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The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government supports local airlines to proactively develop services under the Chinese Mainland-HKSAR Air Services Arrangement, said an official here recently.

Secretary for Economic Development and Labor Stephen Ip said in a Legislative Council meeting that when discussing expansion of the arrangement with the mainland authorities it has been the government's objective to progressively expand traffic rights for both sides.

"Since 2001 we have discussed with the mainland annually expansion of the arrangement, resulting in an increase in the number of routes and capacity that airlines of both sides can operate," he said.

According to Ip, statistics from the Civil Aviation Department show that there has been steady growth in air traffic between HongKong and the mainland.

In the first 11 months of 2002, the passenger and cargo carried increased by 7.8 percent and 31.1 percent respectively over the same period of 2001.

At present, there are air services between Hong Kong and 39 cities in the mainland and Hong Kong airlines provide scheduled services to 19 of these cities.

"We believe that there is good potential to further develop the Hong Kong-mainland air services market," he added.