Hong Kong government auctions off novelty car number plates

Deutsche Presse Agentur
Published: Wednesday August 30, 2006

Hong Kong- Car owners in Hong Kong were Thursday mulling over the opportunity of driving around with number plates including HANDSOME, BABYFACE and I LOVE U. The personalized plates are among the first batch to be auctioned off by the territory's government in a new scheme to raise money by releasing unusual combinations of letters and numbers for car plates.

Among the other car plates to be sold at an auction on September 15, all with a reserve price of 5,000 Hong Kong dollars (642 US dollars) are ones that read NEPTUNE, MASTER, MR DVD and HEHEHAHA.

Prices fetched are expected to be far higher, however, particularly for plates featuring auspicious numbers in Chinese numerology, such as eight.

The Personalized Vehicle Registration Marks Scheme is expected to generate nearly 9 million US dollars a year for the Hong Kong government, which will be spent on projects for the poor.

Despite its wealth, densely-populated Hong Kong has one of the developed world's lowest car ownership rates with less than 40 per cent of adults owning cars.

Because of the small size of the city of 6.8 million and the high cost of running and parking a car, most people choose to get around using public transport or taxis.

© 2006 DPA - Deutsche Presse-Agenteur