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Following is the transcript of a media session given by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Joseph W P Wong, today (July 11) on the passage of the Public Officers Pay Adjustment Bill:

First of all, I would like to thank Legco members for supporting the Government and passing this legislation which enabled the Government to implement this year's pay reduction. We will continue to communicate and to discuss with civil service unions, including those unions which participated in public demonstration, to discuss with them frankly the common problems, the common challenges which we will have to face. I am sure that the Government as well as our civil service colleagues appreciate that the public expects the Government to act in unity to deal with all these common issues. I would also invite all the major political parties in the Legislative Council as well as independent members for discussion in the next few months in order to have a frank exchange of views on civil service matters because I believe we would continue to face a number of civil service issues and these issues could still be very controversial.

Thank you very much.

(Please also refer to the Chinese transcript)

End/Thursday, July 11, 2002

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