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A bill to amend the Freight Containers (Safety) Ordinance and its subsidiary legislation to ensure the safety of containers will be gazetted tomorrow (April 13).
The Freight Containers (Safety) (Amendment) Bill 2006 covers four broad categories of amendments, including expanding the application of the Ordinance to cover the approval of containers and the examination procedures irrespective of the containers﷿ origin of manufacture; assigning the functions of containers approval solely to authorised persons; setting out the conditions under which the owner, bailee or lessee of a container will have to remove the safety approval plate from the container in question; and empowering the Director of Marine to specify by notice published in the Gazette the information and document to be submitted along with an application for approval of examination procedure for containers.
䩕The purpose of the proposed amendments is to update the legislation to keep it in line with the latest international safety requirements on containers,蒅 a spokesman for the Economic Development and Labour Bureau said.
䩕We have obtained support for the amendments from the local maritime industry through various advisory bodies, including the Port Development Advisory Group of the Hong Kong Port Development Council, the Maritime Services Task Force of the Hong Kong Maritime Industry Council, the Port Operations Committee, the Provisional Local Vessels Advisory Committee and the Shipping Consultative Committee,蒅 the spokesman said.
The bill will be introduced into the Legislative Council on April 26, 2006.
Ends/Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Issued at HKT 16:39
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