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Following is the transcript of the stand-up session (English portion) given by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mrs Anson Chan, this (September 22) evening at the Central Government Offices:

Reporter: Mrs Chan, ... to Beijing?

Chief Secretary: As you know, it's nothing unusual. Every year, I go up to Beijing once or twice. In fact, we've been trying to fix the timing of this particular visit for a few months. But it's just that we haven't been able to find a mutually convenient time for such a meet. So it's not until quite recently that we finalize the details. We will announce the people that I will meet as soon as the arrangements are firm. You will hear very soon.

Reporter: ..... the agenda issue..?

Chief Secretary: First of all, I am sure that the Central Government leaders would be very interested to hear about Hong Kong's latest situation, both on the economic side and on the social side; the pre-election situation and the post-election situation; how we see the coming year in terms of governance, in particular, how we are going to work, and cooperate with the Legislature, in terms of serving the community of Hong Kong. I'm sure we'll discuss a range of issues that are of mutual concern.

Reporter: ....about moving Article 23 forward....?

Chief Secretary: Let me stress again that we have no fixed timetable for legislating on Article 23. We realize that it is an extremely controversial and sensitive issue. We are still doing some basic research and when we are ready, we will do extensive consultations so that at the end of the day hopefully we will have a consensus as to how to move forward on this very very controversial subject. Thank you.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript)

End/Friday, September 22, 2000

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