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Following is the transcript (English portion) of a media session by the Chief Secretary of Administration, Mr Donald Tsang, today (June 24) at the Central Government Offices:

Reporter: The new Exco is to be comprised mainly of officials. Do you think the community voices and interests will be overlooked? And what would these new appointments mean for the ministers... administrative officers of the civil service now?

Chief Secretary for Administration: First of all, the new team represents a very wide cross section of the community, representing the views of the public. And they are unlike the civil service, they will be held personally accountable for their actions. In other words, in promulgating, in formulating the policies, they have to listen very carefully what a community needs and be able to impress upon them that their policies reconcile to community priorities. And at the same time, there are other non-official members of the Executive Council who are able to express their views from a different perspective. But I'm quite confident that a policy emerging from this new administration will be more akin to common interest, will be meeting the needs of the people at this time of the year.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion.)

End/Monday, June 24, 2002

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