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Following is the transcript (English portion) of a media session given by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Donald Tsang, this (February 21) afternoon after meeting with Vice-Premier Qian Qichen in Beijing:

Reporter: Mr Tsang, unemployment has reached a high of 6.7%, causing a lot of concerns, did you discuss this with Mr Qian?

Mr Tsang: Well, we talked in general terms. As I said, he was pretty confident about Hong Kong's ability to overcome the current economic problems. He noted that the unemployment rate was high but he was confident that when the global economy improves, then the employment, the labour situation in Hong Kong would correspondingly improve.

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

End/Thursday, February 21, 2002

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