cargo handling capability. The A330 can carry up to 32 LD-2 cargo containers in its belly weighing up to 22 tons, the TriStar can only carry around eight tons of cargo, Cathay said.
The airline says many of its TriStar fleet, which have been renowned for reliability and as a pilot's favourite, have been sold to other airlines to continue faithful service in the USA and Europe. --Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax +44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
Hong Kong-based freight forwarding company U-Freight Holdings Limited is considering opening an office in Guangzhou to take advantage of China Southern Airlines' growing international network, U-Freight managing director Anthony Fong said.
Until now, U-Freight's Chinese operations which started nine years ago have been concentrated in the north with freight forwarding operations in Beijing, Dalian and Shanghai, Fong said. U-Freight's new US$2 million, 4,200 square meter warehouse near Shanghai airport is on schedule for completion in December and Fong said he sees new potential just across the border from Hong Kong where the company was established 28 years ago.
"If Guangzhou is to have foreign flights then eventually other foreign carriers will fly into Guangzhou. It should save the trouble of trucking cargo down from Guangzhou to Hong Kong and we are investigating opening an office there," Fong said.
Industry observers said Guangzhou-based China Southern has invested in a new fleet of Boeing 777 aircraft to begin transcontinental services to Europe and the west coast of the USA and U-Freight is among a group of many well known freight forwarders who are eyeing the potential new market. Recent Hong Kong press reports said China Southern is starting a Guangzhou-Beijing-Amsterdam service next month and planning additional services to Los Angeles and Brisbane next year. No one at China Southern could be contacted for confirmation.
"We are just awaiting a start date for China Southern's new trans-Pacific flight," Fong told Reuters in an interview here.
Fong said the licensing procedure to start operations, especially to gain a Class one licence which allows freight forwarders to hold a stock of airway bills, will take time and patience.
"A proper licence in Shanghai took three years to achieve so it is early days yet but we would like to go into Guangzhou and a first step would be to set up a liaison office in the near future," Fong added. - Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax+44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
Demand for space has eased slightly as a recent backlog is cleared and some airlines provide extra capacity, but key ex-Hong Kong rates have continued to rise, Reuters research shows.
Airlines and freight forwarders report brisk business as the territory's traditional peak season gathers pace and high demand for space has allowed airlines on European routes to again raise rates for the second time within three weeks.
A rise of 50 HK cents a kg on October 16 follows a HK$2 a kg rise imposed on October 1 on key routes to Europe. Transpacific demand is also said to be especially strong allowing rates to firm slightly.
Pressure for cargo space is also being exacerbated by high demand on passenger flights which is reducing bellyhold capacity for many airlines.
Sam Chung, the chairman of the Hong Kong Association of Freight Forwarding Agents and director and general manager of Fritz Air Freight (HK) Ltd, said the market was very strong especially in his company's main sector, the United States.
"Every single flight is full but space should become a little better because some airlines are putting on extra capacity. In early October there was a backlog everywhere but that is now easing," Chung said.
He also highlighted the HK$2 a kilo rate rise on routes to Europe from October 1 with more "unfair rises" due to bite.
Two U.S. airlines have drafted in extra aircraft to cope with heavy trans-Pacific demand.
Polar Air Cargo is employing two additional Boeing 747 freighters between the territory and Chicago and New York.
"At the start of October it was really busy with a lot of airlines having a backlog in Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan. But right after China's national day and the mid-Autumn festival when a lot of factories closed down it gave us the chance to move a lot of cargo out of Hong Kong and gave us the chance to clear the backlog," said David Sung, Polar Air's Hong Kong sales manager.
More extra capacity on the trans-Pacific route has come from Evergreen International Airlines Inc which says it now offers six Boeing 747 flights a week instead of four previously. The additional flights on Mondays are to Columbus,Ohio then onto New York and Los Angeles.
"All flights are absolutely full and if we had additional flights. into Hong Kong we would have no problem filling them because there is a lot of freight being moved and a backlog is building up," said Evergreen's Vice President Kersti Krepp.
There is also extra capacity being drafted onto a main European route. Lufthansa Cargo AG says it will put an additional freighter on the Hong Kong to Frankfurt route before the end of the month because of high demand.
The extra flight will increase the total number of flights Lufthansa operates to Germany in a joint venture with Cathay Pacific Cargo to 11 per week. September also saw an additional freighter being drafted onto the route increasing the number of joint freighter from nine a week during July and August to 10 now.
British Airways World Cargo ,which has three freighter flights per week between Hong Kong and London Gatwick wet-leased from Atlas Air, in addition to belly cargo space on its twice daily passenger flights to Heathrow, also reports a very strong market.
"This is the peak of the year and we have been very strong and are very pleased with our performance. Every available metre of space is full and we think that will carry on for the forseeable future," said Chris Humphrey, British Airways' regional cargo manager Pacific who is based in Hong Kong.
He said rates to Europe have increased to reflect the strength of the market and thinks another rate rise is justified.
"Fuel prices have gone through the roof. Yields are again at the same level they were last year but underlying costs are increasing, particularly fuel," complained Humphrey.
Mark Wilson, Managing Director of freight forwarders Benair Freight also said pressure for space has recently eased as a backlog is cleared.
"Space is tight but available which proves that the airlines are working together and not discounting too much. Rates have stayed firm and the airlines are trying to keep rates up," he said.
He said rates to Europe have recently increased by around 20 per cent and by 15 per cent to the U.S. Inter-Asian rates are stable where yields are traditionally stronger.
Stanley Hui, the chief operating officer of the territory's only all cargo airline AHK Air Hong Ltd, which flies 747 freighters both east and westbound, said he had no complaints especially about the trans-pacific sector.
"Unlike in previous years, there has not been that much additional capacity employed during the peak period. Demand both in and out of Europe is also firm and services to Japan are busy. After last year's record year and a slow start to this year we have high expectations about Japan," Hui said
The latest statistics from Hong Kong's Civil Aviation department show Tokyo-Narita to be the biggest importer of Hong Kong goods. 8,742 tonnes of air cargo was flown from Hong Kong to the Japanese capital during August, according to the statistics.
Hui also said he expected rates to Europe to continue to rise.
"We are not trying to be greedy but we can't lose money forever and all cargo airlines are trying to recover what we have lost," Hui said.
Many airlines report being especially badly hit by Hong Kong's seasonal monsoon winds. Northerly winds mean aircraft have to take off in a steep climb over densely populated Kowloon and payload has to be reduced.
Air France Cargo said all carriers were being affected on both European and trans-Pacific long haul routes by having to suddenly off-load pallets and a backlog of more than 400 tonnes built up in early October.
"Everybody is being hit by these weather conditions and customers are unhappy about having their cargo left behind - but so are we. It is the first time I've ever known so much having to be offloaded," said Philippe Bour, the airline's regional cargo manager for Hong Kong, China, Macau, Taiwan and South Korea.
Paul Choi, assistant general manager of MSAS Cargo International in Hong Kong said the back log has now eased, partly due to more cargo being flown from Macau.
Gemini Air Cargo flew its first McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 freighter into the Portuguese enclave from New York on September 27 with about 40 tonnes of cargo mostly destined to be shipped to Hong Kong. The airport which opened last November says Gemini is the fourth all cargo service to serve Macau on a regular basis and unlike Hong Kong has no severe space and slot restrictions or curfew.
Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Ltd (HACTL), which enjoys a monopoly on cargo handling at Kai Tak airport said after a "pretty lack lustre" first half the market has picked up during August and September which should continue in the traditional peak period towards Christmas.
HACTL reported a 7.1 per cent increase in throughput during September over last year whnn exports and imports rose by 5.5 per cent to 68,673 tonnes and 7.3 per cent to 49,063 tonnes respectively over September last year.
HACTL managing director Anthony Charter said transshipments "soared" 13.7 per cent to 16,775 tonnes "which interestingly may point to sign of a regional pick-up."
"There seems to be a shortage of capacity which is traditional at this time of year along with the hike in rates. I think this year we are seeing a slightly more positive outloook," Charter said.
HACTL says it is on course for another record year and expects a rise of around four per cent which is a far cry from the 23 per cent growth in previous years but "still welcome." --Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 8982 Fax +44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
Hong Kong Dragon Airlines (Dragonair) is increasing its flights to Sendai in Japan from October 29 to six a week from the present four, the carrier's chief operating officer Philip Chen said in a statement.
"Our services to Hiroshima and Sendai are a good example of how Dragonair is spreading out and serving the region. Since we started Hiroshima in 1992 and Sendai in 1993 both have been very successful and we are increasing frequencies on both these routes to cope with demand," he added
One of Dragonair's current fleet of seven Airbus Industrie A320 will be used for the extra frequency, a spokeswoman added.
On October 24, Airbus said Dragonair had signed a contract an order for two more A320s, plus options for five others along with the lease of another Airbus A330-300.
The new planes will be used to cope with further route expansion to China and other Asian destinations, especially when Hong Kong's new round the clock airport opens in 18 months time, industry sources said.
--Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax +44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
The Hong Kong government said it is focusing on negotiating new overflight arrangements with several countries in time for the 1997 handover to China.
Up to now, Hong Kong has come under Britain's traffic rights umbrella. Now it must negotiate its own agreements so airlines can continue to fly over countries on key air routes, the government said.
A spokesman said the countries involved are located on routes from Hong Kong to Europe and to Africa, which are not signatories to International Air Services Transit Agreements with.
He declined to name them or say which negotiations were the most important as overflight fees will also be discussed and more pressure could be brought to bear on Hong Kong's negotiators.
Industry observers said the government is up against the clock to sign the new agreements before next year's handover.
"Some countries will be no problem, others may be sticklers," said a source close to the negotiating procedure.
Any proposed deal must be approved by the Joint Liaison Group, the Sino-British body set up to oversee the transition to Chinese rule. The text of a model overflight agreement to be used as the basis for the negotiations was cleared by the JLG in September.
Michael Arnold, who will be Hong Kong's chief negotiator, told Reuters that the negotiations will start as soon as possible with airlines fully involved. He said the agreements which are a form of international treaty will give greater certainty of routes.
"On flights to Europe, for example, given weather and the sometimes unstable political situation in some countries, the airlines need to have access to alternative routes. We need overflight agreements with a number of countries in order to offer several route options," he said.
He said overflight rights are now a priority following the successful completion of Hong Kong's final Air Service Agreement (ASA) with the Philippines last week.
"The number one task was to negotiate full ASAs to separate Hong Kong's air services from those previously provided for under the UK ASAs. This we have completed with the initialling of the Philippines agreement. We can now turn to focus on negotiating overflights," Arnold said.
When asked about overflight costs and whether airlines faced an increase Arnold said: "We would hope to continue the present arrangements, obtained under the UK umbrella." -- Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 8982 Fax +44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
Korean Air Ltd (KAL) said there was an 8.4 percent rise in the amount of cargo by weight on both domestic and international flights during July compared with the same month last year and in August there was a 6.3 percent increase.
However there was a 2.6 percent drop in July's cargo load factor and a 2.4 percent fall during August, the KAL statistics show.
Period AFTK '95 Pct chge Weight 95 Pct
chge
July Intl
One month 560 512 9.4 62 57 8.8
Cumulative 3,641 3,217 13.2 397 367 8.2
Domestic
One month 16 12 28.1 17 15 13.3
Cumulative 99 88 13.6 130 119 9.2
Total
One month 576 524 9.8 79 72 9.7
Cumulative 3,740 3,300 13.2 527 486 8.4
August Intl
One month 547 483 13.4 60 55 9.1
Cumulative 4,188 3,699 13.2 457 422 8.3
Domestic
One month 16 12 25.1 16 16 0.0
Cumulative 115 100 15.0 146 135 8.1
Total
One month 563 495 13.7 76 71 7.0
Cumulative 4,303 3,799 13.3 603 557 6.3
Period FTK '95 Pct chge Weight '95 Pct
chge
July Intl
One month 419 380 10.1 75 74 0.5
Cumulative 2,693 2,465 9.3 74 76 -2.7
Domestic
One month 6 5 12.0 36 41 -5.1
Cumulative 46 41 10.2 46 47 -1.4
Total
One month 424 386 10.1 73 74 0.2
Cumulative 2,739 2,507 9.3 73 76 -2.6
August Intl
One month 411 366 12.3 75 76 -0.7
Cumulative 3,104 2,831 9.7 74 77 -2.4
Domestic
One month 6 5 2.2 36 43 -7.9
Cumulative 51 47 9.3 44 47 -2.3
Total
One month 416 371 12.2 74 75 -1.0
Cumulative 3,155 2,878 9.6 73 76 -2.4
KAL's statistics also show a 9.6 percent rise in the number of international and domestic passengers carried 1.341.400 this year from 1,224,200 last July. In August there was a nine percent increase to 1,580,000 from 1,439,200.
AFTK & FTK unit: 1,000,000 ton.km. Cargo weight unit:1,000 ton.
- Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax+44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
Engineers are investigating the cause of an engine failure aboard a Cathay Pacific Airways Limited airliner on November 11 which forced return to Ho Chi Minh City on one engine, an airline spokesman said commenting on a report in Flight International.
The Airbus A330-300 and 132 passengers had reached 37,000 feet after take-off when one of its two Rolls Royce 700 engines suffered a suspected gearbox failure. The pilots could not restart the powerplant and decided to return to Ho Chi Minh City where the engine was removed and flown back to Hong Kong for a detailed inspection, the spokesman stated.
The suspect gearbox part has since been returned to the U.K. for detailed analysis, a Rolls Royce spokesman in Hong Kong said.
Cathay has a fleet of nine Airbus A330s which seat around 320 passengers and carry up to 17 tonnes of belly cargo on inter-Asian routes. A spokeswoman for Hong Kong Dragon Airlines known as Dragonair, in which Cathay holds a minority stake, operates 4 R-R powered A330s.
R-R is a long term supplier to Cathay and since the Trent 700 engine entered service with Cathay in February 1995, this is the second recorded inflight shutdown, the Cathay spokesman said.
Industry observers say aircraft engines are now so reliable that mechanical failures are extremely rare.
Intense rivalry for new engines, particularly for the next generation of the Boeing 747 family, exists between R-R and its U.S. competitors Pratt & Whitney and General Electric s, the industry sources said. - Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax+44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
The chairman of Hong Kong freight forwarding company Baltrans Ltd, Anthony Lau, said he expects to enjoy considerable synergy and economies of scale following the acquisition of a majority stake this summer in a Los Angeles competitor, Fond Group.
"As yet there is no integration of the companies, which are still operating on a parallel basis, but as time goes on we will enjoy economies of scale and expect to see further growth," he added.
Baltrans is well positioned in Asia while Fond is well placed in the US west coast, "so additional synergy is there," Lau said.
Baltrans completed the HK$32.2 million deal for a 67.4 per cent stake in the Fond Group in July, Lau told Reuters in a telephone interview from his Kowloon office.
Fond specialises in shipping cargo from Hong Kong to the west coast of America and its acquisition is aimed at increasing the overall profitability of the Baltrans group on trans-Pacific segments, Lau said.
Baltrans added the Fond Group includes Fondair Express (HK), Fondocean Express (HK) and Fondexpress (USA) which have a combined turnover of around HK$300 million. --Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax +44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
All three airlines flying directly between Hong Kong and London said they can start to use a new, short cut to Europe across China from this weekend with the start of winter timetables on Sunbday October 27.
This means more cargo and less fuel can be carried along with a cut in passenger journey times of up to an hour, industry sources said.
Cathay Pacific Airways, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic all say they can begin to utilise the new northern route over China instead of the traditional longer southerly route over Thailand and India in their winter schedules. The short cut was agreed during recent talks between the British and Chinese governments, they say.
A Cathay Pacific spokesman said up to an hour can be cut off the flying time for its Boeing 747-400 aircraft on some European routes which will also have the ability to carry an additional four tonnes of cargo. BA can carry an extra 70 tonnes of air cargo a week if its twice weekly 747-400 aircraft utilise the new routing, its Hong Kong based spokesman said.
A spokesman for Virgin Atlantic said the new routing will enable its Airbus A340 aircraft to carry an extra six tonnes of freight westbound and two tonnes eastbound and save around 50,000 pounds of fuel.
Aviation analysts say the new routing offers significant cost saving advantages and allows airlines to carry full cargo loads all year round because strong headwinds during the summer restricts cargo payload.
But they say it is not all good news because the airlines haven't been granted permission for all flights.
"It is fantastic news for the airlines and very influential on the bottom line but realistically Cathay can't utilise the new routes on all flights because it has not been given a full quota and neither have the others," Peter Negline, Vice President and senior research analyst of Asia Pacific equity research at Salomon Brothers Hong Kong Limited told Reuters in an interview.
