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The Land Registry would continue to improve the quality of services to customers and make steady progress towards the introduction of title registration, the Land Registrar, Mr Kim Salkeld, said today (October 17).
Commenting on the publication of the report of the Land Registry Trading Fund for 2006-07, Mr Salkeld said: "As well as the work to prepare for title registration, we will need to respond to growing demand from the public and other branches of government for increased integration and ease of use of electronic services. We will also face continued pressure to demonstrate to the public that we provide services of the highest quality and value."
For the financial year ended March 31, 2007, the Land Registry Trading Fund achieved a net profit after tax of $117.5 million, a return of 20.9% on average net fixed assets. The Trading Fund will pay a dividend of $58.8 million to the Capital Investment Fund.
The figures were released in the 14th Annual Report of the Land Registry Trading Fund tabled in the Legislative Council today by the Secretary for Development, Mrs Carrie Lam.
Mr Salkeld said that the Integrated Registration Information System (IRIS), launched on February 12, 2005, provided public access to land registry information over the internet as well as special services for business users, management of the 2.7 million registers and 17 million documents kept by the Land Registry and support for the Land Registry's business process.
"We have been working on a round of enhancements to the IRIS since early 2007 to improve the functions and services of the system. A new function has been added to allow IRIS customers to place orders for a single or multiple colour plan(s) attached to a document. The printing of land records ordered at the Customer Centre of the Land Registry has also been streamlined. Further opportunities for enhancement are being identified to bring more improvements to IRIS and to enrich our services to the customers in future years," Mr Salkeld said.
"We have seen a 39% increase in the number of business subscribers since the launch of IRIS and 87% of the 4.4 million searches made during the year used our electronic services," he said.
The 14th Annual Report of the Land Registry Trading Fund can be viewed or downloaded through the Land Registry website at www.landreg.gov.hk.
Ends/Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Issued at HKT 15:08
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