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for. 1.
Offer made for Mong Kok site 2.
$1b Disney deals offer 4,000 jobs 3.
Santa's cyber shops can take the footwork out of gift
buying
1. Offer made for Mong Kok site
Matthew
Lee, The Standard 22 November 2002 The
Urban Renewal Authority has offered HK$3,111 per-square-foot to owners of 24 properties
in Reclamation Street, Mong Kok, to acquire the site for redevelopment. The
group owns 17 residential flats, four buildings and three shops on the site. ``Offer
letters will be sent to individual owners next Monday, outlining all details of
the offers and the incidental cost allowance,'' an authority spokesman said yesterday. They
will have 60 days to consider whether to accept the offers, during which an incidental
cost allowance of HK$1,100 per square metre, or not less than HK$96,000, for commercial
units will be provided. The
allowance for residential property will be HK$73,250. The
allowance is an incentive to the owners to sell their residential properties to
the authority within the 60-day period.
2. $1b Disney deals offer 4,000 jobs
Eli
Lau, The Standard 22 November 2002 Hong
Kong Disneyland will award 15-35 construction contracts worth about HK$1 billion
in the next 18 months that are expected to provide at least 4,000 jobs. Of
those, three contracts would be for the building of administration offices, group
managing director for Hong Kong Disneyland Don Robinson said. `We
are relying on the Hong Kong construction industry to build Hong Kong Disneyland,''
Robinson said. ``At
the peak of construction approximately 4,000 workers will be on site to help build
the theme park and resorts, and it does not even begin to account for the thousands
of jobs created industry-wide to support the logistics and production of this
development project.'' Apart
from the experts already sent from California's Walt Disney, the group will create
alliances with organisations such as the Construction Industry Training Authority
to provide professional training programmes. ``We
hope to organise internship schemes with colleges to train up more local professionals
for hotel services,'' Robinson said. Disney was having talks along these lines
with the Chinese University and Polytechnic University. Sales
and marketing staff would also be an important part of Disney's recruitment. The
HK$5.7 billion key project at Penny's Bay - 57 per cent owned by the government
and 43 per cent by Disney - is the fifth Disney theme park in the world. Reporting
progress on the project yesterday, the group also revealed the details of two
resorts included in the development. The
two North Lantau Island resorts - the flagship Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel and
Disney's Hollywood Hotel - would provide a total of 2,100 rooms from its Phase
1 construction, vice-chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts for Asia Pacific
Development Wing Chao said. A
convention centre will also be built. Construction
work on the project will begin officially in January next year and is scheduled
to be completed by 2005-2006.
3. Santa's cyber shops can take the footwork out of gift buying
CAROLYN
ONG, SCMP 22 November 2002 
A Washington police officer test drives the Segway. It could be a hit with rich
kids this year. Associated Press photo
'Tis
the season to be e-shopping. With Christmas just a month away, I found my way
out of Christmas mall madness and piped Christmas carols doing hassle-free shopping
in the virtual world. If
you have US$4,950 to spare, the Segway electric scooter which was put on sale
this week exclusively from Amazon.com, is an exciting geek buy. The Segway generated
a huge buzz as a secretive project code named Ginger before its unveiling a year
ago because of early praise from popular tech luminaries like Amazon's Jeff Bezos
and Apple's Steve Jobs. And there was Segway inventor Dean Kamen's reputation
- he has a 150 patents under his belt including life-saving medicines. It
is essentially a two-wheeled scooter that travels up to 25 km/h and is steered
gyroscopically by the rider's shifting weight. Orders are being taken now for
delivery in March next year. The
first three Segways were auctioned off on Amazon.com to millionaires in March
for US$160,000. This is just the kind of cool, glamorous toy rich kids with Aibos
would love to have and be seen with, even if there is a good chance it won't be
allowed on Hong Kong roads. Transport Department officials contacted are a little
confused about how to categorise the Segway - a transporter designed for use on
pavements. The
Transport Department said that the Segway would need to pass a series of tests
and gain certification, including emission tests from the Environmental Protection
Department, and mechanical and safety checks by its own engineers. Even
though you aren't physically lugging heavy buys through the crowded pavements
of Causeway Bay, playing Santa's little helper on the Internet can still be exhausting
and no less time-consuming. An
attractive Internet offer is available on Handspring.com. The maker of Palm-based
devices is giving away DVD players when you buy the Treo 90, 270 or 300. The
DVD players play only region 1 DVD discs and will only ship to US addresses. The
Treo 90 is a colour PDA running the Palm operating system with a Secure Digital
card slot that allows users to boost memory on the device. The
Treo 270 is a GPRS-enabled mobile phone and PDA combo and the Treo 300 is a similar
device that works on PCS networks. The Treo 90 is selling at around HK$3,200 in
Hong Kong stores, so even without the free DVD player sweetener, the online price
of US$299 is an attractive deal. The
Treo 290 is selling at US$699 Handspring has also slashed prices for its Visor
series of hand-helds and the monochrome communicator Treo 180 which I had given
a lousy review for earlier in the year. The Visor Prism, a colour unit with 8MB
of RAM to which you can add a camera or MP3 unit, sells for HK$2,450 online at
Handspring.com.hk. You
can now buy clothing from giant US retailer Gap on Amazon.com. Gap has its own
Web site but does not ship to Asia. Amazon does. I know lots of people who would
buy toasters, PDAs and televisions online but not clothing. Getting to try on
clothes to have the best fit is certainly an issue but if you are a Gap fan, you
would have a good idea of their sizes and what would fit you best, especially
winter clothing where you can be less fussy about the fit. A
competing online apparel store - Bluefly.com - has relaunched in time for the
festive shopping season with a better designed Web store front. In a city like
Hong Kong where you can find sheets for American or European king-size beds only
in upmarket shops like Lane Crawford and Sogo, Bluefly is a good option. You can
find 50 to 60 per cent discounts on Polo Ralph Lauren sheets. Versatile
gifts for family and close friends are photo calendars which you can custom make
online on two great sites I always use - Ofoto.com and Shutterfly.com. Both sites
are offering 15 to 30 per cent off their calendar products to registered users.
Pre-discount prices are about US$25. Just upload 12 of your best pictures to the
site and you can pick the background you want. Ofoto.com
only has wall calendars but Shutterfly has desk and wall calendars. Fotomax in
Hong Kong also prints custom-made calendars but the product is inferior. It takes
about 10 days for Ofoto to ship to Asia.
Got a gadget idea? Drop Carolyn
a line at carolyn@scmp.com | 