A Cathay Pacific spokesman said it will have the most access to the number of flights that can use the new routing. Other European services to Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt will also be able to benefit as well as London bound ones, he added.
Curfews at both Heathrow and Kai Tak airports will also cause scheduling difficulties until Hong Kong's new, around the clock airport at Chek Lap Kok is due to open in 18 months time, analysts say.
"Aircraft need to leave Hong Kong before the 11.30 pm local (16.30 GMT) curfew starts but the new routing could mean arrival at Heathrow at round 04.30 GMT which is two hours before the end of their curfew so the new routing doesn't offer a lot there,"Negline said.
"You can also see a further deterioration in cargo yields because the airlines are getting extra capacity for next to nothing," Negline added.
Negline said the airlines will also benefit from better aircraft and crew utilisation; the aircraft will be able to fly extra sectors and its crew who fly for less hours can be redeployed on other services.
Declan Magee, a Hong Kong based airline analyst for regional stockbrokers and investment bankers HG Asia also said the new routing will obviously benefit aircraft utilisation and fuel efficiency.
"Yes shorter routes will save money but if all three airlines are allowed to do the same thing that rules out competitive advantage. If only one airline could use the new route then it would be different but the consumer will feel the benefit.
Magee said the Hong Kong to London route is Cathay's fourth largest passenger revenue generating route of around HK$1.4 billion a year.
"It is a relatively important route but even if they can save four or five per cent on this route compared to Cathay's total turnover of around HK$30 billion a year.it's not that much. Yes, it's a useful way in which Cathay can offset some of the negatives it is facing in terms of yield decline," Magee said.
Analysts reckon the airlines can save around 10 tons of fuel per flight but that may be offset by expected higher overfly fees set by the Chinese who are aware of how much the airlines can save.
Analysts say the airlines need all the help they can get by utilising shorter routes and using new technology such as FANS - Future Air Navigation System which allows aircraft more direct routing. Because of successful negotiations earlier, Swissair and Lufthansa have been able to fly the shorter route over China to Europe for the past two years. - Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542-7706 Fax+44 171 542-5017
| 15 |
Air Macau said it expects to carry beween 20 and 30 per cent more belly cargo when two more Airbus Industrie A321 aircraft are delivered to serve three new routes into China next year.
Speaking from the Portuguese enclave, Air Macau's cargo supervisor sales and marketing Simon Tang told Reuters the new airline is achieving 60 percent load factors on current available capacity.
Airline statistics show that Air Macau has carried 3091 tonnes of air cargo in the first nine months of cargo operations although during the first two months no cargo was carried.
The figures also show a steady increase from 161 tonnes in January to a high of 489 tonnes in August.
"For a newly established airline I am quite happy to have achieved 60 percent load factors so quickly," Tang said.
"Due to the new aircraft arriving next year and the new routes into China I expect cargo carrying capacity to increase by 20 to 30 percent which should be a dramatic improvement." he added.
The Airbus A321 aircraft on seven year leases will join the airline's four other A321 and smaller A320s which are due to begin flying to three new destinations in China -- Hainan Island, Qingdao and Wuhan, the airline said.
It began flying 11 months ago when Macau International Airport opened and currently serves six destinations with 63 frequencies per week to Bangkok, Beijing, Shanghai, Xiamen, Taipei and Kaohsiung in Taiwan.
The airline said it wants to fly to 22 destinations in the next three years including Australia, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Seoul.
Air Macau also said it expects to carry 30 percent more passengers than forecast for its first year of operation, a total of 650,000. Many use Macau as a staging post for semi-direct flights where they are not required to change planes between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.
--Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax +44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
HONG KONG, Oct 21 (Reuter) Cathay Pacific Airways said it has successfully handled its first load of pigs destined for breeding in China.
Cathay's in house newspaper said 300 pigs with an estimated value of HK$2.8 million were recently flown from Taiwan to Hong Kong en route for breeding farms in China. It said the eight pallets of swine were housed in two and three deck boxes specially equipped with automatic watering to keep them cool.
"As the pigs have a higher skin temperature than human beings, they are very afraid of heat. That's why we have to sprinkle water on them from time to time," Taiwanese herdsman Li Siou Tong told the newspaper.
He said the pigs were valuable breeds including Duroc, Landrace and Yorkshire which had originated in Sweden, the Netherlands nnd the United States. They are now in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen spending 45 days in quarantine before being transported all over China for breeding.
Paulo Chan, Cathay's cargo standards and performance manager, said it was the largest number of pigs yet flown by the airline.
- Air Cargo Newsroom Tel+44 171 542 7706 Fax+44 171 542 5017
| 15 |
Shipping magnate Tung Chee-hwa made his first appearance in China as Hong Kong's leader-in-waiting on Thursday as Beijing prepared the next milestone in the British colony's transition to Chinese rule.
In a one-day meeting on Thursday in Shenzhen, just over the border from Hong Kong, Tung was endorsed as successor to colonial governor Chris Patten by the 150-member Beijing-picked Preparatory Committee, which is crafting the territory's political future.
Britain hands Hong Kong back to China on July 1.
Tung, 59, was selected as the post-handover leader in Hong Kong on Wednesday by a separate 400-member body carefully assembled by Beijing, smothering his two rivals by winning 80 percent of the votes.
At the Preparatory Committee meeting in Shenzhen, presided over by Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen, Tung was greeted with hearty applause, smiles and back-patting as he entered the hall.
"We have already completed the selection of the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong... Tung Chee-hwa received the majority vote of 320," said senior Chinese envoy Lu Ping, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office.
Preparatory Committee Vice Chairman Wang Hanbin urged delegates to show their support for China's endorsement of Tung.
"If you don't have any objection, then approve it by applauding," Wang said, prompting the delegates, who include some of Hong Kong's top business leaders, to begin clapping.
In a meeting with reporters later, Tung reiterated his hope that Anson Chan, Hong Kong's popular chief secretary and head of the civil service, would stay on as his deputy.
"I haven't decided on my deputy, I hope Anson Chan will stay and I hope she can be my deputy," Tung said.
Tung said he would also work closely with the current British-led government to promote Hong Kong in the final months of colonial rule and ensure a smooth transition.
Tung's selection was met with scuffles, anger and apathy on Wednesday in Hong Kong, where pro-democracy activists and politicans denounced the selection process as undemocratic and condemned the magnate's appointment.
In addition to endorsing Tung's appointment on behalf of the Beijing government, Thursday's Preparatory Committee meeting in Shenzhen will also discuss a package of procedures for establishing a provisional legislature on December 21 that will replace Hong Kong's elected chamber with the handover.
The legislature plan has been strongly opposed by Hong Kong pro-democracy groups, which see it as a move to crush freedom and introduce repressive laws.
An official said the gathering was also expected to discuss a move by Britain to introduce a lenient anti-subversion law in Hong Kong before the handover. A Preparatory Committee legal sub-group has recommended repealing the British law.
Tung has said he would take a hard line against meddling by provincial Chinese bosses who may disregard Beijing's edict that Hong Kong be a Special Administrative Region of China with considerable autonomy in governing its own affairs.
Hong Kong's Economic Times newspaper said China was expected to rank the future chief executive as equal to a state councillor.
This position, one level below vice-premier, would mean he outranks provincial governors and will help discourage interference in Hong Kong affairs by regional cadres, it said.
| 45 |
Pro-democracy demonstrators stormed into a plush Hong Kong conference centre on Friday in an attempt to disrupt a historic meeting convened by China to choose Hong Kong's future leaders.
They were stopped by police before reaching the meeting, inaugurated earlier in the day by China's Foreign Minister Qian Qichen.
Protesters had gathered before dawn outside the Hong Kong Convention Centre where the 400-member Selection Committee was due to start its month-long mission to select the territory's Chief Executive and 60 members of a replacement legislature.
As delegates were returning from lunch, about a dozen demonstrators plunged through a side door of the convention centre and were chased up escalators by police.
They managed to reach the sixth floor, one floor away from the meeting, before at least seven were seized by police as they unfurled banners and shouted slogans.
Eyewitnesses said that two prominent members of the Democratic Party, Andrew To and Chan Kwok-leung, and independent activist Wong Chung-ki, were among those detained in the building.
In a second attempt to storm the building, three screaming demonstrators were dragged away by police on the street outside.
Scuffles ensued and at least one policeman was slightly injured when up to 40 chanting protesters surged against crowd control barriers, waving models of black coffins above their heads to symbolise the death of democracy.
Some of the demonstrators had camped overnight outside the building where Britain will formally return its colony to China in 228 days' time.
They were surrounded by police at dawn and herded behind barriers across the road.
Hong Kong's pro-democracy lobby has attacked the selection process and refused to take part in the selection committee which they have branded as undemocratic.
They are adamantly opposed to China's plan to dissolve the elected legislature and replace it with an interim provisional chamber until new elections are held.
Waving banners and using loudhailers, demonstrators chanted "We want a directly elected legislature" and "We reject the reversal of democracy".
Some of them held up black boxes, saying "This is a coffin. It represents the death of democracy and freedom in Hong Kong."
Members of the Democratic Party had planned to pass a letter to Qian but were unable to get past police lines. An official eventually came out to accept the letter.
"We hope you will exchange views with Hong Kong people on the setting up of the provisional legislature and selection of the Chief Executive," the letter said.
The Selection Committee was holding a first round of voting on Friday to narrow down the list of candidates to step into the shoes of colonial governor Chris Patten when British rule ends at midnight on June 30 next year.
To qualify, candidates for the job of Chief Executive must be nominated by at least 50 members of the committee.
Two business magnates and two former judges are regarded as the front-runners in the race. The Selection Committee meets again on December 11 to pick the winner.
| 45 |
Royal/Dutch Shell's plan to build an oil refinery in China inched closer to reality on Monday when Chinese oil officials revealed Beijing was close to giving its long-awaited approval.
A senior Chinese oil official involved in the US$6 billion refinery and chemical complex plan told Reuters that Beijing was poised to give its stamp of approval before the end of 1996.
"From what I know, it will be approved very soon by the Chinese government," the official said by telephone in Beijing.
"It will probably be this year," said the official.
The petrochemical complex, planned for Huizhou, in southern China's booming Guangdong province, has been on the drawing board since the late 1980s. A feasibility study report was presented to Beijing in February 1994.
Shell plans to hold 50 percent in the complex and China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) 20 percent, while the Guangdong provincial government, China Merchants Holding Company and state refiner SINOPEC each would have 10 percent.
"The Chinese side and Shell have discussed this for several years. Both sides have spent a lot of effort, money," said the official, who declined to be named.
If successful, the Shell plant would be the second joint venture refinery in the country to involve foreign participation. The 100,000 barrel per day Dalian refinery in northern China began trial runs in October. France's Total holds 20 percent of that facility along with various Chinese partners.
Indications that fresh developments on the long-stalled project might soon emerge came in September when a top Shell official met Chinese Premier Li Peng to discuss the company's future cooperation with China.
The project figured highly on the agenda when John Jennings, chairman of Shell Transport and Trading Co, met the Chinese premier in Beijing, oil sources earlier disclosed.
"That clearly was a sign that both sides were positive about the project," said a Shell spokesman by telephone.
Beijing's positive stance was spurred by the overriding concern that the country needed to increase its oil production and refining capacity to meet rising oil demand, the Chinese oil official said.
China's oil consumption is forecast to explode in the next few years, fuelled by economic reforms.
Experts estimate refined oil product consumption would grow at an average yearly rate of 5.7 percent during 1995-2000, reaching 4.1 million bpd in 2000 and 5.3 million bpd by 2005.
To meet rising demand, China would need to import 40 to 50 million tonnes of crude oil by 2000 compared with 17.09 million tonnes in 1995, experts said.
The World Bank has said China would overtake the United States as the world's biggest economy within the next generation and foreign oil companies are keen to tap its domestic market by building new refineries.
Shell's project has faced countless hurdles since the early 1990s, from high costs to strained bilateral relations.
The project was kept on tenterhooks in early 1993, when Sino-British ties plunged to a low over Hong Kong after Governor Chris Patten introduced democratic reforms in the colony, which reverts to Chinese rule in mid-1997.
China's credit-tightening policy in 1994 and centralisation of the country's oil policy in the same year erected further hurdles for the costly joint venture project.
"This project was initially thought to be gunned down... because it was too costly. But now, they want to go ahead with it," a source with state refiner SINOPEC said by telephone.
At the same time Shell started a long-drawn-out fight for more access to the booming domestic market in China.
Some Chinese officials are known to be reluctant to giving foreign oil companies toeholds in the massive market while others preferred foreign investments be channeled into upgrades of older refineries.
A Shell spokesman in Hong Kong said the company was hopeful of a speedy decision from Beijing.
Details of the joint venture have still to be worked out and the petrochemical complex, which would take at least four to five years to complete, would be ready only after 2000, Chinese oil sources said.
| 45 |
Newspapers in Hong Kong were dominated on Friday by reaction to the death of Deng Xiaoping, with many eulogising his reformist policies that made China, Hong Kong's future sovereign, rich and strong.
"Nobody in the course of this century raised the material standards of living of more people than Deng Xiaoping," the widely-circulated South China Morning Post said.
"That, in itself, would ensure Deng his place among the leading figures of the century," it said in its editorial.
Little effort was spared as newspapers splashed full-colour photographs of mourners in Hong Kong and China's southern border city of Shenzhen in Guangdong province.
While some papers noted Deng's role behind the military crackdown against 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests, the issue was not emphasised.
The military suppression had outraged Hong Kong at the time and shook confidence in the territory, which reverts to Chinese sovereignty at midnight on June 30.
"He deserves to be treated as one of China's greatest leaders," the Hongkong Standard said in a front-page editorial.
Deng, who died late on Wednesday at the age of 92 of complications from Parkinson's disease and a lung infection, was widely credited with transforming China from an improverished Stalinist state into an emerging economic powerhouse.
China's economic flowering helped drive Hong Kong, as factories owned by the territory's businessmen mushroomed in neighbouring Guangdong province and Chinese products poured through Hong Kong's port.
Deng also engineered the "one country, two systems" formula paving the way for the return of the British colony to China.
"Learn from Xiaoping's merits, actualise the one country, two systems," the independent Chinese-language Ming Pao said. "This is the best way to fulfil his dream...to ensure his vision lasts forever."
Some papers ran polls, awarding high marks for Deng's achievements. A Ming Pao survey of over 1,900 respondents found Deng scoring 6.4 out of nine for his achievements, while 60 percent thought his death would not affect Hong Kong.
Tin Tin Daily News said a poll of 90 people it conducted showed 85 percent were confident that the one-country, two-systems formula would be implemented.
Normally trim Beijing-backed newspapers Wen Wei Pao and Ta Kung Pao boasted separate takeouts filled with condolence advertisements from companies and individuals.
Perhaps the only discordant note in Hong Kong's eloquent song of praise was an off-colour quarter-page photograph on the front page of the Chinese-language Apple Daily, which it claimed to be Deng's last picture taken while alive in hospital in December.
Photographed secretly through a crack in the door, it showed a wan Deng, with eyes red-rimmed and puffy, staring blankly into space.
| 45 |
Hong Kong's future leader Tung Chee-hwa is making plans to travel to major Western countries in a bid to raise the profile of the territory and clear the air over important issues related to its sovereignty transfer.
The roadshow, still in the works and its timing dependent on Tung's workload, could materialise before July 1, when the British colony of more than 150 years reverts to Chinese rule, his spokeswoman told Reuters on Sunday.
"Mr Tung's trip is to give a real picture of Hong Kong. He feels some countries do not really understand the real situation in Hong Kong," spokeswoman Elin Wong said by telephone.
"It would be this year. If it is possible, before (July 1) but it depends on his workload," Wong said, adding it would probably include the United States and some European countries.
The trip, which would be Tung's first outside China since being selected in December under close Beijing supervision as the territory's first post-handover chief, would focus on a wide range of issues related to Hong Kong's handover.
"He will not just talk on any particular issue, but a range, on all aspects that are important to Hong Kong," Wong said.
Tung, however, is expected to focus on what he has deemed to be misunderstandings in the West over an interim lawmaking chamber which China has vowed to install in place of Hong Kong's elected legislature upon the handover.
The 60-member provisional legislature was formed in December by a pro-China panel of 400, the same body which selected Tung as Hong Kong's first Chief Executive from July 1.
Hong Kong's British-run government has refused to cooperate with the body and the territory's pro-democracy camp, particularly the popular Democratic Party, also opposes it.
At a public function on Saturday, Tung said Western countries, particularly the U.S., has not properly understood the provisional legislature and other important issues related to Hong Kong's handover.
"Mr Tung said he would try his utmost to promote Hong Kong before July 1, and he hopes to clear all the misunderstandings now held by Western countries," the China-funded Wen Hui Pao newspaper reported on Sunday.
