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Following is the transcript (English portion) of the Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, wrapping up his annual duty visit to Beijing yesterday (December 11):

Mr Tung: I had a very good meeting with Chief Executive Ho. We touched on a wide variety of subjects. But I can assure you one thing that we are mutually supportive of each other. And that our goals are not competitive; they are all supportive goals, mutually supportive goals. And we will continue to work very closely together on all fronts.

Reporter: (on 24-hour opening of cross-boundary checkpoints)

Mr Tung: I have said that our wish is to have people crossing both checkpoints in 30 minutes and trucks in one hour. This is our wish. And also we want to start 24-hour crossing for people at Huanggang at the time of Chinese New Year. The Central Government is very supportive of this and will do their best to push this forward. I've asked the Chief Secretary for Administration for this very important issue to come to Beijing later this month to finalise the arrangement.

Reporter: (on Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement)

Mr Tung: The discussion has been ... and lots of work have been done. We have now set a deadline for end of June to finalise the discussion. I am quite confident that it can be done.

Reporter: What progress has been made on the bridge between Zhuhai and Hong Kong?

Mr Tung: I think the response from the Central Government is positive. It is however a very big project. Therefore, whether it is a matter of financial arrangement or engineering feasibility or environment protection point of view, we really need to look into it in great depth. And it needs to be done and when it is done, we can then move ahead.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion)

End/Thursday, December 12, 2002

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