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Following is the transcript (English portion) of a stand-up media session given by the Financial Secretary, Mr Antony Leung, at the West Wing lobby of the Central Government Offices today (March 18):

Reporter : Is unemployment going to get worse before it gets better ? What will be done to create jobs?

Financial Secretary : Well, usually unemployment is what we call a lagging indicator. When the economy has bottomed, the unemployment rate would continue to rise for a while. But we have noticed that the unemployment rate for February, or shall I say, the increase in our unemployment has slowed down in February as compared to January. So it is a welcomed development. So whether we have peaked yet, I think it is a bit too early to tell. What are we doing? I think the most important thing is to help the entire economy to improve because after all, if the economy improves, then there will be more job opportunities for our people. Today the Task Force talked about a number of issues, in particular, we talked about how we provide opportunities for our young people to get the training which is outlined in the Budget Speech. The other things we talked about is the domestic economy. As you know, I am chairing an inter-bureau working group to help promote the domestic economy. Members of the working group are very supportive and there are lots of ideas. But most of the ideas of the domestic economy should come from the districts and from our people. After receiving all these good ideas, the working group will look at the more viable ones and will see, how at the policy and regulatory level, we can somehow coordinate to help promote these activities in Hong Kong.

(Please refer to the Chinese portion also)

End/Monday, March 18, 2002

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