In his fiercest attack to date on critics of the provisional legislature, Tung told them last week to stop criticising the future lawmaking chamber when talking to Western leaders, adding their actions were a disservice to Hong Kong.
| 45 |
The future leader of Hong Kong said on Thursday he would discuss the legality and funding of the territory's controversial post-colonial assembly with China's legislators during his visit to Beijing this weekend.
"I will discuss with the National People's Congress (NPC) the legal status of the provisional legislature, and also find out more on the arrangements for its funding," Tung Chee-hwa told reporters after a public function.
The former shipping boss did not say whether he would ask the Chinese parliament to pass a law to endorse the existence of the provisional legislature, which was formed on December 21 in China's southern city of Shenzhen.
Tung had previously said he may ask the NPC to enact such legislation if the need arose.
Britain and the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong say China's installation of the provisional legislature is illegal under the 1984 United Nations-registered Joint Declaration, which sets out the framework for the colony's returns to China.
China, upset by Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten's electoral reforms in the twilight of British rule, set up the legislature to reverse these reforms when it resumes sovereignty of the colony at midnight on June 30.
The interim chamber was chosen by a 400-strong Selection Committee, hand-picked by Beijing. The committee also selected Tung to succeed Patten.
Tung has said the provisional legislature would soon hold its first meeting. However it will meet in China, not Hong Kong, in order to avoid a legal challenge by the colony's Democratic Party. The territory's biggest pro-democracy group says it is constitutionally illegal to have two legislatures operating at the same time.
Tung said he would try to persuade the Democrats to accept the provisional body during a meeting with them next Thursday. "The provisional legislature has the right to exist. I hope that everyone ... can accept it," he said.
The chief executive-designate also said he would hold talks with Chinese officials during his two-day visit to the Chinese capital, but would not be more specific.
Tung visited Beijing on December 17 for the first time after his selection as Chief Executive and was received by President Jiang Zemin, Premier Li Peng and Foreign Minister Qian Qichen.
| 45 |
China's Zhenhai Refining & Chemical Co Ltd, whose stock price has been lashed by the U.S. missile attacks on Iraq, said investors had over-reacted and assured it was able to overcome present difficulties.
"I would call the reaction in (the stock market in) Hong Kong merely psychological...there is minimal real impact, and if crude prices are high now we just would not buy," said a senior manager in Ningbo, eastern Zhejiang province, by telephone.
The Chinese oil refiner's share price in Hong Kong crashed almost 10 percent to HK$2.05 intraday on Tuesday before closing at HK$2.075, down 20 cents on investor fears that the refinery would be hit badly by the sharp hike in crude oil prices.
It regained only partway on Wednesday to close at HK$2.175.
After the first U.S. missile attack on Tuesday, oil prices hit their highest level since Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, and investors feared Zhenhai - which runs predominantly on imported crudes and sells most of its output into China's domestic markets where product prices are strictly fixed - would be hit.
But the eight-million tonne per year refiner, which had stopped buying crude oil cargoes since the start of the Iraqi crisis on Monday, said its crude stock-pile would help tide over high prices, at least in the short term.
"It's very hard to say how prices will go, but for now, we have our two months worth of crude stock-pile," he said.
The refiner, China's third largest, imports up to 55 percent of its crude needs from overseas, and covers 25 percent from China's offshore production.
Twenty percent is supplied from China's highly subsidised domestic onshore production, the manager said.
While 30 percent of Zhenhai's output is sold into international markets, the volume would be increased should high crude oil prices persist, he said.
"There is no limit on how much we can export, so we can push it up to cover our higher costs," he said.
-- HONG KONG NEWSROOM (852) 2843-6441
| 45 |
Thousands of Hong Kong people took to the streets under rain-filled skies on Sunday to celebrate the 100-day countdown to the resumption of Chinese rule over the British colony at midnight on June 30.
The bad weather failed to dampen an outburst of nationalistic pride as dragons, lions and unicorns -- Chinese symbols of luck and joy -- pranced to the deafening clash of cymbals and drums.
More than 7,000 people of all ages from more than 100 pro-Beijing community organisations took part in the parade which wound through busy streets on Hong Kong island.
When Hong Kong, a British colony for more than 150 years, returns to China, it will become a Special Administrative Region (SAR) governed by its own Chief Executive and promised considerable autonomy in running its affairs.
"This is a grand and great occasion. In just 100 days, we will return to the Chinese motherland," said chief organiser Raymond Wu at the start of the rally which gathered in Victoria Park -- named after the British queen who reigned when Britain seized Hong Kong from a weak China in the 19th century.
"We welcome the washing away of over a century of humiliation and shame," Wu said to a burst of applause.
The present Queen's head is disappearing from the territory's coins and stamps. Victoria Park will be renamed Central Park after the handover.
Few of the merry-makers as much as glanced at the massive bronze statute of Victoria in the park as they left for a march through the streets.
Sporting red and white baseball caps and waving little red and gold flags of China interspersed with the red and white flags of the new Hong Kong SAR, the crowds marched through busy streets, laughing and urging bystanders to join in. Few did.
Not everyone was as joyful as those in the parade.
A handful of demonstrators, their mouths taped shut, took up position around the base of Victoria's statue and held up placards condemning China's military crackdown on student-led demonstrators around Beijing's Tiananmen Square in June, 1989.
"People are bleeding, butchers are celebrating, shame on you," the black and white placards read.
But they failed to get much attention.
"They are mad. This is a glorious occasion. The past has been a shame for Hong Kong. I cannot wait for the handover," a bystander, Wu, 65, told Reuters.
| 45 |
The president of Chinese state oil refiner Sinopec said on Thursday the country planned to increase refining capacity and ethylene production to help keep up with rapid economic growth and fast rising energy demand.
"Within the ninth five-year plan (1996-2000), we will boost our economic system and growth...According to the government, we have been designated a pillar industry in the country," said Sheng Huaren, president of China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec).
Sheng was speaking at the beginning of a five-day exhibition in Hong Kong featuring more than 60 Sinopec subsidiaries, amongst them refiners, petrochemical plants, engineering companies and trade and investment arms.
Sheng outlined Sinopec's expansion plans in two phases.
By 2000, the company will have increased its refining capacity to over 200 million tonnes per year (4.0 million barrels per day bpd ) while its ethylene production capacity would hit around five million tonnes per year.
By 2010, refining capacity will hit 300 to 350 million tonnes per year (up to 7.0 million bpd) while ethylene production would reach 8.0 to 10 million tonnes, Sheng said.
Sinopec's crude refining capacity is currently 166 million tonnes per year, with ethylene output at 2.36 million tonnes per year.
Fast economic growth is forecast to raise China's oil demand. Experts say refined oil product consumption will rise to 4.2 million bpd in 2000 and 6.8 million bpd in 2010 from 3.07 million bpd in 1995.
The world's sixth largest oil producer, China became a net oil importer in 1993 when brisk economic development outpaced domestic oil output, which is burdened by ageing oilfields and a lack of new discoveries.
While attempts are being made to locate new fields, Beijing has also given a clear mandate for refineries, particularly those along the coast and in big cities, to expand their capacities and upgrade to produce cleaner, more environmentally friendly products.
There are also indications that primary oil refining expansion will be accompanied by upgrading secondary petrochemical plants.
"The code is now "oil and chemical'. Based on experiences of the oil industry elsewhere, such an approach is more realistic, comprehensive," said a senior official with the Fujian refinery, in the southeastern province of Fujian.
China's biggest refinery, Yanshan in Beijing, plans to increase its 9.5 million tonnes per year capacity to 10 million tonnes before 2000, a senior official told Reuters.
Ethylene production, which has been expanded from 300,000 tonnes per year to 450,000 tonnes per year since September 1994, will be increased to 600,000 tonnes during the same period, she said.
In Fujian, the 2.5 million tonnes per year refinery will be expanded to 4.0 million tonnes by 1997. Talks are also underway with foreign investors to expand capacity further to 8.0 million tonnes per year and build an ethylene plant of 600,000 tonnes capacity, a Fujian official said.
Fierce bidders for the 10 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) joint venture plan are Amoco Corp and Exxon Corp.
Yangzi refinery in Nanjing in Jiangsu province plans to raise capacity to 8.0 million tonnes from 5.5 million tonnes per year, a senior refinery official said.
It signed a letter of intent with BASF AG in March to build an integrated petrochemical site. The 50-50 joint venture, worth 50 billion yuan ($6 billion), has 16 plants, one of which is a 600,000 tonnes per year ethylene facility.
(US$1 = 8.3 yuan)
--Hong Kong newsroom (852) 28436441
| 45 |
European parliamentarians urged Hong Kong people on Tuesday to "speak up and not shut up" in the face of growing fears that China will roll back democratic freedoms when the territory reverts to China.
They also said they will recommend to the European Parliament to urge Britain to contest China's decision to replace the territory's elected legislature with an appointed interim chamber at the handover at midnight of June 30.
"Our message to Hong Kong is don't shut up, speak up," said Graham Watson, a member of the British Liberal Democratic Party, at a news conference during a two-day visit.
Citing a European maxim, Watson said, "What is required for evil to triumph is for good people to remain silent", adding that democracy was now the way of the world, while totalitarianism and dictatorship was evil.
Watson and three other members of the European Parliament (MEPs) met Hong Kong's future leader Tung Chee-hwa, prominent lawyers and members of Hong Kong's current elected legislature, and will meet colonial Governor Chris Patten.
Hong Kong, a British colony of over 150 years, reverts to China from July 1, and fears are mounting among its 6.4 million people that its democratic freedoms and rights, introduced by Britain in the final years of its rule, will be snuffed out.
Chief amongst Hong Kong's worries is a China-crafted provisional legislature which will replace the elected chamber, and Beijing's plan to amend or strike down a string of laws protecting civil liberties and democracy.
Tung, who replaces Patten on July 1, has backed the proposed changes, arguing that they were mere technicalities and necessary to preserve social order.
The MEPs, who criticised Britain for being too late in bringing democracy and civil rights to Hong Kong, also said London should contest the legality of the shadow legislature in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.
"We believe the United Kingdom would have a good case...for going to the United Nations, even the Security Council and asking for the matter to be referred to the ICJ," Watson said.
"We believe that the abolition of the elected Legislative Council is an illegal act, and we believe it should be challenged in international law," he said.
London has said its hands are tied on the matter as China has refused to refer the issue to the world court. The MEPs however thought the matter should be pursued.
"There is nothing to stop the United Kingdom taking it to the United Nations...we would like to see the panoply of legal instruments in due process in law be used, even if in the end the process is frustrated," Watson said.
A dozen activists staged a noisy protest at the office of future leader Tung on Tuesday morning, demanding an apology for his support of China's plans.
The group, a coalition of 27 grassroot organisations which called itself the Hong Kong People's United Front for the Defence of Human Rights, chanted slogans and called on Tung to relate the views of Hong Kong people to Chinese leaders.
"We strongly request the future chief executive to apologise to all Hong Kong people and to honestly reflect their views to the Chinese government and to do his duty by defending human rights, freedom and the rule of law," the group said in a letter later given to Tung's office employees.
| 45 |
One of Hong Kong's best-known pro-democracy politicians, Emily Lau, was dragged away kicking and screaming by police after lying down on a road to protest against China's methods of choosing a post-colonial leader.
Up to 40 pro-democracy activists scuffled with riot police outside the Hong Kong Convention Centre, where a committee of 400 chosen by Beijing voted for a chief executive to rule Hong Kong after Britain hands the colony back to China at midnight next June 30.
A dozen activists shouting "oppose the phoney election" lay down on the road and were dragged away by police.
Lau, an independent democrat fiercely critical of China's communist rulers, was among those carried off, witnesses said. It was not immediately clear if they were arrested.
Fellow legislators Andrew Cheng of the Democratic Party and trade union leader Lee Cheuk-yan were also hauled away.
"It's a sad day for Hong Kong. What can ordinary Hong Kong citizens do -- they cannot vote," John Wing-ling Tse, a legislator of the Democratic Party said.
Earlier, protesters erected a "tomb of democracy" outside the building and condemned the voting as the end of freedom and the rule of law in the territory.
Only the 400 electors chosen by China voted for the future leader. None of the rest of Hong Kong's 6.3 million people had a vote.
Several hundred pro-democracy activists demonstrated on Tuesday evening and 20 diehards camped out overnight with the imitation tomb in front of the Grand Hyatt Hotel.
As the Selection Committee members arrived in shiny limousines, their first sight was an imitation ancient Chinese-style grey arched tomb, constructed from wood.
The structure faced the Hong Kong Convention Centre with the inscription "Tomb Of Hong Kong Democracy And Rule Of Law". Candles flickered in the wind beside it.
The committee was convened to carry out the first of two historic tasks -- to elect the man who will step into the shoes of Governor Chris Patten when Britain pulls out. The clear favourite was shipping magnate Tung Chee-Hwa.
The committee's second task, on December 21, is to choose a provisional legislature that will replace the current elected Legco (Legislative Council) on July 1.
The scuffles erupted after police urged the demonstrators, from the United Front Against the Provisional Legislature, to move to a cordoned-off area.
Occasionally the group marched a short distance bearing the tomb aloft, as in a funeral procession. In front of the tomb a banner was posted saying "Death of Hong Kong Rule Of Law".
"We are against the Selection Committee's so-called election of the first chief executive," said Cheng. "The selection is not real because it is done by Beijing," the legislator said.
The protesters brandished a colourful banner with the slogan "Oppose the False Election Of The Chief Executive, Oppose The Provisional Legislature" and denounced China for not allowing Hong Kong's electorate to vote.
"This is an abuse of their human rights. Some people are more equal and have more rights. In other cultures it is always your vote that counts. In Hong Kong this is apparently not the case," Tse said.
"They say they represent Hong Kong and Hong Kong people but they are not elected. How can they represent us if they are not elected? What is an election with 400 appointees?"
| 45 |
China would, if requested by Hong Kong, provide its support to stabilise fluctuations in the territory's financial markets after the handover next year, China's central bank governor said on Wednesday.
"In case of need, the People's Bank of China will, at the request of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and in accordance with the Basic Law and market practices, provide its support," said Dai Xianglong during a dinner speech to the Hong Kong Association of Banks.
But Dai said he believed the HKMA was fully capable of handling fluctuations in Hong Kong's financial markets around the handover.
The British colony reverts to Chinese rule at midnight on June 30, 1997. Under joint Sino-British treaties, Hong Kong will maintain its own separate financial regime and currency.
Dai did not elaborate on what measures the central bank would take if the need arose.
In response to reporters questions, Dai said there was no truth in recent press reports that China was putting together a 300 billion yuan fund to help stabilise Hong Kong's financial markets after the handover.
"I don't know where those reports came from. There is no such thing," Dai told reporters at a press conference after the dinner.
China's central bank was determined to let Hong Kong run its own financial system, he said.
"The People's Bank of China will not replace the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and will not set up any branches in Hong Kong," Dai said. "Mainland financial institutions in Hong Kong will not enjoy any special privileges. They will be subject to the same supervision of the financial regulatory authorities of Hong Kong on the same regulatory standards."
He also said Beijing would not levy any tax in Hong Kong nor would it, for any reason or in any manner, use Hong Kong's Exchange Fund or other assets.
Dai said mainland companies participating in Hong Kong's market would be on the same footing as foreign or Hong Kong firms.
Addressing concerns that Shanghai would overtake Hong Kong in financial importance, Dai said Shanghai's financial status would be enhanced in the future.
"However, for a relatively long period of time, it (Shanghai) will not be an international financial centre, let alone replace Hong Kong," he said.
Dai also said there was a close business relationship between China and Hong Kong.
Hong Kong investment in China reached US$78.6 billion by the end of 1995, accounting for 58 percent of total foreign investment in the mainland.
In 1995, 90 percent of syndicated loans in China were arranged in Hong Kong and 90 percent of Chinese enterprises listed overseas chose to list in Hong Kong.
-- Hong Kong Newsroom (852) 2843 6441
| 45 |
Long before Hong Kong's handover to China, celebrity painter Liu Yu Yi, whose portrait subjects include Beijing's leaders, is already benefiting from the return of Britain's last Asian outpost to the Chinese fold.
Spanning an entire wall in his home in Hong Kong's posh Mid-levels district is an almost finished oil painting depicting over 200 famous personalities at a feast celebrating the handover at midnight on June 30.
Central on the canvas is China's paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, the man hailed as the architect of the "one country, two systems" formula under which Hong Kong would be treated after the handover.
Raising a toast, Deng is flanked by President Jiang Zemin, Premier Li Peng and Tung Chee-hwa, the man who will run Hong Kong after Britain hands back its colony of more than 150 years.
