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Following is the transcript of the meet-the-media session by the Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, at the lobby of the Central Government Offices this (July 24) afternoon (English portion):
Reporter: Do you agree with the comments of Mr James Tien about ministers speaking out of turn? Are you going to advise the ministers not to discuss policy initiatives with the media before they have been discussed by Exco?
Mr Tung: The various Secretaries, the officials under the Accountability System have now been working for a month. I think they are really doing a fine job. They are totally involved, accepting the challenges before them and working very well with tremendous team spirit. I am very pleased with this and I know that people in Hong Kong are looking at them. They're using their new thoughts and new ideas, pushing forward new policies. I think this will be a tremendous asset to Hong Kong. I have encouraged them during the past period to stay in touch with the people to understand what they are thinking about, listen to their views and what they are deeply concerned about. I think they have heard a lot of valuable opinions. They have expressed some preliminary views on what they have heard. Of course, the formulation of policies will take more planning, more discussion and additional work before they can become policies. All I can tell you is that over the past month, I have meetings with all the officials, talking about the policy direction over the next five years and what are the most important work that needs to be addressed immediately. These are areas they are looking at and we have had some preliminary discussions.
What James Tien said yesterday was really a very well-intentioned suggestion. Obviously, this is an entirely new team under a new system and we need time to get to know each other. I know that in time they will all do very well.
I am organising an off-site get-together this weekend. I will be participating in this off-site gathering with the CS, FS, SJ, the 11 officials under the Accountability System and the five non-official members of the Exco as well as the Permanent Secretaries. I am quite confident through these useful discussions, we will get to know each other even better; the new team will work even better; we will be able to really do things as the second term begins. Thank you very much.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript)
End/Wednesday, July 24, 2002
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