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The following is the transcript (English portion) of the media session given by the Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, after the groundbreaking ceremony of the Hong Kong Disneyland at Penny's Bay this (January 12) afternoon:

Reporter: China is considering building a Shanghai Disneyland, and that do you want to compete with the Mainland in this ?

Chief Executive: The World Tourism Organisation made a forecast recently that by 2020, China will be the largest tourist destination. And as a result of that, Hong Kong will become the fifth largest in the world. Today we have sixteen and a half million arrivals. I am very happy with that. You know what their forecast is for 2020 ? Fifty-six million people. The growth is going to be spectacular. China is a big country with a huge population. Its economic development is progressing very well. Wealth is being created. So there should be two theme parks. I want to tell you Disney explained to me that their focus right now is to make this a really successful theme park. So for their immediate future, that is what they want to do. Thank you.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript)

End/Sunday, January 12, 2003

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