"I am using art to capture this momentous event that is watched by all nations of the world," Liu, reclining on a sofa, told Reuters during an interview.
THE CHINA BREAKTHROUGH
Trained at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, Liu shot to fame in 1993 when he sold "Liang Xiao" (Festive Evening) -- a flashback to a historic gathering of China's leaders in 1950 -- for HK$8.36 million (US$1.08 million).
It was the highest price paid for a contemporary Chinese work of art, and he has been hitting jackpots ever since.
He sold "Song of the Goddess Nu Wa" for HK$8.88 million in 1994 and "Gathering of Immortals" for HK$10.8 million in 1995.
THE HONGKONG CONNECTION
Whether because of his talent, access to high places or being in the right place at the right time, Liu has penetrated the ranks of the rich and influential since coming to Hong Kong in 1991.
Liu, whose entire family lived on his monthly wage of 40 yuan (US$4.80) in the 1970s, has done portraits of Hong Kong business titans such as Li Ka-shing, Stanley Ho, Simon Li, Gordon Wu and Run Run Shaw.
Mindful of the handover five months away, Hong Kong's rich and pragmatic have been embracing their mainland peers, be they politicians, businessmen or artists, and are stocking up their homes with Chinese art and antiques.
But the well-connected Liu, who drew Tung into his work on the handover more than five months before the tycoon was even selected as Hong Kong's first colonial leader, betrayed little when asked what sparked the insight.
"I just thought he was the likeliest candidate," he chuckled before adding that the dozen empty headslots would be drawn in after Tung announces his team-designate.
SUCCESS DIDN'T COME EASY
Liu's real break came in 1988 when "Festive Evening" was exibited in the Memorial Hall of the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong.
It prompted a request from Beijing for Liu to create another work. The resulting "Ren Min Wan Sui" or "Long Live The People" has adorned Beijing's Tiananmen Rostrum since 1990.
But all this did not come easy for the artist who was sent off to toil in a rural commune during the ultra-leftist years of the Mao-inspired Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).
"I suffered tremendous shock, persecution. They said I was a 'black' artist, that I did not conform politically," Liu said.
"Seven years. Seven years I lost time to practise my art. I only came back in 1977, then I painted again," he said.
CULTURAL REVOLUTION HARDSHIPS PROVIDED INSPIRATION
Ironically, it was those years of persecution and aimless toil that inspired "Liang Xiao", his first work after the end of the revolution, and a piece which would take him till 1984.
"After the Cultural Revolution, I wanted to say many things which had been locked in my heart. I saw all the chaos and fighting. I was very depressed and I suffered a lot," Liu said.
"I knew this can never be repeated. I wished that it would be 'liang xiao' every night. That every night would be wonderful and whole for the country. That was what I wanted to say."
Things have looked up since for Liu, whose works echo the leanings of socialist realism, a creed that was hammered into intellectuals and artists during the late 1950s.
Snubbing the formulaic mountains, valleys, bamboo trees and the miniature people of lofty Chinese landscape art, Liu said: "These works have lasted for too long in China. From the Song Dynasty onwards, too many, too many.
"Under my hand, my pursuit is different...that of entry into the world, not retreat. To immerse into this world," he said.
FELLOW ARTISTS AND CRITICS LESS KIND
While Liu's talent as a portrait painter is admired, the material success that his brushes have brought more than just raised eyebrows from those in his trade.
Gallery owner Karl McLean, who helped sell "Song of the Goddess Nu Wa", said: "He's a very good portrait painter, and has very good connections in Beijing...but the artists hate him, they think he is just political and very commercial.
"I think he's a very clever guy, he's a very smart guy. He knows how to make money and he knows how to handle the rich. He knows how to get them to pay up big time," McLean told Reuters. (US$1 = HK$7.73)
| 45 |
A leading Chinese dissident has fled to Hong Kong just days after a colleague in Beijing was sent to a labour camp and is reported to be seeking asylum in the United States, government-funded radio said on Sunday.
Radio Television Hong Kong quoted an unidentified source close to veteran democracy activist Wang Xizhe as saying he had seen Wang in Hong Kong and that he appeared to be in good health.
Wang has been missing from his home in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong since fellow activist Liu Xiaobo was arrested in Beijing last Tuesday and ordered to serve three years in a labour camp.
"The source said Mr Wang started planning his departure as soon as Mr Liu was arrested," Radio Television Hong Kong said.
"He confirmed that he had seen the dissident in Hong Kong and that his health was good," it said.
Wang had approached members of the pressure group, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of the Democratic Movement in China, for help, the radio said.
They in turn had asked the Hong Kong government to help the democracy activist to seek political asylum in the United States, it said. A government spokesman declined to comment.
However, one Hong Kong source with close ties to the Democratic Movement said Wang could leave Hong Kong for the United States as early as Sunday night.
Wang would be the second Chinese dissident to escape to the United States via Hong Kong this year.
Dissident Liu Gang fled last May following months of police harassment at his home in northeastern Liaoning province since his release after serving a six-year prison term as a leader of the 1989 student-led demonstrations for more democracy.
Wang Xizhe had been active in recent months, sending several daring open letters to the government.
On September 30, Wang joined activist Liu Xiaobo in issuing a statement urging China's communist authorities to honour a promise in 1945 to give people freedom of the press and speech and to form political parties and stage demonstrations.
In a bold move, the two demanded Communist Party chief Jiang Zemin be indicted, impeached and step down for violating the constitution for saying the People's Liberation Army was under the "absolute leadership" of the party instead of the state.
Wang was paroled in 1993 after serving 12 years of a 14-year term for sedition and remains deprived of his political rights and thus is not permitted to issue such public statements.
He has long been one of China's most outspoken proponents of democracy.
Wang began his activities in 1974 when he has one of three authors of a renowned pro-democracy article that was pasted up as a wall-poster in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province.
Wang and his two co-authors served several years in jail for his audacity in challenging the authoritarian rule of Chairman Mao Zedong but was released in 1979.
That same year he took part in the Democracy Wall movement in Beijing, but was not arrested until 1981.
His reported escape comes amid a renewed crackdown on China's tiny, struggling democracy movement.
Detained dissident and former student leader Wang Dan faces the capital charge of plotting to subvert the government in a trial that could take place as early as this week based on evidence such as writings critical of the state and accepting funds from abroad, a human rights group said.
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Ominous gray clouds scudded over Hong Kong on Sunday as the British colony marked the 100-day countdown to the handover, but there were few physical signs of gloom and doom in the wealthy community of six million.
More than 7,000 Hong Kong people took to the streets to the din of cymbols and kettle drums in a patriotic fervour to celebrate the impending reunion with China at midnight on June 30, 1997.
A stone's throw away, thousands more, most of them westerners and swelled by an influx of visitors, indulged in the ritualistic orgy that has built up around the annual international Rugby seven-a-side tournament.
The tournament was honoured this year, the last under British rule, when Rugby Authorities made it into the world cup event.
The 28th and last British governor, Chris Patten, described Hong Kong as running as smoothly as a Rolls Royce limousine -- but warned China against tinkering with the finely tuned machinery that is the Hong Kong of 1997.
But for the majority of Hong Kong's hardworking citizenry, it was a normal Sunday. A chance for a lie-in, a family gathering at a restaurant -- a day off from work.
With just 100 days to go, Hong Kong is awash in a sea of differing emotions.
Some, like the street revellers, are delighted that more than 150 years of Chinese humiliation is about to end.
"This is a grand and great occasion. In just 100 days, we will return to the Chinese motherland," said chief organiser Raymond Wu as the revellers gathered in Victoria Park -- named after the queen who reigned when Britain, at the height of its imperial powers, wrested Hong Kong from China's weak and crumbling Qing dynasty in the mid-19th century.
"We welcome the washing away of over a century of humiliation and shame," Wu said to a burst of applause.
Others fret, particularly the pro-democracy camp, about their future under a China that has already put in place plans to dilute civil liberties and dissolve the elected legislative council -- undoing democratic reforms spearheaded by Patten.
A handful of demonstrators, their mouths taped shut in what they said was a symbol of things to come, took up position around the base of Queen Victoria's statue and held up placards condemning China's brutal military crackdown on student-led demonstrators around Beijing's Tiananmen Square in June 1989.
Many people are simply keeping their fingers crossed.
But Hong Kong, as it enters the last leg of its drawn out transition from British colony to Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China, has defied those who forecast a society in chaos, of panic, economic collapse and deserted buildings.
Patten said Hong Kong had reached this moment in its history in first class condition.
He cited a poll conducted earlier this month by the 1997 Transition Project at Hong Kong's Baptist University that found that 90 percent of the people here were happy with life.
Patten said the views that Hong Kong would quickly adjust to the rolling back of freedoms or of more authoritarian government were dubious.
"Hong Kong is, as I said recently, a smoothly functioning community. It's like a Rolls Royce," Patten said.
"All you need to do if you're in charge is to slip into the driving seat, switch on the ignition and away you go.
"I don't quite see the point of lifting the bonnet to tinker with the engine. That only raises worries about whether it will work so well, and whether you may be persuaded by some people to start stripping it down for spare parts."
| 45 |
Hong Kong's colonial Governor Chris Patten on Monday refused a request by future leader Tung Chee-hwa to support the interim legislature China will install in the territory when the British depart next year.
Shipping magnate Tung, emerging from his first meeting with Patten since being chosen on December 11 by a China-controlled committee to head Hong Kong from next July 1, told reporters that Patten flatly refused to provide any help to the new legislature in the run-up to the transfer of sovereignty to China.
"I brought up the work of the provisional legislature. I hope Mr Patten and the Hong Kong government can give help," Tung told reporters outside Government House, Patten's residence.
"But Mr Patten's position was very clear. I didn't successfully convince him," Tung said.
Both men emerged from a 1-1/2 hour meeting to exchange hearty handshakes and make brief speeches to the press, but mentioned little else of what transpired behind closed doors.
Describing the discussion as "long and constructive", both said they agreed to meet in the future when the need arose.
Patten, looking serious next to Tung, managed the occasional smile for photographers but turned to lead Tung into a waiting car immediately after his successor completed his short speech.
Neither of them took questions.
Monday's meeting was conducted under a cloud of strained Sino-British relations after China snubbed British objections and went ahead last Saturday with naming the provisional legislature that will replace the current elected Legislative Council (Legco) when Hong Kong returns to Chinese control 190 days from now.
The interim assembly was designed by China to reverse electoral reforms that Patten introduced unilaterally in recent years.
The move came under an international spotlight after British Foreign Minister Malcolm Rifkind on Friday challenged China to let the World Court rule on the legality of the new assembly.
Patten also lashed out at the new lawmaking body on Saturday, calling its appointment by a 400-member Selection Committee "a bizarre farce" and a "stomach-churning" process.
"What it shows about China is that, here it is taking over responsibility for a First World economy but they're trying to foist on us political institutions which a Third World country would reject," Patten had said.
"Here we are having foisted on us institutions which, frankly, you wouldn't try to run a tennis club with," he said.
China, however, has warned Britain against creating problems and to keep out of Hong Kong's affairs after the handover.
"After 1997, Hong Kong will be an internal affair of China. No foreign countries can interfere with China's internal affair," China's envoy in Hong Kong, Zhou Nan, told reporters.
"Whether Britain wants to accept my advice is up to it. But if it wants to create more new trouble, I don't think it will be out of the ordinary," he said on Monday at a public function.
The controversial new body is dominated by pro-Beijing figures, including 33 incumbent lawmakers and many politicians who lost to pro-democracy candidates in the 1995 Legco election.
The Democratic Party, the biggest single winner in last year's election with 19 of the 60 Legco seats, boycotted the creation of the provisional body, branding it undemocratic.
The Provisional Legislative Council, as it will be known, is to sit from July 1 until a new legislature can be created via elections.
| 45 |
The sentencing of Chinese dissident Wang Dan to 11 years in prison in Beijing on Wednesday sparked fears in Hong Kong about curbs on freedoms when the territory reverts to China next year.
Hong Kong activists denounced the verdict, and a human rights group vowed to lobby for a resolution to be passed at the United Nations condemning China's human rights record.
A Beijing court on Wednesday found the 27-year-old former student leader Wang guilty of the capital offence of conspiring to subvert the government.
Wang, who faced a potential maximum penalty of death for the charge, was also stripped of political rights for two years, a typical Chinese punishment for critics of communist rule.
The verdict, at a trial lasting less than four hours, raised an outcry in the British colony, which returns to Chinese rule in 244 days.
"We worry that the Chinese government (would) apply a similar standard in Hong Kong," legislator Bruce Liu of the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood said.
"Then the freedom of Hong Kong will be limited and (people) will be charged if we openly criticise the Chinese government."
Pro-democracy activists who staged an overnight vigil in front of Beijing's de facto embassy in Hong Kong shouted slogans when they heard the news about Wang on the radio.
Robin Munro, director of the Hong Kong office of Human Rights Watch Asia, said the trial was extraordinarily short for what was deemed the most serious offence in China's criminal law.
"By any legal standards, today's trial of Wang Dan was a farce. Clearly, its sole purpose was to put Wang Dan behind bars for as long as possible with the minimum legal fuss and bother," Munro told Reuters.
"What more evidence does the international community now need before it will wake up to the fact that (Beijing) is not advancing towards a more liberal regime...but is becoming less tolerant of peaceful political opposition and absolutely determined to silence critics by any means possible?" he said.
While Hong Kong has been promised a high degree of autonomy for the next 50 years under a Sino-British handover treaty, many doubt whether the freedoms now enjoyed will be preserved.
Munro said his organisation would lobby the United States and Europe to pass a resolution at the United Nations condemning the human rights situation in China.
Hong Kong activists also planned a demonstration in front of China's mission on Wednesday night, and another on Sunday.
| 45 |
China on Wednesday gave Hong Kong a free hand to arrange media coverage of the colony's historic handover to Beijing, ending fears that the country's communist rulers might restrict press access.
Chinese and British negotiators working on details of Hong Kong's transfer of sovereignty announced the agreement after their latest round of talks.
"We very much look forward to as many as possible of the international press and the local press being interested in participating and recording and reporting on the handover ceremony," Hugh Davies, British team chief at the Joint Liaison Group (JLG), told reporters.
The JLG negotiates the fine details of the transfer of the territory of 6.4 million people to Chinese rule.
Many in Hong Kong, including human rights activists and pro-democracy politicians, had voiced fears that China would not consent to a media invasion without the right to vet which journalists attended.
In a joint statement both countries said arrangements for media coverage would be made by the Hong Kong government.
"The two sides have agreed to entrust the Hong Kong government to receive and process applications from journalists, as well as handle and arrange other matters relating to media coverage of the handover ceremony," the statement said.
Application forms for media accreditation will be distributed by the Hong Kong government's Handover Ceremony Coordination Office from March 15 and should be returned before April 7.
Hong Kong, a British colony for over 150 years, reverts to Chinese rule at midnight on June 30, and the government expects 6,000 foreign and local media representatives to cover the event.
Asked if the Hong Kong government would set any special conditions for accreditation, Davies said he did not envisage applicants being turned down.
"There will be no criteria applied ... provided you don't turn out to be a terrorist," he told reporters.
| 45 |
Britain and China have agreed to work on a new anti-espionage law in Hong Kong, to take effect after the colony is handed back to Beijing next year, a Chinese official said on Friday after three days of negotiations.
Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jihua, China's team leader in the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group (JLG) talks, said the countries agreed that Britain's official secrets act would be localised.
"The official secrets act is a British law...which was extended to Hong Kong. Hong Kong has not got its own official secrets act so we are talking about the localisation of the act in Hong Kong," Zhao told a news conference.
But Beijing also warned Britain not to rock the boat by making any major legal changes on its own before the territory of 6.3 million people reverts to China next July 1.
Speaking amid heightened anxiety over the handover of Hong Kong to Chinese rule, Zhao also tried to reassure local people they would continue to have complete freedom of movement after 1997.
"For Hong Kong residents, they can rest assured that the freedom of entry and exit into and out of Hong Kong will continue to be guaranteed," Zhao said.
But Zhao said Chinese negotiators had protested to Britain about a draft anti-subversion bill unveiled by the colonial administration last week, a law that sets legal markers against China-style jailings of dissidents.
China reacted angrily to the move when it was announced. Britain has accused China of blocking efforts to draft laws on subversion, sedition and treason for the handover.
Zhao said Britain had violated the 1984 Joint Declaration, the Sino-British handover treaty, and Hong Kong's future constitution, the Basic Law.
"During the plenary session, the Chinese side pointed out to the British side that the British action is in fact unilateral change in the law previously enforced in Hong Kong without consultation and consensus with China.
