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1. Look again, our loans are close to pre-crisis levels

2. Draft Quarry Bay Outline Zoning Plan amended

3. Covered bridge to be constructed across Kwun Tong Road

1. Look again, our loans are close to pre-crisis levels
JAKE VAN DER KAMP, SCMP 5 April 2003

Quote of the Week Award this week goes to legislator Chan Kam-lam, who was protesting HSBC's decision to raise interest rates on credit card debt to 26.8 per cent a year.

"If they increase interest rates any more, they will just be forcing people to use credit cards less," he said.

Well, was that not exactly what we wanted them to do, Mr Chan? We have a problem at the moment with people subscribing to too many credit cards and taking on more debt than they can handle, all because of glitzy ad campaigns by the issuers. Bankruptcies have soared as a result.

If more of them now decide to use credit cards only to make payments and stop using them as a means of borrowing money at rates that would shame even loansharks, should we not regard this as a happy outcome to the difficulty?

Mind you, it was a toss-up whether to give the award to Mr Chan this week or to HSBC spokesman Vinh Tran, who said the rise in interest charges was the result of standardising rates across different Asian markets.

It was just a housekeeping matter, you see. Things get messy when a bank charges different rates on different currencies in different markets and, of course, this has to be cleaned up.

May I ask whether HSBC would be willing to charge the Hong Kong best lending rate for rupiah loans in Indonesia or whether it would expect to find any borrowers in Hong Kong if it charged them rupiah lending rates here? Could you please explain this standardisation a little further, Ms Tran?

But lest you think that credit card loans are a truly serious problem for us, the first chart shows you that total advances on credit cards have come down right through 2002. That latest figure, of HK$51.5 billion, may seem high but it amounts to less than 3 per cent of all loans and advances for use in Hong Kong.

The second chart shows you that the total of rescheduled loans plus loans on which debt service is overdue by more than three months has come down, as of the latest figures, to only 3.6 per cent of all loans made by local and foreign banks in Hong Kong. We are now close again to the levels that prevailed before the financial crisis in 1997.

But if certain silly people will not recognise that foreign maids can get lower rates from good honest loansharks operating throughout Hong Kong than they themselves get from a fine upstanding institution like HSBC on roll-over balances on credit card debt, then let this latest interest rate increase be another reminder to them that they should not really borrow money at all.

You could see it coming. Our Financial Secretary Antony Leung Kam-chung, seeking to restore his reputation with a gesture of moral rectitude after the embarrassment of his purchase arrangements for a new car, decides on the hop to support an expert group's recommendation that the listing duties of the stock exchange be transferred to the Securities and Futures Commission.

A stunned exchange management, not knowing what to say, at first goes along with it and then, we shall conjecture, certain established interests point out that this could make things more difficult for them after they had been given reason to believe from recent listing practices that laxer arrangements would prevail.

We now have talk of the decision being referred to the ambassador from Beijing, Mr Tung Chee-hwa, a man whose brilliant intellect and vast familiarity with these matters will undoubtedly allow him to see through all the questions involved. There are to be further consultations. Score another for the old boys lobby.

And here is one more for you. The Milken Institute, a think-tank based in California, has just rated Hong Kong the easiest place in the world for entrepreneurs to raise capital.

Meanwhile, our government is still funding a small and medium enterprise (SME) initiative to guarantee loans to entrepreneurs on the grounds that they have such a difficult time raising capital here. Things must really be bad for entrepreneurs in the rest of the world then, wouldn't you say?

Email Jake van der Kamp at jakeva@scmp.com.

2. Draft Quarry Bay Outline Zoning Plan amended
Hong Kong Government, 5 April 2003

The Town Planning Board today (April 4) announced amendments to the draft Quarry Bay Outline Zoning Plan (OZP).

One of the major amendments to the OZP is to rezone two sites along Hoi Yu Street to "Other Specified Uses (1)" ("OU(1)") and "OU(2)" annotated "Cultural and/or Commercial, Leisure and Tourism Related Uses" subject to building height restrictions of 35mPD and 25mPD respectively. Also, a strip of land along the waterfront of Hoi Yu Street is rezoned to "Open Space".

The amendments have been made in line with the plan to development the waterfront for cultural, leisure and tourism uses with the provision of a continuous waterfront promenade.

Other amendments include the rezoning of the gas pigging station site to "OU" annotated "Gas Pigging Station" and a strip of land cutting across the Island Eastern Corridor and Quarry Bay Park to "OU" annotated "Elevated Walkway".

In connection with the above amendments, the Notes for the "OU" annotated "Cultural and/or Commercial, Leisure and Tourism Related Uses" zone include remarks stipulating the height restrictions for each sub-area and provision for minor relaxation of the stated restrictions.

The Notes for the "OU" annotated "Elevated Walkway" zone are added and the Notes for the "I" zone deleted.

The draft Quarry Bay OZP No S/H21/18 incorporating the amendments is now available for public inspection during office hours at the following locations:

(i) Secretariat of the Town Planning Board, 15/F, North Point Government Offices, 333 Java Road;

(ii) Hong Kong District Planning Office, 14/F, North Point Government Offices; and

(iii) The Eastern District Office, G/F, Eastern Law Courts Building, 29 Tai On Street, Sai Wan Ho.

Any person affected by the amendments may submit a written objection to the Secretary of the Town Planning Board on or before April 25, 2003.

Copies of the draft OZP are available for sale at the Map Publications Centres in Yau Ma Tei and North Point. An electronic version can be viewed at the Town Planning Board's website (www.info.gov.hk/tpb).

3. Covered bridge to be constructed across Kwun Tong Road
Hong Kong Government, 5 April 2003

The Government plans to construct a covered footbridge across Kwun Tong Road near Tung Yan Street in Kwun Tong.

The footbridge, connecting the proposed commercial/office development at 416-424 Kwun Tong Road, will provide a direct and convenient pedestrian link between Kwun Tong Industrial Area and Yue Man Square. A notice describing the proposed works is published in the Government Gazette today (April 4).

Related works include shortening of the Kwun Tong Road service road and reprovisioning of the existing on-street lay-by facilities.

A plan of the proposed works is available for public inspection during office hours at the following locations:

* Central and Western District Office, Public Enquiry Service Centre, G/F, Harbour Building, 38 Pier Road;

* District Lands Office/Kowloon East, Lands Department, 10/F, Yau Ma Tei Carpark Building, 250 Shanghai Street;

* Kwun Tong District Office, Public Enquiry Service Centre, Lower Ground Floor, Kwun Tong District Branch Offices Building, 6 Tung Yan Street.

Any person who wishes to object to the works may send a written objection to the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, 16/F, Murray Building, Garden Road, Central on or before June 3, 2003.