************************************************

The following is the speech (English only) by Chief Secretary for Administration, Mrs Anson Chan, at the Opening Ceremony of the Wellcome Fresh Food Centre at Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate today (Friday):

Mr Neslund, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me very great pleasure to officiate at the opening ceremony of the Dairy Farm Wellcome Fresh Food Centre today.

I think you would all agree that Hong Kong is a gourmet's paradise. Not only do our professional chefs constantly come up with innovative dishes, but Hong Kong people as a whole love eating. Visitors and friends overseas are often amazed at the quality and variety of our food, not to mention the wide diversity of cuisine that we offer. Our consumers are highly discerning when it comes to food, and we are very particular about the freshness of our food.

So to ensure a steady supply of fresh food, a very well-developed food processing industry is indispensable. And I feel that the opening of this $400 million Fresh Food Centre is a very, very welcome development. It will help boost our capacity to handle more fresh food locally, using the latest technology. The Centre's single level cold chain environment will minimise food contamination. I understand it can process some 2,000 different food products non-stop all year round and deliver fresh food to supermarkets in a completely temperature-controlled environment. As one of the most advanced and fully integrated fresh food processing plants in Asia, the Centre may even one day be handling the export of quality food items around the region.

Of course operations on such a scale requires space. I am pleased that this Fresh Food Centre has found its home in the Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate, demonstrating the contribution that our industrial estates programme makes to Hong Kong's industrial development. Our industrialists' vigour, innovation and entrepreneurship are the envy of many. But their greatest headache is in securing sufficient supply of cheap land. The purpose of industrial estates is to provide developed land at cost to industries with new or improved technologies, which cannot operate in normal multi-storey buildings. Through this means we hope to broaden Hong Kong's industrial base and upgrade our technology levels. This new Fresh Food Centre offers a considerably increased processing area, and so enabling Wellcome to produce more than triple its original output.

Founded on the success of the three existing industrial estates, we are now planning for a fourth estate in Tuen Mun. The first batch of about 8.5 hectares of land will be available by the year 2001. We hope to see more outstanding companies like Wellcome seizing the opportunity to set up their base in one of the estates. Our ultimate goal is to provide the best environment for businesses, and the industrial sector.

I would like, finally, to congratulate all who have had a hand in this project and I wish the Dairy Farm Wellcome Fresh Food Centre every success in its operations.

Thank you.

End/Friday, November 27, 1998

NNNN