"This is a breach of the Joint Declaration. This act is attempting to legislate on behalf of the future Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China. In essense this is an act which is in contravention of the Basic Law.
"Such an act will never be acceptable to the Chinese side and the British side has to bear full responsibility for all the consequences," Zhao said.
He said Beijing hoped there would be no more "disturbances" because it ran against the aim of having a smooth transition.
"We certainly hope it won't affect our relations. But I can't deny that it will definitely affect future discussions."
| 45 |
Lehman Brothers and state-owned China International United Petroleum and Chemicals Co Ltd (Unipec) on Monday announced settlement of a 22-month foreign-exchange trading quarrel and resolved to get on with business.
The US$44 million dispute over currency and swap option trading had been broiling since November 1994.
The settlement means that only one of Lehman's three high-profile disputes with Chinese state-owned companies remains to be resolved.
A joint statement by Unipec and Lehman said only that their foreign exchange trading dispute had been resolved.
"Unipec plays a vital role in China's economy as the largest importer of crude oil...with this situation behind us, Lehman Brothers is keen to get on with developing our business in China," Lehman said.
Unipec returned the compliment, saying that it anticipated working with Lehman in the future.
Lehman filed a US$44 million lawsuit in New York in November 1994 claiming that the Chinese trader had reneged on obligations over certain foreign exchange and swap transactions after incurring losses.
Unipec had hit back with a counterclaim saying Lehman had taken orders from certain Hong Kong firms with which Unipec was not affiliated
"Unipec and Lehman have come to a settlement agreement. Lehman has cancelled the lawsuit, and we have cancelled our counterclaim," said a senior Unipec manager by telephone.
The quarrel brought unwelcome attention to Unipec and illuminated the sometimes unorthodox ways in which Chinese companies deal with foreign counterparts.
Oil industry watchers said the case had hurt the reputation of the Chinese oil trader, which was set up only in January 1993, and it would be a while before it regained the confidence of its peers.
"Damage has already been done to Unipec, and it has been suffering especially in the U.S., with everyone asking for letters of credit when the case exploded...it's better for them to close the matter," said an oil trading manager with a major oil company in Singapore.
Another oil industry observer agreed, saying "it takes a while for people to accept them back."
Still outstanding is Lehman's US$53 million suit against China's Minmetals International Non-Ferrous Metals Trading Co, which arose in late 1994 in similar circumstances.
Minmetals subsequently filed a US$128 million countersuit, including six counter claims of fraud, alleging Lehman knew the investments were unsuitable for it.
"We would love to reach a settlement (with Minmetals). We are now in negotiations and that's about it," a Lehman spokesman in Hong Kong said by telephone.
Lehman in April reached a settlement with the New York branch of oil trader Sinochem, parent of Unipec, of a US$20 million lawsuit concerning losses incurred on US$300 million of securities trades which the Chinese firm refused to recognise.
| 45 |
Hong Kong's pro-Taiwan community flew Nationalist Chinese flags across the territory on Thursday to mark Taiwan's national day for what could be the last time before China takes over in mid-1997.
As champagne glasses clinked amidst the laughter of hundreds of guests, Taiwanese hosts and well-known artistes flown in for the grand event in the posh Regent Hotel fronting the Victoria Harbour, many wondered if they would be able to celebrate in the same style next year.
"We don't know about next year, we have to see how the future Hong Kong government decides," Zheng An Guo, general manager of the Chong Hua Travel Agency, Taipei's de facto mission in Hong Kong, told reporters.
Hong Kong, a British colony for over a century and a half, reverts to Chinese rule on July 1, 1997. Under its Basic Law, a mini-constitution which takes effect from the handover, is a clause that Hong Kong must observe the "one-China" principle.
Communist China regards Taiwan as a rebel province since the Nationalist government fled to the island after losing the Chinese civil war in 1949 and has long sought to push the island into diplomatic isolation.
"I'm not sure what the future is for the celebration of the Double-ten event next year but we really want to continue if we can, even (if it is) within some other format," said Zhang Su Hui, a Chong Hua spokeswoman.
She added the form of the event next year and the fate of future Hong Kong-Taiwan relations would have to be sorted out through high-level cross-straits negotiations.
Pro-Taiwan sources believe the post-handover authority is likely to prevent flashy celebrations of the event -- known as "Double-ten" because it falls on the 10th day of the 10th month -- and to bar public display of Taiwanese flags and gatherings.
While the continued existence of the de facto Taiwanese mission is less in doubt -- so long as it abides by rules -- the raising of the Taiwanese flag, representing clear skies, white sun and the earth flushed with redness of the warrior's blood, would probably not be allowed.
"This is very clear, and the principle is very clear... after 1997, Hong Kong must abide by the 'one China' principle as laid down in the Basic Law," said a spokesman with Xinhua, Beijing's de facto embassy in Hong Kong.
Asked if raising of the Taiwan flag after the handover would contravene the Basic Law, he said, "It should be. After 97, this matter according to the Basic Law would be enforced by the Hong Kong government, the central (Beijing) government would not interfere in this matter."
| 45 |
Hong Kong's leader-in-waiting Tung Chee-hwa returned on Thursday from meeting Chinese leaders in Beijing and pledged to get down to the serious work of shaping his administration.
Tung, a former shipping magnate, also said he won reassurances from Beijing that the territory would enjoy a high degree of autonomy after Britain hands it back to China next June 30, after 150 years of British colonial rule.
"After receiving my appointment, I'll have to face many pressing tasks ahead, meeting the governor, the chief secretary Anson Chan, picking my team," Tung told reporters.
One of Tung's foremost tasks is to form an advisory cabinet called the Executive Council and to decide which senior civil servants to keep after the handover.
"But I haven't got specific dates as I've just arrived," he said, when pressed for details on his future team.
"I'm delighted the Chinese central leadership has time and again assured me...Hong Kong must have a high degree of autonomy and Hong Kong people would truly govern Hong Kong," the chief executive designate said.
Tung's popularity ratings have soared since he was picked by the Beijing-controlled Selection Commitee as the territory's Chief Executive.
A poll, conducted by the University of Hong Kong after Tung's selection on December 11, showed his popularity rating at a record high of 70.1 points.
But Tung, flanked at the airport by Zhang Junsheng, a vice director of Xinhua, China's de facto mission in Hong Kong, fought back at critics who say he would merely be Beijing's yes-man.
"I'm not the conquering hero, neither am I subdued" he said.
Tung hinted he might soon get legal endorsement for a China-backed provisional legislature which Beijing intends to put in place of the territory's current elected legislature.
"I've said many times before I believe the provisional legislature is legal...it would be nice if (China's) National Peoples' Congress could reaffirm this one more time," he said.
The legislature is to be formed this Saturday by the 400-member Selection Commitee that is meeting over the border in the city of Shenzhen in case of any legal challenge in the Hong Kong courts.
Tung also urged civil servants to stay on after the handover.
"Many senior Chinese leaders are concerned about civil servants staying on, to have a stable transition. I myself have said I hope they can stay on," he said.
| 45 |
A leading Chinese dissident has fled to Hong Kong just days after a colleague in Beijing was sent to a labour camp and is reported to be seeking asylum in the United States, government-funded radio said on Sunday.
Radio Television Hong Kong quoted an unidentified source close to veteran democracy activist Wang Xizhe as saying he had seen Wang in Hong Kong and he appeared to be in good health.
Wang, who would be the second Chinese dissident to escape to the United States via Hong Kong this year, was expected to arrive there within the next 24 hours, a source aligned with the democratic movement in Hong Kong said.
Another Hong Kong source earlier said Wang could leave Hong Kong for the United States as early as Sunday night.
Wang has been missing from his home in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong since fellow activist Liu Xiaobo was arrested in Beijing last Tuesday and ordered to serve three years in a labour camp.
"The source said Mr Wang started planning his departure as soon as Mr Liu was arrested," Radio Television Hong Kong said.
"He confirmed that he had seen the dissident in Hong Kong and that his health was good," it said.
Wang had approached members of the pressure group, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of the Democratic Movement in China, for help, the radio said.
They in turn had asked the Hong Kong government to help the democracy activist to seek political asylum in the United States, it said. A government spokesman declined to comment.
Dissident Liu Gang fled last May following months of police harassment at his home in northeastern Liaoning province since his release after serving a six-year prison term as a leader of the 1989 student-led demonstrations for more democracy.
Wang Xizhe had been active in recent months, sending several daring open letters to the government.
On September 30, Wang joined activist Liu Xiaobo in issuing a statement urging China's communist authorities to honour a promise in 1945 to give people freedom of the press and speech and to form political parties and stage demonstrations.
In a bold move, the two demanded Communist Party chief Jiang Zemin be indicted, impeached and step down for violating the constitution for saying the People's Liberation Army was under the "absolute leadership" of the party instead of the state.
Wang was paroled in 1993 after serving 12 years of a 14-year term for sedition and remains deprived of his political rights and thus is not permitted to issue such public statements.
Wang, one of China's most outspoken proponents of democracy, began his activities in 1974 when he has one of three authors of a renowned pro-democracy article that was pasted up as a wall-poster in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province.
Wang and his two co-authors served several years in jail for his audacity in challenging the authoritarian rule of Chairman Mao Zedong but was released in 1979.
That same year he took part in the Democracy Wall movement in Beijing, but was not arrested until 1981.
His reported escape comes amid a renewed crackdown on China's tiny, struggling democracy movement.
Detained dissident and former student leader Wang Dan faces the capital charge of plotting to subvert the government in a trial that could take place as early as this week based on evidence such as writings critical of the state and accepting funds from abroad, a human rights group said.
| 45 |
Hong Kong lined up on Thursday to pay its respects to China's dead leader Deng Xiaoping.
Colonial Governor Chris Patten was one of the first to be escorted inside the Xinhua news agency, Beijing's de facto mission in Hong Kong, to offer his condolences. Deng died late on Wednesday at the age of 92.
"I have written to director Zhou Nan, the head of the New China News Agency (Xinhua), expressing my condolences and of course if there is a condolence book opened I will want to sign that with the senior members of my administration," Patten told reporters before going in.
Asked if he would sent flowers, he replied: "I don't think that would be appropriate."
There has been little love lost between Government House and Xinhua during Patten's four-and-a-half-year tenure as the 28th and last British Governor of Hong Kong.
China denounced Patten as a political prostitute, a criminal for one thousand years and worse for spearheading democratic reforms in the twilight of British rule.
China plans to undo his reforms by dissolving Hong Kong's elected legislature and replacing it with an interim appointed chamber.
Patten was followed on Thursday by the man who will step into his shoes when the colony is handed over to China at the stroke of midnight on June 30, now just 131 days away.
Future leader Tung Chee-hwa, flanked by members of his inner cabinet, bowed three times to a large black and white photograph of Deng.
Hong Kong's politically powerful billionaires and new generation of pro-Beijing politicians turned up in force and were reverently ushered in.
An elderly couple, however, jumped the gun.
They turned up early in the morning, before Xinhua had managed to make arrangements for mourners for the man whose reforms transformed China from a weak, impoverished nation to an emerging economic powerhouse.
They were told to come back in the afternoon.
Five demonstrators staged a brief protest against Deng who they described as "the Butcher of Beijing" for his role in the brutal crushing of the student-led pro-democracy movement centred on Beijing's Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
"One man has just died, but so many are mourning for him. Don't forget the number of people who died on June 4," they said.
| 45 |
China is keen to see a smooth resumption of sovereignty over Hong Kong because it will pave the way eventually for reunification with Taiwan, an expert on Chinese security policy said on Thursday.
Jonathan Pollack, a senior advisor on international policy at the Rand think-tank in the United States, also said he expected the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to gain more clout as the country's new leader Jiang Zemin needed its support.
"After the Hong Kong transition, we're going to see (China) putting some pressure on Taiwan to accelerate some kind of discussions, if not an overt negotiation," said Pollack, a specialist on Chinese political and security affairs.
"The Chinese do believe that it will serve as an example if they are able to effect this transition in an uneventful fashion. It will serve as an example that will help...their seeking more cooperation from Taiwan in the future," he told reporters after presenting a seminar in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong, a British colony of more than 150 years, reverts to China at midnight on June 30. Under Sino-British handover treaties, the territory of 6.4 million people is guaranteed autonomy for 50 years, except in foreign affairs and defence.
The imminent return of Hong Kong to China's fold, in just 103 days, under a "one country, two systems" policy allowing it a high degree of autonomy, is held up by Beijing as a model for Taiwan's eventual reunification with China.
Beijing regards Taiwan as a renegade province since a civil war split them in 1949 and has warned the Nationalist-ruled island against any aspirations for formal state independence.
Pollack also said the death of China's leader Deng Xiaoping in February would result in a higher profile for the PLA, mainly because the country's new leader needed its political backing.
"It will give the PLA more resources...enhanced budgetary clout, only because Jiang Zemin's own position depends to a significant extent on the military support he has," he said.
"Deng was in a position to say no to different people in the PLA. I don't think Jiang is quite in the same position."
Pollack said that how the PLA would use its new leverage remained to be seen, but he thought it was unlikely to flex its muscles in an "assertive or aggressive fashion."
| 45 |
Chinese flags flew at half mast across Hong Kong, Thursday morning newspapers were delayed and pupils at "patriotic" pro-Beijing schools stood in silence after news that China's patriarch Deng Xiaoping had died.
"Deng Dead," screamed banner headlines in Hong Kong's Hong Kong's newspapers when they eventually appeared. All devoted acres of newsprint to the life and times of China's paramount leader, who had wanted to visit Hong Kong after it was reunited with China in July this year.
"Come later. Lots of papers are changing their main sections," a newspaper hawker told early commuters en route to Hong Kong's Central business district.
Deprived of reading matter many plugged in their headphones and switched between different Hong Kong radio stations.
Some expressed grief but many inhabitants of the British colony of Hong Kong took Deng's demise in their stride.
"I couldn't sleep well the whole night. He was a great leader of our nation. He improved China," said Ko Chiu, 80, who was among a group of elderly practioners of Tai Chi, or Chinese shadow boxing.
But another elderly resident Auyeung Pak, 85, paused from his slow jog in a Hong Kong park to shrug off Deng's death.
"It's normal for a man of that old age. I'm not too sad."
Chinese flags at China's de facto mission in Hong Kong, the Xinhua News Agency, flew at half-mast.
Pupils at the Piu Kiu Middle School, which follows a mainland Chinese curriculum, observed a minute's silence.
Some analysts have predicted Deng's death will create uncertainty in Hong Kong, threatening stability during its delicate transition to Chinese rule at midnight on June 30, 1997, a date now 131 days away.
But there was scant sign of much emotion in the business district.
"It's business as usual," said an employee of the state-owned bank of China as he hurried into the bank's futuristic highrise headquarters.
He's lucky to have lived for so long," said a 55-year-old women, pausing briefly in her tai chi regime.
A camera-toting Taiwanese tourist, accompanied by her two young daughters, said she did not care.
"I don't feel anything. I heard it early this morning."
| 45 |
China's Foreign Minister Qian Qichen was greeted by angry protesters on Friday when he arrived to open a historic meeting to choose Hong Kong's future leaders.
Police scuffled with demonstrators when they blocked access to the Convention Centre, where Britain will formally return its colony to China in 228 days' time.
Qian will preside over the 400-member Selection Committee, which began its month-long mission to select the Chief Executive and 60 members of a replacement legislature.
A group of about 30 police surrounded a handful of student activists and herded them towards barricades where other protesters were sequestered. Many had spent the night on a protest fast outside the building.
Hong Kong's pro-democracy lobby has attacked the process and refused to take part in the selection committee which they have branded as undemocratic.
They are adamantly opposed to China's plan to dissolve the elected legislature and replace it with an interim provisional chamber until new elections are staged.
One student was pushed to the ground before being hauled over the barricades into the cordoned-off area by other protesters. "I am very frightened," the university student said. "I don't know why they pushed me."
Waving banners and using loud hailers, about 40 demonstrators chanted "We want a directly elected legislature" and "We reject the deterioration of democracy".
Police flung themselves against the barricades to hold back surging demonstrators, some of whom held up a large black box.
"This is a coffin. It represents the death of democracy and freedom in Hong Kong," one demonstrator said.
Members of the Democratic Party had planned to pass a letter to Qian but were unable to get past police lines.
"We hope you would exchange views with Hong Kong people on the setting up of the Provisional legislature and selection of the Chief Executive," the letter to Qian said.
The Selection Committee is due to hold a first round of voting on Friday to narrow down the list of candidates to step into the shoes of colonial governor Chris Patten when British rule draws to a close at midnight on June 30 next year.
To enter the final run-off for the job, a candidate must be nominated by at least 50 members of the committee.
Two business magnates and two former judges are regarded as the frontrunners in the race.
