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The following is the transcript of Financial Secretary, Mr Antony Leung speaking to the media about unemployment figures at West Wing, Central Government Offices today (October 21)(English portion):
Question: What is your outlook for the unemployment situation in Hong Kong given the latest figures?
Financial Secretary: The short-term outlook is actually quite stable, but clearly for the medium to long term it is a situation that is very hard to predict, after all Hong Kong is a very open economy. The sectors that have shown improvements are the areas the Government has been working on, but they are also very externally oriented. The sector that has improved a lot really relates to the export sectors --- both export of goods and export of services.
And with the measures that the Government is taking I'm sure there will be further improvements, barring any unforeseen external circumstances. However, with the uncertainties surrounding whether there will be a war, whether there will be additional kind of uncertainties due to terrorist acts, it is quite difficult to predict with certainty but the Government continue to try to improve the export sector as well as the other sectors.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion)
End/Monday, October 21, 2002
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