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

Following is the transcript (English portion) of a media session given by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Donald Tsang, after attending the fourth meeting of the Hong Kong/Guangdong Co-operation Joint Conference at Government House this (July 25) morning:

Reporter: Mr Tsang, why have you decided to extend the operating hours for half-an-hour only at Lo Wu? And secondly, are you planning, or are you aiming to have 24-hour operation in future?

Chief Secretary: The operating hours at Lo Wu Station are determined by market demand. You just look at the throughput at Lo Wu at the moment. We are likely to reach a hundred million throughput at the end of this year, at that point alone. For that reason, extension of operating hours is a natural development. Whether or not we will go for 24-hour operation, as the Mayor of Shenzhen has just said, it would take time in that we will have other complementary work required. There is a resource requirement. There is also the question of whether there is a practical need for it. All we know is the number of passengers requiring transit after midnight would drop very drastically. The most important thing is we must meet the current market demand, and the practical way to meet it is to extend the operating hours to midnight.

(Please also refer to the transcript in Chinese)

End/Wednesday, July 25, 2001

NNNN