The Selection Committee meets again on December 11 to pick the winner.
| 45 |
Parcels giant DHL Worldwide Express, which has had its foot through the door of Eastern and Central Europe since the mid-1980s, was braced to break even on growing regional business by 2000, a senior executive said.
"I would say that certainly by the year 2000 we would be in a breakeven position as a region in its own right," said Peter Davies, regional director of the European rim, during an interview with Reuters on Monday.
Turnover generated from DHL's business in Eastern and Central Europe, including the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), would total US$155 million in 1996 compared with US$110 million in 1995, and hit US$200 million in 1997.
The breakeven comes after years of losses from the late 1980s when the region plunged into massive changes with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the break up of the former Soviet Union.
Davies, responsible for Eastern and Central Europe including the CIS, said DHL was well aware of short-term difficulties but had maintained operations in the region with its sights set on the long term.
"If you go into the market to make a fast buck, then you are in there for the wrong reason...you have to have a long term view to that," Davies said.
"DHL doesn't make a profit as such, but it's okay, we know that. We have a long-term investment plan," he said.
But staying power of the company, which employs some 3,500 people in the region, might just be starting to pay off having captured 75 percent of market share there.
Growing foreign investments by its clients in the more mature economies of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic as well as the CIS have meant more business, Davies said.
And in places like the former Yugoslavia where basic infrastructure and services were not well in place, delivery services were seen as particularly critical, he said.
The company has invested some US$46 million through expanding facilities and aircraft purchases in 1996 for Eastern and Central Europe and topped off another seven percent of the amount in training.
It now operates in 165 locations in the region and would add another 35 stations in 1997, Davies said.
"We have invested much, especially in the countryside and the next stage would be expansion of facilities," he said.
--HONG KONG NEWSROOM (852) 28436441
| 45 |
Britain's Home Office has warned ethnic minority residents in Hong Kong that they will not get British passports when the colony is handed over to China if they relinquished other passports in order to qualify.
In a statement made available late on Friday, the British government said applicants should be solely British before February 4, when the plan to grant full passports to 8,000 ethnic minority Hong Kong residents was announced.
"This means that anyone voluntarily renouncing another nationality on or after that date will not qualify," it said.
Hong Kong's ethnic minorities had previously faced the threat of becoming stateless when China resumes sovereignty over the British colony of over 150 years at midnight on June 30.
While they will have residency rights in Hong Kong after the handover, it was unclear whether they would be entitled passports of the future Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
But the condition set down by Britain is widely seen as an attempt to plug a loophole after local newspapers reported some ethnic minority residents were ditching their other passports in the hope of qualifying for full British ones.
A prominent business leader in Hong Kong's Indian community on Saturday slammed the February 4 cut-off.
"This is not the right attitude of the British government. They shouldn't give conditions to it. They should give full passports without any clauses," Nari Dadlani told Reuters by telephone.
Dadlani, a naturalised Hong Kong resident of 38 years who holds no other passport, said he would stay on in Hong Kong even if he was to be granted full British citizenship.
"What we need is only an insurance, when emergencies arise. We are not going to take the first flight to London with this passport...we are much more happy here in Hong Kong," he said.
"And even when it comes to that, the Indian community is going to take a lot of capital to the U.K. We are not going to ask for social security and such things," Dadlani said.
In its statement, the British Home Office said necessary legislation would first need to be enacted before those concerned, mostly Indians and Pakistanis, could apply to become British citizens.
Applicants should be ordinarily resident in Hong Kong and they, including spouses and children, must qualify in their own right, it said
Successful applicants would be granted full British citizenship from July 1, the statement said.
| 45 |
The sentencing of Chinese dissident Wang Dan to 11 years in prison in Beijing on Wednesday sparked fears in Hong Kong about curbs on freedom when the territory reverts to China next year.
More than 100 demonstrators marched to China's diplomatic mission in Hong Kong to protest against the verdict and a human rights group vowed to lobby for a resolution to be passed at the United Nations condemning China's human rights record.
"Wang Dan is innocent. Release Wang Dan," protesters shouted as they marched to the headquarters of Xinhua news agency, Beijing's de facto embassy in the British colony.
There they joined other campaigners in a candle-lit gathering.
A Beijing court found the 27-year-old Wang guilty of conspiring to subvert the government after a trial lasting only four hours. Xinhua said the trial proved he had received funds from hostile overseas forces, aided the families of jailed dissidents and set up an "opposition force" by uniting illegal organisations.
Wang had earlier served four years for his role in the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing crushed by the army with heavy loss of life.
"We worry that the Chinese government (would) apply a similar standard in Hong Kong," legislator Bruce Liu of the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood said.
Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten said: "I recognise the very considerable concern that many people in Hong Kong, and many people around the world, feel about a sentence imposed on a young man for activities which in most places, including Hong Kong, would be entirely legal."
"By any legal standards, today's trial of Wang Dan was a farce," said Robin Munro, director of the Hong Kong office of Human Rights Watch Asia.
"Clearly, its sole purpose was to put Wang Dan behind bars for as long as possible with the minimum legal fuss and bother."
While Hong Kong has been promised a high degree of autonomy for the next 50 years under a Sino-British handover treaty, many doubt whether the freedoms now enjoyed will be preserved.
Munro said his organisation would lobby the United States and European countries to pass a resolution at the United Nations condemning the human rights situation in China.
| 45 |
When outgoing Chief Justice Sir Ti Liang Yang joined the contest to become Hong Kong's first local leader, he opened up a competition which had been seen as a clash of business titans.
Yang, 67, resigned in September as Chief Justice in a bid to become Hong Kong's Chief Executive and step into Governor Chris Patten's shoes when the British depart at midnight next June 30.
A prim, avuncular figure, he dropped his knighthood title "Sir" in October, choosing to be addressed as "Mister".
He was knighted in 1988, the year he became the first Chinese to head the judiciary under British rule.
The former judge's nearest rival is regarded as shipping magnate Tung Chee-hwa who, until Yang joined the fray, had faced a rival businessman, Peter Woo. The latest public popularity poll gave Yang 42.6 percent, well ahead of Tung's 32.9 percent.
Woo, rated third, and former appeals court judge Simon Li, rated fourth, are regarded as unlikely winners in the eyes of the Hong Kong public, who see the two laggards more as spoilers than odds-on favourites for the leadership mantle.
However, it is not the public who will be casting the votes when the winner emerges on December 11, but the 400 members of a China-controlled Selection Committee.
Trying to prove he has the common touch, Yang made a show recently of moving out of his palatial official residence on Hong Kong's Peak, along with his chauffeur-driven Jaguar, and moved into a rented apartment.
He then went on a demonstrative jaunt around the territory on public subways and ferries. But days later when he went to tour slums, he arrived in a chauffeur-driven Mercedes.
"I never imagined they were so poor," he said after visiting a "cage home", a small room with rented caged-in bedspace that can be home to a dozen people.
Yang stresses his "neutral" background. "I have no business affiliation. I have no direct official connection with the civil service," he said.
"To that extent, I am very neutral and therefore I think I shall be able to adopt an independent view on matters and judge matters on their merits," Yang said.
Born in a privileged family and remembered by his former teachers in Shanghai as a thoughtful, intelligent student, Yang and his family moved to Hong Kong after the 1949 communist takeover on the mainland.
The soft-spoken, bespectacled Yang has promised a "moderately conservative" style of rule, without drastic changes.
"If I were to become Chief Executive, I'm at the head of a moderate, relatively conservative government," Yang said.
"I don't want to see more great challenges or great reforms over the initial couple of years after 1997," he said.
He apparently had in mind the political landscape before Patten arrived and spearheaded democratic reforms to the approval of many in Hong Kong but to China's utter fury.
Yang, a self-declared Chinese patriot, provoked a storm late last year when his misgivings about the territory's much-coveted Bill of Rights, spoken in private conversation to a senior Chinese official, were leaked to the media.
It pushed him into the limelight and attracted accusations of toadying to Beijing. Some pressure groups called for him to resign, which he promptly rejected.
Yang, who once described himself as a "bridge between the East and the West", appears to have ridden that storm, as the popularity polls indicate.
| 45 |
China rejected a British challenge to take it to the World Court and staged a vote on Saturday to set up a Hong Kong parliament that will oust elected lawmakers when Beijing recovers the territory next July.
Under heavy security and in a hall decked with red curtains and the Chinese communist red crest with five stars, an elite of 400 carefully chosen Hong Kong electors met in the Chinese city of Shenzhen to pick new legislators for the territory.
The members of the China-controlled Selection Committee cast ballots for the 60-seat legislature in big red envelopes.
They were choosing from 130 pro-Beijing candidates who had been screened by China's representatives in Hong Kong before the selection ballot.
Each elector could list up to 60 names from among the 130 hopefuls, who include 34 incumbent lawmakers.
The result, to be announced later on Saturday, is likely to be denounced by Britain and some of its allies as a travesty of democracy and a breach of handover agreements.
Britain is handing Hong Kong back to China at midnight next June 30 under a treaty that promises the territory of 6.3 million people can keep for 50 years its capitalist system.
Presiding over the gathering in Shenzhen, Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen attempted to shoot down Britain's World Court threat and said London should wake up to reality.
"What is regrettable is that Britain has lacked the courage to face reality," Qian said in a speech before the voting.
"This election should have been held in Hong Kong, but because of Britain's refusal to cooperate we had no choice but to hold it here in Shenzhen."
On Friday, British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind challenged China to go to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to prove the legality of its so-called provisional legislature.
Hong Kong's colonial Governor Chris Patten also attacked the proposed legislature, calling it a "rubber stamp" and an "echo chamber".
China is creating the body in retaliation for democratic reforms introduced by Patten. The reforms enlarged the mass franchise when the present Legislative Council (Legco) was elected last year with a landslide for pro-democracy forces.
Saturday's vote was a turning point in Hong Kong's future and moved Legco a step closer to oblivion.
Events are moving apace, with less than 200 days to go before the change of flag. Ten days ago the Selection Committee chose Tung Chee-hwa, a 59-year-old shipping magnate with strong pro-Beijing loyalties, to succeed Patten next July 1.
The Hong Kong public has had no say in who should be their first Chinese leader and lawmakers after the British withdrawal. Nor have they had a say in the removal of their elected legislators.
A survey this week showed only a third of Hong Kong people backed the provisional legislature and only a quarter trusted China.
The creation of the interim lawmaking body in Shenzhen was conducted amid tight security.
Trucks towed away suspicious cars hours before the meeting began and guards with binoculars were posted atop the building across the street from the voting hall.
Some of more than 100 journalists, many of whom arrived on Friday, were detained for up to an hour while their travel documents were verified by Chinese border guards.
| 45 |
Air China, China's largest carrier, plans to increase its international routes next year and will boost its fleet with the addition of five passenger planes, a senior manager said on Wednesday.
"We would be concentrating on expanding our international routes within the ninth five-year plan (1996-2000)," said Zhang Jinming, general manager of the airline's publicity centre, told Reuters at the China Airshow '96.
The carrier would be starting flights from Beijing and Shanghai to Los Angeles on June 29, 1997, and planned to start routes next year from Beijing to Fushan in South Korea and to Brazil, Zhang said.
The five-day airshow at Zhuhai airport in southern Guangdong province is touted as China's largest and costliest aviation and aerospace exhibition to date, bringing together domestic and foreign aircraft and parts producers.
Increasing demand for domestic and international travel since the start of rapid economic reforms has also boosted China's civil aviation industry. The country now has 30 passenger carriers.
Air China, established in 1955 and China's longest-running carrier, currently flies 44 international and domestic routes, Zhang said.
Flights from China to Los Angeles would either be two or three times a week, he said, adding that the launch dates for service to South Korea and Brazil have yet to be finalised.
The airline, which has a fleet of 64 Boeing passenger jets, would also be taking delivery of three Airbus A340 passenger planes and two Boeing 747s in 1997, Zhang said.
Zhang said the proliferation of Chinese carriers in recent years had given way to cut-throat competition.
"Because of competition, some companies have slashed prices. For us, we have cut by similar amounts, " he said. But he added that the company, given its long and proven track record, was more keen to conduct business based on reputation.
-- Hong Kong Newsroom (852) 2843 6441
| 45 |
Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten told a meeting of central bankers on Friday that the territory's economic prosperity was due to its increasingly democratic government.
In remarks aimed as much at official audiences over the border in China as at the central bankers attending the financial conference he was addressing, Patten said Hong Kong people had developed the institutions and values of a civil society.
"The government has responded (positively) to that process and to the changes in aspirations which have accompanied it, by welcoming ever wider public participation in the process of government," he told the conference, organised by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
He drew attention to China's commitment, in the Sino-British accords covering the British colony's return to China this July 1, to allow the development of democracy in the territory.
Hong Kong, a territory of 6.4 million people on the south China coast, reverts to China after more than 150 years as a British colonial possession, under a 1984 Sino-British treaty.
The treaty, the Joint Declaration, guarantees the territory will have a high degree of autonomy and keep its freewheeling capitalism for a further 50 years after the handover.
The territory is one of the world's economic marvels. It is the eighth largest trading economy and sits on one of the world's biggest pots of foreign reserves -- US$66 billion.
However, China has launched moves over the past year to scrap Hong Kong's elected legislature, reverse Patten's reforms that widened the democratic franchise and roll back laws on civil liberties, when Beijing resumes sovereignty.
Beijing's moves have stirred outrage among the territory's pro-democracy groups and opposition from Britain and the United States, undermining a smooth transition.
"Democracy, as promised and pledged in the Joint Declaration and in the Basic Law, has taken root and started to flourish here. This has strongly underpinned Hong Kong's economic prosperity and Hong Kong's social stability," Patten said.
He said Hong Kong's stability in the next century would need what he called "responsive government". Economic and social change would put huge strains on society, Patten said.
"Those pressures demand sophisticated and responsive institutions of public administration to channel them productively into communal progress rather than letting them build up to the detriment of political and economic stability.
"Hong Kong has responded creatively to the pressures that it's faced, preparing itself for all the challenges which, like all the developing economies of Asia, it will face in the coming century. That's not a process which should or could be stopped."
| 45 |
Hong Kong's future leader Tung Chee-hwa said on Monday the Beijing-approved body set up to replace the existing elected legislature in mid-1997 would soon hold its first sitting -- not in Hong Kong, but in China.
Tung was speaking after his first informal meeting with the post-colonial deputies who will take up lawmaking in Hong Kong after Britain hands back the territory at midnight next June 30.
The new chamber will soon hold its first official session most likely across the border in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, Tung told reporters.
"The provisional legislature must meet for the first time. It'll probably be in Shenzhen. It would be very soon," he said.
"We also discussed very unofficially the tasks ahead for the provisional legislature," Tung said.
The 60-member chamber was selected this month by a 400-strong selection committee comprised of Hong Kong people vetted by China.
The same panel earlier chose Tung to run the territory after colonial Governor Chris Patten departs in 183 days' time.
The provisional legislature is stiffly opposed by Hong Kong's Democratic Party, which emerged from 1995 elections for the present Legislative Council with the most votes of any party but will lose its seats next July 1.
The party calls the provisional body a travesty of democracy that will be illegal if it functions before the change of flag. Their threats of legal action have forced the body to meet in China.
The colonial government has agreed to cooperate with Tung on issues regarding the transfer of sovereignty but not with the provisional legislature.
On Monday Tung who has promised to respect the neutrality of Hong Kong's 180,000 civil servants, urged them to face the reality of the provisional legislature.
"The political neutrality of the civil service is very important, we must respect that. But after 1997, the provisional legislature will work with the civil service. That's a reality."
Many in Hong Kong are worried that stable government and the rule of law will evaporate when communist-ruled China takes back the capitalist territory of 6.3 million people.
On Saturday Tung persuaded Hong Kong's top civil servant, Chief Secretary Anson Chan, to stay in her post after the handover. But he has yet to decide the fate of other top officials.
In one of the first signs of cracks in the top echelon of officials, chief graft-buster Michael Leung, head of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, last week announced he would not serve beyond the handover.
Tung, who met Leung on Monday, said he failed to persuade Leung to change his mind. "It is a real pity. I wish he would stay...but he explained that it was for personal reasons he was leaving," he said.
| 45 |
Hong Kong's lawmaking chamber suffered a blow last week when its speaker broke ranks to vie for a seat in an interim body Beijing plans to install in the territory next year, political analysts said on Sunday.
Andrew Wong, Legislative Council president, made an about-turn when he said he was seeking a seat in the Provisional Legislature, a body he denounced during 1995 elections.
But his move to join 31 colleagues seeking seats in the provisional body, which China will put in place of the Legislative Council, threatens to widen schisms already dividing the chamber, commentators said.
