Hong Kong's Executive Councilor Cheng Yiu-tong Friday praised the Immigration Department as an internationally renowned disciplined force that contributed in maintaining and promoting the stability and prosperity of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).

Cheng was speaking at the department's passing-out parade of 206 immigration assistants who have completed their 13-week induction training at the Immigration Service Training School.

He told the passing-out officers that the work of the Immigration Service had a great bearing on society. Effective law enforcement to combat illegal workers, prostitution and forgeries played a very crucial role in maintaining law and order. The efficient immigration control also directly boosted Hong Kong's economic development.

The department is also responsible for the documentation of local residents, including naturalization, the registration of births, deaths and marriages, the issue of travel documents and Smart Identity Cards.

Since the implementation of the individual visit scheme in July 2003, more than 3 million individual visitors from the mainland have visited Hong Kong. The scheme helped energize the tourism sector and create more job opportunities for other sectors, notably the retail and catering industry.

"The Immigration Service attaches great importance to the application of new technology to provide high-quality service to the public and visitors," he said.

The Expeditious Immigration Clearance System installed at the busier control points, speeded up the clearance of visitors by 10 percent.

By the end of 2004, Automatic Passenger Clearance and Automatic Vehicle Clearance systems will be launched in phases at immigration checkpoints so that people can use their Smart Identity Cards for self-service immigration clearance.

To cope with the ever-increasing passenger traffic and workload, in particular at the control points and in the anti-illegal workers operations, the department launched a recruitment exercise last year. Friday's passing-out officers were selected from more than 18,000 applicants received in the last recruitment exercise.