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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, Ms Olivia Nip, said today (October 21).
Commenting on the publication of the report of the Land Registry Trading Fund for 2008/09, Ms Nip said: "We are committed to providing the most secure and customer-friendly land registration and information services for the assurance of property rights and the benefit of the economy. While we aim to introduce the Land Titles (Amendment) Bill into Legislative Council around late 2010 to put in place the necessary refinements to the land titles regime before implementation, we will continue to improve our existing services by introducing new service initiatives and enhancements."
For the financial year ended March 31, 2009, the Land Registry Trading Fund achieved a net profit after tax of $93.5 million, and a return of 18.8% on average net fixed assets. The Trading Fund will pay a dividend of $147 million to the Capital Investment Fund.
The figures were released in the 16th Annual Report of the Land Registry Trading Fund tabled in the Legislative Council today by the Secretary for Development, Mrs Carrie Lam.
Ms Nip said that the Integrated Registration Information System (IRIS) provided public access to the land register over the Internet as well as special services for business users, management of the 2.8 million registers and 18.8 million documents kept by the Land Registry, as well as support for the Land Registry's business processes. To address the demand for uninterrupted services as quickly as possible, the Land Registry has decided to fast-track a project to develop a new public search system. This will operate independently of IRIS and the future title registration system. Search services for the public will then not be affected by any work being undertaken to maintain or enhance the internal registration systems.
"We have seen a 66% increase in the number of business subscribers since the launch of IRIS and 88% of the 4.6 million searches made during the year were through our electronic services," she said.
The 16th 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 21, 2009
Issued at HKT 12:05
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