"Cracks which have already emerged within the Legislative Council over the bid by some members for a seat on the Provisional Legislature will widen in the next six months," said Chris Yeung, political commentator with the Sunday edition of the South China Morning Post newspaper.
Yeung warned of a flurry of motion debates, adding that "the normal operation of the Legislative Council will be adversely affected to a great extent, if not paralysed".
China, angered by a string of democratic reforms implemented by colonial Governor Chris Patten, has vowed to disband the present elected legislature and replace it with the provisional assembly when Hong Kong returns to Chinese rule in mid-1997.
On Wednesday, the Selection Committee, carefully assembled by China, is expected to choose the man who will succeed Patten as the territory's first post-colonial leader.
The committee's next task is to name the 60-member Provisional Legislature on December 21.
Wong, denounced by some fellow legislators, would not say whether he supported the Provisional Legislature, but he tried to convince reporters he would remain an impartial leader of the existing chamber.
"You ought to wait until I act partially -- and when that happens, criticise me and I will retract my decisions and previous rulings," Wong told reporters on Saturday.
While it is not yet clear how and where the future Provisional Legislature will meet and operate before it actually assumes office next July 1, observers said the existence of two lawmaking bodies cannot auger well for the territory.
"In any country, when you have two bodies from which laws emanate at the same time, there's going to be some confusion and dispute," said Michael DeGolyer, associate professor at Hong Kong's Baptist University, who is in charge of a long-term study on the transition.
"For the next six months, we're obviously going to be in a very confused state. Normally this causes all kinds of political and economic chaos."
| 45 |
Commercial sponsors have flocked to the Portuguese enclave of Macau to back Sunday's annual Grand Prix despite fears that China wants to steal the show.
Fans of Asia's answer to Monte Carlo fear a Formula One track, recently constructed just across the border in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai, will seduce sponsors and signal the death knell for Macau's Formula Three race.
Macau has no special track with the race run through the enclave's twisting streets.
But the concerns have not materialised this year at least and Macau is festooned with banners, kiosks and giveaways from sponsors including French oil concern Elf, Budweiser and Corona beer, watchmaker Omega and Japanese tyre manufacturer Yokohama.
"Zhuhai hasn't really affected Macau because most of its sponsors are here for very specific reasons," said Stephanie de Kantzow, an organiser of the Macau Formula Three Grand Prix.
The annual event, about 60 kilometres west-southwest of Hong Kong, started in 1954 and many of the world's top drivers have cut their teeth on the tricky 6.2 km (3.8 miles) Guia street circuit. Double Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher, and current Formula One champion Damon Hill are past Macau competitors.
China also insists it is not seeking to edge Macau out of hosting international motor racing.
"We won't affect Macau. Macau's speciality is in the Formula Three, our aim is to host Formual One and the GT (Global Touring) Rally," Yu Binglin, vice-mayor of Zhuhai, said in a recent interview.
Elf, one of the event's major sponsors, said there was no reason for it to pull out of Macau even though another race track has sprung up in China.
"Macau has a history of automobile racing. As long as Formula Three Grand Prix exists in Macau, Elf will be present in Macau. Business and selling products is one thing, sport is another," Michael Bonnet, Elf's director of commercial activities told Reuters.
"What we wish to build in Asia are several (motor racing) schools to develop young drivers from Macau and rest of Asia ... we want to find potential champions in Asia."
Elf sponsored a Formula Campus Challenge in early November at the China Zhuhai 1996 International Race.
Royal/Dutch Shell, which lost its bid as fuel sponsor to Elf in 1995, said it would tender for the 1997 Macau race.
"Macau and Zhuhai have their individual merits, like individual tenders. Macau belongs to our Hong Kong business (budget) rather than China. We'll try to do it next year," Albert Wong, a spokesman for Shell, said earlier last week.
But China, which is determined to muscle its way into the glamourous circuit of international motor racing, is expected to give Macau a good run for its money.
Zhuhai, just 15 km (9 miles) northeast of Macau, boasts a 4.32 km dedicated racing circuit.
The Federation Internationale de L'Automobile (FIA) is conducting a study on whether its is up to standard for endorsement as a suitable Formula One venue.
FIA is also discussing with Chinese officials Zhuhai's possible hosting of a Formula One race in 1997, a senior Zhuhai government said.
"What Zhuhai has done is that it has opened up a whole new area of sponsorship. People who hadn't sponsored car racing before seem to be coming to Zhuhai to see if there's a possibility of being involved in sponsorship," de Kantzow said.
| 45 |
The United States envoy in Hong Kong reminded China on Tuesday of its pledge to preserve Hong Kong's "vital" freedoms after Britain hands the colony over to China next year and said Washington would be watching.
Richard Boucher, the U.S. Consul-General in Hong Kong, stopped short of saying what his government could do for the territory if China reneged on its promises after it resumes sovereignty over Hong Kong on July 1.
"As Hong Kong heads towards the transition, the handover has been assuming higher visibility as a factor in U.S. foreign policy... It is one of the key events in Sino-U.S. relations over the next few years," Boucher said.
"We have our voice, interest and participation in China and Hong Kong. It is not a threat...but we want to first see what happens," he said in a speech to the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hong Kong.
The freewheeling British colony of over a century and a half is promised far-reaching autonomy for 50 years under a Sino-British treaty and related documents.
Quoting the ancient Chinese sage Confucius, Boucher said a measure of whether Hong Kong was well ruled after 1997 would be if "its subjects are content and foreigners are attracted".
He reminded Beijing of its promises made about Hong Kong -- the survival of freedom of speech, press, assembly, movement, travel, religion, among others. "That is a sweeping, vital and unrestricted pledge," he said.
With only 203 days left under the British flag, Hong Kong people are nervous over the future of these freedoms and about China's plan to replace their elected Legislative Council with a provisional legislature, to be chosen this month, overseen by Beijing.
Boucher, echoing criticisms made previously by other senior U.S. diplomats, described the provisional body as "unnecessary and unjustified".
"It is important for Hong Kong to have a legislature that is constitutionally elected."
Boucher refrained from commenting on whether Hong Kong Chinese residents holding U.S. passports would enjoy U.S. consular protection after the handover.
"We do in every case offer consular protection when we can but the question of dual nationality is very complicated...and I can't give details now," he said. Some 37,200 U.S. citizens live in Hong Kong, many of them dual nationals.
Boucher also said China had signalled to Washington that U.S. Navy ships could continue to make recreational port visits to Hong Kong after 1997, although details had to be worked out.
About 70 U.S. warships call in at Hong Kong each year.
| 45 |
China endorsed Hong Kong's Tung Chee-hwa on Thursday as the man to lead the territory after it reverts to Chinese rule in 1997.
The 59-year-old shipping magnate proved the overwhelming choice of a Beijing-vetted panel to lead the territory after the British pull down the flag, ending more than 150 years of colonial rule.
The Preparatory Committee, the 150-strong body of prominent Hong Kong and Chinese citizens established to manage the handover, extended China's recognition of Tung's new role at a session in the southern China boomtown of Shenzhen.
The endorsement was proposed by Preparatory Committee vice-chairman Wang Hanbin. "If you don't have any objection, then approve it by applauding," Wang said.
The delegates, who include some of Hong Kong wealthiest and most powerful tycoons and deal-makers, dutifully clapped in unison.
Tung, whose father fled the Chinese communist revolution in 1949, will take over the helm when the colony reverts to China in 201 days' time, at midnight on June 30.
Tung said on Thursday that China's role in bailing out his family shipping empire when it ran into trouble a decade ago would not affect his leadership.
"Gratitude is one thing. Being the chief executive is another. The chief executive has to put interests of Hong Kong people before anything else," Tung said in an interview with Cable Television.
Hong Kong newspapers, many of which had prepared celebratory issues ahead of Wednesday's poll in which Tung eclipsed his two rivals by taking 80 percent of votes cast, heralded him as proof that Hong Kong people could run Hong Kong.
Tung has said he will take a hard line against meddling by provincial bosses who may seek to disregard Beijing's edict that Hong Kong will be a Special Administrative Region of China with considerable autonomy in governing its own affairs.
Hong Kong's Economic Times newspaper said China was expected to rank the future chief executive equal in status to a state councillor.
This position, one level below vice-premier, would mean he outranks provincial governors and would help ensure against interference in Hong Kong affairs by regional cadres, it said.
Tung's victory was considered a foregone conclusion in Hong Kong, where he has been regarded as China's man since President Jiang Zemin singled him out for a pointed handshake in January.
The Preparatory Committee is scheduled to address during the afternoon session what promises to be its most controversial task -- setting the ground rules for a Provisional Legislature in Hong Kong to replace the existing elected chamber.
China, angered by the reforms spearheaded by British Governor Chris Patten, vowed to neutralise them by dissolving Hong Kong's legislature when it takes control.
Navigating this potential minefield could prove Tung's biggest immediate headache.
Opposition in Hong Kong to the new chamber is stiff and many people are deeply concerned about the confusion that may arise if two rival legislatures jockey for power in the final six months of British rule.
| 45 |
One of Hong Kong's best-known pro-democracy politicians, Emily Lau, was dragged away kicking and screaming by police after lying down on a road to protest against China's methods of choosing a post-colonial leader.
Up to 40 pro-democracy activists scuffled with riot police outside the Hong Kong Convention Centre, where a committee of 400 chosen by Beijing voted for a chief executive to rule Hong Kong after Britain hands the colony back to China at midnight next June 30.
Police said 29 demonstrators were arrested for obstruction and would be released on bail later in the day.
A dozen activists shouting "oppose the phoney election" lay down on the road and were dragged away by police.
Lau, an independent democrat fiercely critical of China's communist rulers, was among those carried off, witnesses said. It was not immediately clear whether Lau was among those arrested.
Fellow legislators Andrew Cheng of the Democratic Party and trade union leader Lee Cheuk-yan were also hauled away.
"It's a sad day for Hong Kong. What can ordinary Hong Kong citizens do -- they cannot vote," John Wing-ling Tse, a legislator of the Democratic Party, said.
Earlier, protesters erected a "tomb of democracy" outside the building and condemned the voting as the end of freedom and the rule of law in the territory.
A panel of 400 chosen by China voted for the future leader. None of the rest of Hong Kong's 6.3 million people had a vote, causing the democracy lobby to dismiss the process as a sham.
Several hundred pro-democracy activists demonstrated on Tuesday evening and 20 diehards camped out overnight with an imitation tomb in front of the Grand Hyatt Hotel.
The first thing in the line of sight when Selection Committee members arrived was the imitation ancient Chinese-style grey arched tomb, constructed from wood.
The structure faced the Hong Kong Convention Centre with the inscription "Tomb Of Hong Kong Democracy And Rule Of Law". Candles flickered in the wind beside it.
The committee was convened to carry out the first of two historic tasks -- to elect the man who will step into the shoes of Governor Chris Patten when Britain pulls out. The clear favourite, shipping magnate Tung Chee-Hwa, emerged victorious.
The committee's second task, on December 21, is to choose a provisional legislature that will replace the current elected Legco (Legislative Council) on July 1.
The scuffles erupted after police urged the demonstrators, from the United Front Against the Provisional Legislature, to move to a cordoned-off area.
Occasionally the group marched a short distance bearing the tomb aloft, as in a funeral procession. In front of the tomb a banner was posted saying "Death of Hong Kong Rule Of Law".
"We are against the Selection Committee's so-called election of the first chief executive," said Cheng. "The selection is not real because it is done by Beijing," the legislator said.
The protesters brandished a colourful banner with the slogan "Oppose the False Election Of The Chief Executive, Oppose The Provisional Legislature" and denounced China for not allowing Hong Kong's electorate to vote.
| 45 |
Hong Kong's future leader Tung Chee-hwa met a political opponent on Monday he has accused of badmouthing Hong Kong abroad in the run-up to Chinese rule, holding talks that appeared to strike a conciliatory note.
However, Tung and Democratic Party leader Martin Lee, a fierce critic of China, remained poles apart on key issues at the heart of the democratic camp's worries about Hong Kong's return to Chinese rule at midnight on June 30.
In a meeting he described as "cooperative" and "good", the second since the shipping magnate was selected in December as Hong Kong's future leader, Lee said his party allowed Tung to clarify his position if he believed he had been misinterpreted.
"If he thinks we have misunderstood him, he can tell us, so we can clear any misunderstanding," Lee told reporters.
Lee said he gave Tung a "position paper" highlighting issues Lee would be discussing with political and business leaders in an upcoming trip to the United States, Canada and Europe.
The paper stated what the Democrats saw as Tung's stance on key issues about Hong Kong's handover, giving the future leader a chance to clear up any misunderstandings over his position.
Lee, who has made many trips overseas to lobby against the provisional legislature and China's plans to roll back on rights and civil liberties at the handover, has been attacked by Tung in recent weeks for criticising Hong Kong abroad.
But the long-time champion of democracy in the territory, who will receive the National Endowment for Democracy's 1997 Democracy Award on Washington's Capitol Hill on April 9, said he would continue to go on his overseas lobbying trips.
He also dismissed suggestions from the media that the party would censor itself in the future.
"No, we will still speak (overseas), but if Mr Tung says he has been misunderstood, we will consider his views, we will definitely not be censoring ourselves," Lee said.
The party also stood firm against the provisional legislature.
"I told Mr Tung so long as this provisional legislature were to have its first, second, third readings on any bill before July 1, we will have no option but take it to court," he said.
With the handover just 106 days away, Hong Kong is awash with concerns over the impending end of its elected legislature and Beijing's plans to repeal or amend a string of laws protecting human rights and civil liberties.
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Norwegian engineer Kvaerner ASA has set its sights on increasing its Asia Pacific portfolio in coming years where burgeoning economies are taking on more sophisticated technology, a senior official said on Friday.
"Our turnover would be up by about 10 percent in 1997, and 50 percent (of the increase would be) generated by Asia," said John Fletcher, chairman and managing director of Kvaerner Corporate Development, the group's corporate development arm.
Total turnover in 1996 would hit US$10 billion, of which 35 percent would be generated from Asia, Fletcher said in an interview. Asia made up less than 10 percent of the company's annual turnover in the early 1990's, he added.
Kvaerner's half-year results in August showed a sharp 56 percent fall in pre-tax profit to 706 million crowns on turnover of 22.94 billion crowns.
Kvaerner, Norway's second largest listed company and an employer to 60,000 worldwide, took over British conglomerate Trafalgar House in April and moved promptly to integrate Trafalgar's engineering and construction units.
Its new organisation framework revolves around six core areas of shipbuilding, process engineering, oil and gas engineering, construction, metals and pulping.
Fletcher said Kvaerner's business was currently very strong in India, Indonesia, Thailand and China.
Kvaerner's involvement in China goes back 40 years and partook in developing the country's steel industry over the decades, Fletcher said.
On hand now are over 30 projects in China -- spanning industrial hardware, power generation, and steel for mostly joint venture companies led by international shareholders -- worth some US$500 million, and the amount was set to increase to US$750 million in 12 months' time, he said.
The company is eyeing a tender expected to open by end 1997 to build hydro-turbine engines for the giant Three Gorges dam project, which would be awarded at the end of 1997.
"Kvaerner is involved in a (proposed) consortium on the Three Gorges project whereby the first set of turbines would be manufactured by Kvaerner and the second set would have local manufacturers involved," Stephanie Chick, business development manager said at the interview.
Fletcher dismissed China's ongoing austerity measures and credit clampdown as "cyclical" and believed the country was now poised to move to some "good years".
The company also has about 30 orders on hand in Indonesia and is involved in building a US$450 million, 120,000 tonne per year facility in Thailand to produce refined copper wire that is scheduled to come on stream in 1998, Fletcher said.
-- HONG KONG NEWSROOM (852) 28436441
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China on Monday responded coolly to a request for talks from Hong Kong's populist Democratic Party, insisting the party first play by Beijing's rules.
Beijing told the party it had to abide by rules governing the creation of the Selection Committee, a 400-member body which will chose Hong Kong's post-handover leader and provisional legislature, replacing the present elected chamber.
"The Preparatory Committee secretariat...welcomes the Democratic Party's posture and willingness to communicate with us (Beijing)," said a statement from Xinhua news agency, China's de facto embassy in Hong Kong.
The Preparatory Committee is an influential panel of members handpicked by China that is overseeing the transfer of sovereignty.
"We hope the Democratic Party...can abide by the Basic Law and rules governing the setting up of the Selection Committee as laid down by the National People's Congress and the Preparatory Committee," Xinhua said. The agency was referring to Hong Kong's post-handover constitution, promulgated in 1990.
"At the same time, (this statement) clearly points out that this is the first step towards communication between the Democratic Party and us and the rest of Hong Kong people," Xinhua said.
The British colony reverts to China at midnight on June 30, 1997.
