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Flat-hunters spend big on mainland 2.
New push to send waste over border 3.
Exports boosted to highest level this year 4.
Wages fall for those at the top but rise for the lower
paid 5.
Cartoon
1. Flat-hunters spend big on mainland
Sophia
Wong, SCMP 28 December 2002 Hongkongers
are expected to spends 12.3 billion yuan (HK$11.6 billion) buying up to 23,500
mainland flats next year, an increase of almost 12 per cent from this year. Land
Power International estimated that Hong Kong buyers bought between 20,200 and
21,200 mainland units this year, spending 11 billion yuan. Sales
volume rose 19.3 per cent from 2001 while the amount of money involved soared
26.3 per cent, it said. Estate
agents estimated that total sales of newly-built property in Hong Kong in the
past year numbered 28,000 units. Land
Power International, a major mainland property agent in the SAR, predicted mainland
properties bought by SAR people in the coming year would rise 10 to 11 per cent
to between 22,500 and 23,500, with up to 12,900 of those sales in Shenzhen. In
the past year, 225 mainland residential projects were released for sale in Hong
Kong, with 42.6 per cent, or 96 projects, in Shenzhen, the company said. The
company's forecast is based on its business records
2. New push to send waste over border
Cheung
Chi-fai, SCMP 28 December 2002 Construction
and demolition waste in Hong Kong may be sent to the mainland as there will be
no space in the SAR to handle the material by 2005. The
proposal, which is being considered by officials, is regarded by the authorities
as a medium to long-term solution to the mounting waste problem. The government
is preparing introduce landfill charges next year and a ban on construction waste
being dumped in landfills. It
is understood that Hong Kong began discussions on the proposal several weeks ago
with the state Oceanic Administration. The talks are being viewed as groundbreaking
as the mainland authorities issued a dumping ban following a row involving contaminated
mud between the Environmental Protection Department and the oceanic administration
two years ago. Under
the proposal, Hong Kong is seeking to send its construction and demolition waste
to Guangdong or other parts of the mainland as filling material for reclamation
projects. The
proposal is the latest attempt to export waste across the border. The government
sent low-level radioactive waste to Guangdong several years ago but was forced
to stop this after the province levied high charges. Hong
Kong generates about 14 million tones of construction and demolition waste each
year and has been relying on vast reclamation projects and landfills to accommodate
it. However, some
reclamation projects, including the Southeast Kowloon development, have been scalded
down, and total filling capacity is estimated to drop by about 10 million tones
by 2005. However, other projects involving excavation, including the East Rail
spur line, will produce at least a million tones of waste. A
"fill bank" has been set up in Tseung Kwan O as a temporary storage
site for the construction waste. It is financed by the government and dumpers
are not charged. But
there will be no space to handle at least 6.5 million tones of waste by 2005 even
after additional measures, such as segregation and recycling, are brought in. Henry
Chan Chi-yan, a chief engineer at the Civil Engineering Department and the secretary
of the government's Fill management Committee, said: "We need to know whether
the mainland has such a demand. Even if it does, it needs some very coordinated
timing and effort to match the demand." It
is expected that an increasing number of coastal developments will be carried
out in Guangdong, particularly in the Pearl River Delta region, including a 100-hectare
reclamation at the landing point of the Western Corridor in Skekou. A
senior government official said they had to consider whether the SAR should place
a price on its demolition waste or whether Hong Kong would be charged for such
waste sent to the mainland. "This is the question that we have to face,"
he said.
3. Exports boosted to highest level this year
Kelvin
Chan, SCMP 28 December 2002 World
trade in the fourth quarter of last year was hurt by the September 11 terrorist
attacks. Hong Kong exports last November fell 11.3 per cent, helping to exaggerate
last month's increase. Still,
Hong Kong is benefiting from the demand for Chinese goods from the rest of Asia. China's
exports expanded more than 21 per cent in the first 11 months of the year. About
nineteenths of all Hong Kong exports are re-exports, or shipments passing through
on their way to or from a third and final destination and the majority of those
are coming from China. David
O'Rear, chief economist at the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, said the
numbers "look pretty good, the re-exports are really surging". "We're
seeing very strong performance compared to earlier this year. It certainly confirms
our trend that the worst is over and we're on the early part of the upswing,"
Mr O'Rear said. In
November, re-exports rose 20.5 per cent to $130.9 billion while shipments of locally-made
goods feel 12.4 per cent to $10.1 billion. Meanwhile,
imports rose 15.2 per cent over last year to $142.2 billion, leaving a trade deficit
of $1.148 billion. The
government said November's export growth "was broadly based. Exports to the
mainland of china and to most economies in the rest of East Asia continued to
leap", adding that exports to the US and Europe were also strong.
4. Wages fall for those at the top but rise for the lower paid
Kelvin
Chan, SCMP 28 December 2002 Wages
for workers up to supervisory level fell by 1.5 per cent in the third quarter
compared to the same period last year, outpacing the 0.9 per cent decrease in
the second quarter, the government said yesterday. After
making a adjustment for deflation, wages for lower paid clerical and other staff
rose 2.8 per cent in the period, slower than the 3.1 per cent increase in the
second quarter. These
totals contrast with unemployment figures in the same period, when the size of
the labour force grew by 3,200 to 3.5 million, outpaced by the growth in the number
of jobs, which rose by 10,200 to 3.243 million. This
suggests the number of people working grew but the average pay rate dropped. Slightly
more than half of companies polled said they had seen a decline in their average
wage rates for September compared to last year. Another
35 per cent said they had seen an increase in wage rates while 14 per cent reported
no change. Wage
rates include money earned for a normal working week along with guaranteed allowances
and bonuses but exclude over time pay and discretionary bonuses. People
employed in the wholesales, retail and import/export businesses, as well as restaurants
and hotels and personal services saw their wages decline by 1.5 to 3 per cent
in September. Wages for those working in transport, financing, insurance, property
and business service stayed flat. However,
when deflation is taken into account, all major industries saw increases in pay
levels. Hong Kong
has experienced deflation for four consecutive years and the consumer price index
has seen monthly declines ranging between about 2 and 4 per cent this year.
5. Cartoon
SCMP
28 December 2002 
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