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A new branch post office at Discovery Bay will open at noon on August 26 (Wednesday), bringing the total number of branch post offices in Hong Kong to 128.

The Discovery Bay Post Office, located at Shop 12A, ground floor, Block C of the Discovery Bay Plaza, Discovery Bay, Lantau Island, will provide counter and postal delivery services including Speedpost acceptance facility to the local community.

The acting Postmaster General, Mr Luk Ping-chuen, said, "To commemorate the post office opening, a $2 souvenir cover will be issued and put on sale at the General Post Office in Central from Tuesday (August 18), and at the Discovery Bay Post Office on August 26."

A special hand-back service will be provided on August 26 at the new office, whereby official and privately made unregistered covers with full postage prepaid and bearing the words "First Day Cover" and a local address will be accepted. The covers will be impressed with the normal datestamp at the counter and handed back to the customer.

To provide greater convenience for philatelists wishing to obtain the new office postmark, the normal office datestamp of the Discovery Bay Post Office will be reproduced for the provision of hand-back service at the General Post Office, Tsim Sha Tsui Post Office, Shatin Central Post Office and Tsuen Wan Post Office. No special stamp will be issued for the new post office opening.

"The new Discovery Bay Post Office has adopted an innovative layout and interior design which accentuates Hongkong Post's new, refreshing corporate image. The new look presents a contemporary, customer-caring post office which provides more convenient and efficient services to customers," added Mr Luk.

The Discovery Bay Post Office provides a range of postal services including posting of Speedpost items. Its opening hours are from 9.30 am to 5 pm from Monday to Friday, and from 9.30 am to 1 pm on Saturday. Its telephone number and facsimile number are 2987 6046 and 2987 6304 respectively.

In addition to the post office in Discovery Bay, seven more branch post offices will commence Speedpost acceptance service on August 26, namely, Cheung Chau Post Office, Lamma Post Office, Mui Wo Post Office, Peng Chau Post Office, Tai O Post Office, Tung Chung Post Office and Sha Tau Kok Post Office.

The Speedpost acceptance network of Hongkong Post will then be extended from 117 to 125 post offices. In other words, customers will be able to post Speedpost items at all branch post offices in the territory except the three mobile post offices.

"The extension of Speedpost acceptance network to cover all post offices on outlying islands is a major initiative Hongkong Post has undertaken to provide more convenient services to our customers," said Mr Luk.

An opening ceremony will be held on August 26 at the Discovery Bay Post Office. Officiating guests will include the Postmaster General, Mr Robert Footman, the Chairman of Islands Provisional District Board, Mr Lam Wai-keung, and the District Officer (Islands), Mr Chan Nim-tak.

End/Saturday, August 15, 1998

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