China's reply follows a letter from the party in mid-August seeking dialogue with Beijing after China's Foreign Minister Qian Qichen opened the door a crack by suggesting that dissenting views would be permitted on the Selection Committee.
Xinhua on Monday did not mention any time nor venue for talks but Beijing's latest move was seen as positive by the Democratic Party.
"We welcome it," vice-chairman Yeung Sum told reporters on Monday.
The Democratic Party's long-standing advocacy of democracy has angered Beijing which has dubbed its leaders as subversives and pointedly excluded it from the Preparatory Committee.
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British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind met future Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-hwa on Sunday for the first time since Tung was chosen but failed to narrow the gulf between the outgoing and incoming governments.
Tung told reporters after the talks that London had refused to budge from its objections to Chinas plans to install an interim appointed legislature and dilute Hong Kongs civil liberties laws, policies Tung endorses and Hong Kongs pro-democracy lobby vociferously opposes.
Rifkind later lashed out at sceptics who argued Britain was impotent against Chinas plans for Hong Kong after the handover at midnight on June 30, a date now just 19 weeks away.
"We will not only maintain maximum pressure until June 30. Through our involvement (in Hong Kong), we will be able to continue to monitor and make public our opinion on the compliance by the Chinese authorities with the Joint Declaration," he told a news conference.
The 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration binds Britain to restoring Hong Kong to China in mid-1997 and China to maintaining Hong Kongs freedoms and capitalist way of life intact for 50 years.
Tung said he still harboured hopes the British would relent and cooperate with Chinas provisional legislature which will replace an elected chamber returned under the auspices of recent democratic reforms spearheaded by the colonial governor, Chris Patten.
"Britains position has always been clear, but I hope they will reconsider," said Tung, a billionaire shipping magnate who was anointed by Beijing in December.
Britain argues that the formation of the provisional legislature, which reverses the Patten reforms, is illegal under the terms of the Joint Declaration.
Rifkinds brief visit, perhaps his last to Hong Kong before the flag comes down on more than 150 years of British colonial rule, was cut short to let him return early to London for a key vote in the British parliament on the "mad cow" crisis.
A loss could trigger a vote of no confidence in the ruling Conservative Party, which is lagging in public opinion polls. A British general election must be held no later than May 22.
Hong Kongs South China Morning Post newspaper, miffed that Rifkind was putting domestic concerns ahead of Hong Kongs problems, headlined its Sunday editorial: "When mad cows matter more than Hong Kong".
With 135 days to the handover, Hong Kong is awash with conflicting emotions which have pitted the pro-Beijing and pro-democracy camps against each other and sparked acrimonious exchanges and counter-accusations.
Tung last week hit out at the Democracy Party, accusing it of blackening Hong Kongs name overseas by spreading doomsday predictions about the loss of freedoms.
He argued that Hong Kongs economy was buoyant, its people upbeat, and he described Chinas plans as mere technicalities.
"This is just the beginning. The way things are going, Tung Chee-hwa and his government-in-waiting will be running out of popularity long before July 1," pro-democracy lawmaker Margaret Ng wrote in a newspaper column on Friday.
Rifkind said Tung would need to show his independence of mind if he wanted to keep the confidence of Hong Kong people.
"He (Tung) is very emphatic that he is not under any direction from the Chinese government that they have not sought to influence his views or to tell him how to behave," Rifkind said of Hong Kongs future leader.
"Wherever his views might differ from those of the Chinese authorities, if they do differ, it would be in his own interest to make that clear, so that his independence is well understood," he added.
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China, in a bid to boost the its aerospace industry, this week put on what has been touted as the biggest and costliest airshow it has ever held.
"It has been a dream for years for China's aerospace community to host a grand international airshow," Liang Guangda, vice-chairman of the organising committee of Airshow China '96 said on Wednesday.
"(It) will demonstrate the great success of China's reform and opening-up and improve understanding between China and aeronautical communities around the world," Liang said.
The six-day airshow at Zhuhai airport in southern Guangdong province, which started on Tuesday, is estimated to have cost China 350 million yuan ($42 million), organisers said.
The show brought together 300 domestic and foreign aircraft and parts producers, including heavyweights like Boeing, Airbus and McDonnell Douglas.
Held over a 53,000 square metre site overlooking the South China Sea, China put on show its premier jet fighter the China F-8II, and the Russian SU-27 fighter jet, of which China is known to have sizeable numbers.
And standing prominently in the large open grounds was China's space rocket, the Long March Number 2.
The event has been a venue for local and foreign aviation companies to sign joint venture agreements.
Collins Avionics & Communications Division, a unit of Rockwell International Corp said on Wednesday that it signed a deal with two Chinese parties Shanghai Avionics Corp and Shanghai Broadcast Equipment Factory to develop a tracking system, normally used in aircraft, for ships and cars.
They would form a new joint venture company Shanghai Rockwell Collins Navigation and Communications Equipment Co Ltd in Pudong, Shanghai, to develop the product.
The device, called a global positioning system (GPS), can be used to track location, read tide changes and fuel consumption.
China, eager to make the airshow a biennial event, has left little to chance. Work started in May this year, beginning with building of two large exhibition halls and thousands have been recruited to put together the show, organisers said. (US$1 = 8.33 yuan)
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British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind met future Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-hwa on Sunday for the first time since Tung was chosen but failed to narrow the gulf between the territory's outgoing and incoming governments.
Tung, a shipping magnate anointed by Beijing in December, told reporters after the talks that London had not budged in its refusal to aid a provisional legislature that China would install when the British leave later this year.
"On the work of the provisional legislature, I've urged the Hong Kong government to give assistance and help," Tung said.
"Britain's position has always been clear, but I hope they will reconsider."
Britain argues that the formation of the provisional legislature, set up by a China-appointed panel to replace the elected chamber, is illegal under the terms of the 1984 Sino-British handover treaty on Hong Kong.
Hong Kong reverts to China at midnight on June 30.
Rifkind's brief visit, perhaps his last to Hong Kong before the flag comes down on more than 150 years of British colonial rule of the territory, was cut short to let him return early to London for a key vote in Parliament on the "mad cow" crisis.
A loss could trigger a vote of no confidence in the ruling Conservative Party, which is lagging in the polls. But Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, miffed that Rifkind was putting domestic concerns ahead of Hong Kong's problems, headlined its Sunday editorial: "When mad cows matter more than Hong Kong".
Britain is to hold a general election before May 22, and it is not known who will be at the helm at the time of the handover. But whoever holds the foreign secretary's portfolio in the final days of the countdown can be assured of a bumpy ride.
With 135 days to go until the transition, Hong Kong is awash with conflicting emotions that have pitted the pro-Beijing and pro-democracy camps against each other and sparked acrimonious exchanges.
Tung last week hit out at the Democracy Party, accusing it of blackening Hong Kong's name overseas by spreading doomsday predictions about the loss of freedoms.
He argued that Hong Kong's economy was buoyant, its people upbeat, and described China's plans as mere technicalities.
His comments have hit a raw nerve with the vocal pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, which argues that a tide of opinion has been rising against what they describe as Tung's increasingly authoritarian policy statements.
"This is just the beginning. The way things are going, Tung Chee-hwa and his government-in-waiting will be running out of popularity long before July 1," pro-democracy lawmaker Margaret Ng wrote in a newspaper column on Friday.
"Mr Tung's ship of state is charting a decidedly retrogressive course," she wrote. "Confidence may yet be restored provided this paranoia about democracy is put aside."
Another symbol of Hong Kong's British heritage passed into the history books during Rifkind's visit.
The 115-year-old Royal Observatory, given its "royal" prefix by King George V in 1912, dropped the royal coat of arms from its emblem. Its new logo has spiralling cloudbanks symbolising typhoons, the fierce storms that periodically pound Hong Kong.
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Emaciated refining margins and soaring demand have forced China to raise domestic prices on gasoil effective Friday, Chinese oil sources said.
Sinopec earlier confirmed the ex-refinery price for diesel, or gasoil, was being raised to 1,990 yuan per tonne from 1,900 yuan.
This is the first time prices have been raised since ceilings on domestic refined product prices were introduced in May 1994 to lock in margins for domestic refiners.
"If prices are not raised, refineries, especially those along the coast cannot survive," a trader with state refiner Sinopec said by telephone.
"Refineries have lobbied for a long time for prices to be raised," he said, adding mainland refiners had been reeling from soaring crude bills this year.
Chinese refiners have been holding back importS of crude oil in international markets this year.
Prompt prices of North Sea Brent, a global benchmark, are currently $24.20 per barrel. Earlier this week they hit a five-year high of $25.06 per barrel -- representing a 57 percent rise in prices from the low of this year of $15.93.
Asian benchmark Tapis crude is currently valued at five-year highs of $26.40 per barrel -- a 35 percent increase on the 1996 low of $19.45.
Chinese refineries have also been afflicted by a 110 yuan increase in domestic crude prices since January to between 864 and 794 yuan per tonne.
Sources said it was not immediately clear whether prices of other petroleum products would move up in tandem as Beijing had initially been reluctant to approve the diesel increase due to fear of causing an inflationary backlash.
Other Sinopec sources said the move may be intended to encourage domestic production of more gasoil, over higher-valued products such as gasoline.
"Sales of gasoil are very brisk, the moment it's out it's sold, refineries are just not producing enough to satisfy demand," a source with the coastal Fujian refinery said.
--Hong Kong Newsroom (852) 28436441
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British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind on Saturday flies earlier than expected to Hong Kong where he can expect a tough reception on what may be his last visit before it is handed back to China in July.
Legislators in the territory are gearing up to grill Rifkind on Sunday on the fate of Hong Kong's freedoms and human rights laws after the British colony of more than 150 years reverts to Chinese rule at midnight on June 30.
Rifkind, who was in Singapore this week for a meeting of Asia-Europe meeting, is arriving in Britain's last major Asian outpost on a shortened visit before leaving for London for a key parliamentary vote.
A spokesman for the British Foreign Office mission in Hong Kong said Rifkind's timetable in the colony had been moved forward and he was expected to leave on Monday morning.
On Sunday, Rifkind was expected to meet Hong Kong's future leader, Tung Chee-hwa, Governor Chris Patten's team of executive councillors, legislators and other senior officials.
If he had kept to his orginal schedule, Rifkind would have missed an important parliamentary vote on Monday called by the opposition Labour Party over Agriculture Minister Douglas Hogg's handling of the "mad cow" disease.
But Rifkind's visit to Hong Kong, although short, will be far from easy.
Just 136 days before the handover, Hong Kong is beset with worries over China's plans to replace its elected chamber on July 1 with a provisional legislature, which was formed last December under close Chinese supervision.
The freewheeling territory of 6.3 million people is also concerned about threats to cut back its civil liberties.
"We want Rifkind to clarify on whether there would be two legislatures operating before July 1," said Yeung Sum, deputy head of the Democratic Party, Hong Kong's largest.
"I think he should make a strong statement on it, because...it is the British and Hong Kong government running the place before July 1. If there are two legislatures running at the same time...it will be very confusing," Yeung said.
The Democratic Party has threatened to sue the provisional chamber should it try to enact laws or operate on Hong Kong soil before July 1.
Britain has also said the move is illegal under a 1984 Sino-British handover treaty on Hong Kong and has challenged China to let the world court rule on the legality of the body.
A pro-China Hong Kong newspaper on Saturday slammed the idea as ridiculous.
"Rifkind recommends letting the world court arbitrate on the provisional legislature. That is ridiculous and laughable," the Wen Hui Pao newspaper said.
It said whatever happened in Hong Kong after July 1 was a matter entirely for China to handle.
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China's state refiner Sinopec is pushing through a series of measures to alleviate diesel shortages that have sparked a bizarre rise in prices in the country since late 1996, Chinese oil sources said this week.
After two successive rises in official diesel prices in the fourth quarter of 1996, Sinopec's Beijing headquarters is now urging its almost 40 refineries to increase the cut of diesel from every barrel of crude they refine.
"Gas oil (diesel) has been in short supply in the country as a whole since the fourth quarter of last year," a well-placed Sinopec source said by telephone from Beijing.
"As for Sinopec, we are trying to regulate the production of gas oil as against gasoline to meet market demand," he said.
The current gasoline/diesel production ratio stands at 1:1.3 for almost all of China's refineries. But Sinopec in Beijing is pushing for a more suitable ratio of 1:1.4, the source said, adding that the change would take some months to materialise.
Diesel import quotas, which were not fully utilised in 1996 due to high international prices, might also have exacerbated the shortage in the supply chain, and China might be forced to import more this year, the Sinopec source said.
He declined to estimate the amount of diesel likely to be imported this year.
The plan to raise domestic diesel output comes after two officially sanctioned price rises in late 1996 to encourage refiners to produce more diesel, Chinese oil sources said.
Domestic diesel prices had been frozen at 1,900 yuan per tonne since May 1994, when Beijing imposed strict price ceilings to crack down on profiteering. Prices were raised to 1,990 yuan per tonne in October 1996 and 2,190 yuan per tonne in December.
While Beijing, fearful of inflation, keeps a watch on prices, Chinese oil sources admit there is little central authorities can do to prevent flagrant price spikes in far-flung provinces hit by shortages.
"In situations of shortage, provinces can raise prices, it is difficult for Beijing to control," the Sinopec source said.
However, some Chinese sources said earlier this week that shortages might only be isolated to some inland provinces as some coastal regions were still enjoying high inventories.
"Storage levels are healthy in some areas," said a Singapore-based trader with Chinese state oil trader Sinochem.
Storage terminals at some coastal regions were at full capacity after importers sucked in a massive 1.9 million tonnes that started arriving from mid-January, a Sinopec source in Singapore said.
"Central authorities were afraid there wouldn't be enough for spring and even refiners were urged to crank up their gas oil production," he said.
Authorities might have frozen import quotas for now -- until the bottleneck clears -- but it was likely to be short term because China was short of diesel for this year, he added.
A Chinese oil trader from the southern Maoming refinery, China's second largest, said diesel prices had hit as high as 5,000 yuan per tonne in some provinces suffering shortages.
"Prices were between 4,000 and even 5,000 yuan in December in places like Hunan and Sichuan," the trader said by telephone earlier this week. Refineries raised prices because their net costs had increased.
Chinese refiners have had sharply reduced profit margins since Beijing raised domestic crude prices by about 110 yuan in January 1996 to between 864 and 794 yuan a tonne on 80 percent of its crude sold within the country.
Fearful of an inflationary backlash, Beijing had, until October, kept prices of all oil products unchanged. Sinopec, which made exceptional profits in 1995 and 1994, bore the brunt of the rise in crude prices.
"Refining margins last year, compared with the earlier two years, were very bad. A lot of our profit went to our upstream companies," the Sinopec source said.
-- Hong Kong Newsroom (852) 28436934
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Taiwan's call for a "Greater China" joint-venture bank on Wednesday was greeted with caution in Hong Kong, where analysts and businessmen said more details were needed to convince the industry of its feasibility.
"It's a good idea. There's certainly a good deal of cross-border trade through Hong Kong," said Carmel Wellso, regional banking analyst with ING-Barings.
"But most large corporations would probably have established relationships with existing banks," he added. "What value is this new company going to have?"
A leading Taiwan business leader said on Wednesday in Taipei that Taiwan, China and Hong Kong business heavyweights were considering forming a joint-venture bank in Hong Kong to promote commercial links across the Taiwan Strait.
"We have proposed the idea to our Hong Kong and mainland Chinese counterparts to jointly set up a bank in Hong Kong," Hsu Sheng-fa, chairman of Taiwan's Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was quoted by an aide as saying.
While most people in Hong Kong contacted by Reuters acknowledged the political significance behind the idea, they said business and profit were what mattered.
"This idea is very grandiose...but in business, the priority is making money because we have to put in investments," said a Hong Kong-based businessmen with strong links to Taiwan.
"Mainland Chinese banks have many restrictions, what will this bank deal in?"
Taiwan's Hsu made the proposal in a meeting with visiting business delegations from Hong Kong and the communist mainland, Taiwan's arch-rival since a civil war split them in 1949.
The Hong Kong and China entrepreneurs were in Taipei for an unofficial economic forum, the first large-scale cross-strait contact since the Taiwan government's November announcement of a freeze on cooperative initiatives with China.
Taiwan has banned direct contact -- including banking communications -- with China since the civil war. Contacts must be conducted through a third region, usually Hong Kong.
Despite the ban and a 17-month-old deadlock in unofficial Taiwan-China talks, some 30,000 Taiwan-funded businesses have poured more than US$20 billion into investments in China since relations began to thaw in the late 1980s.
Hong Kong, a British colony for more than 150 years, will revert to Chinese control at midnight next June 30.
-- Hong Kong Newsroom (852) 2843 6441
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