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The following is a transcript (English part) of a stand-up media session by the Financial Secretary, Mr Antony Leung, on the Staff Report on Hong Kong SAR by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at Central Government Offices this (May 16) morning:

Reporter :It seems that the IMF report is very positive about Hong Kong's economic future. How would you react to that?

Financial Secretary: We welcome the report of the IMF and we note their positive comments on our economic and monetary policies. The SAR Government will continue to do a number of things. Firstly, we would continue to improve our competitiveness. The Government will reduce its size especially in the size of the public sector expenditure as a percentage of the economy. We would continue to re-engineer and re-organise the Government so that we can provide more efficient services to the public.

Secondly, we would strive to restore fiscal balance by 2006/07 and this is actually very important to Hong Kong.

Lastly, we would continue to invest in areas such as human resources and infrastructure. Overall, it is a positive report but we would have to work harder to maintain our competitiveness.

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

End/Thursday, May 16, 2002

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