THE Hong Kong government has introduced legislative changes to mandate the electronic submission of ocean and river cargo manifests, a government statement announced.

If the amendments are passed into law, all manifests for ocean and river cargoes will have to be submitted via the internet from June 16 onwards.

A government spokesman said: "The use of electronic services will reduce the time and manpower resources spent by the industry in submitting manifests to the government, thereby improving overall efficiency.

"This mode of submission is also more environmentally friendly as carriers no longer need to prepare three copies of paper manifests for delivery to three different government departments."

The electronic submission of cargo manifests in the air, rail, river and ocean modes of transport were launched in April, 2003 and in June the transitional period of using both paper and electronic means will be over.

"After constructive dialogues with industry representatives and having ascertained the state of readiness of ocean and river carriers, we have proposed to end the transitional period in respect of ocean and river cargo manifests at midnight on June 15, 2006," the spokesman added.