Although there is no plan to further issue bonds, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government will keep an open mind on issuing bonds to fund infrastructural developments and investment projects, a Hong Kong official said Wednesday.

Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Frederick Ma told legislators Wednesday the 26 billion HK dollars (3.33 billion US dollars) raised by issuing bonds in May and July has been credited as revenue to the cash-based accounts for financing capital works projects.

"It is in fact a loan, not revenue. The government has to repay it in due course. We therefore should not expect the issuance of bonds will increase government revenue and solve the deficit problem," he pointed out.

"Through issuing bonds, we have successfully established yield benchmarks for government bonds of Hong Kong with different maturities in both local and overseas markets. This can serve as a reference for future bond issuance for organizations in the local public and private sectors," he said.

"This bond issuing exercises have indeed enhanced the development of the local bond market and represented an important step in reinforcing our position as an international financial center," he added.

In 2003-04, actual expenditure for capital works projects was 31.4 billion HK dollars (4.03 billion US dollars). In 2004-05, estimated expenditure for such projects was 32.9 billion HK dollars (4.22 billion US dollars).