Land auctions yields US$1.56 billion

Two government plots of land sold for US$1.56 billion in separate auctions held on May 24 and June 8, respectively.

At the May 24 auction, the Lands Department’s second of the 2010-11 financial year, the 95,798-square-foot site in Fanling sold for US$170.51 million.

The lot, Fanling Sheung Shui Town Lot No.177 at the junction of Ma Sik Road and Sha Tau Kok Road (Lung Yeuk Tau Section), Area 19, was sold to World Light after an opening bid of US$135.1 million.

The lot is designated for non-industrial (excluding office, warehouse, hotel and petrol-filling station) purposes. A minimum gross floor area of 369,094 square feet must be completed.

A 173,847-square-foot plot in Kowloon sold for US$1.39 billion on June 8. The lot, Kowloon Inland Lot No.11175 at the junction of Fat Kwong Street and Chung Hau Street, Ho Man Tin, was sold to Polarland after an opening bid of US$871.79 million.

The Kowloon lot is designated for private residential purposes. The completed gross floor area must total between 521,543 and 869,239 square feet.

Hong Kong hosts traditional medicine event

Approximately 50 delegates from the World Health Organization (WHO) and around the world joined Hong Kong experts in a three-day meeting in early May to launch the First International Classification of Traditional Medicine (ICTM) project.

Participants, who came from Australia, China, Germany, South Korea, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States, were either practitioners or academics in disease terminology, classification or informatics. The ICTM project aims to develop an international standard set of harmonized terminology and classifications for traditional medicine.

The Hong Kong event, “First WHO Meeting on the International Classification of Traditional Medicine,” was organized by the WHO with support from the city’s Department of Health.

At the opening ceremony, Director of Health P.Y. Lam spoke in support of the project, as it would go a long way to enhancing the integration of traditional medicine into the WHO Family of International Classifications. That integration is crucial to the documentation of matters relating to traditional medicine.

The development of the ICTM project resulted from discussions during a previous WHO working group meeting in 2009, also hosted by Hong Kong’s Department of Health.