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Following is the transcript (English portion) of a media session by the Financial Secretary, Mr Antony Leung, after the meeting of the Taskforce on Employment this (June 9)afternoon:

Financial Secretary: The meeting this afternoon discussed the impact of SARS on the economy and on the labour market. We have seen the unemployment figure earlier, but clearly you will understand that that number may not have fully reflected the impact of SARS, so we expect that the pressure on unemployment will continue for a while. But as the efforts of the Government in containing the disease have taken effect and with the WHO and the US CDC lifting their travel advisory on Hong Kong, we are already seeing improvements in local consumption and improvements in the tourism industry.

Earlier on, in April, we have announced a relief package amounting to $11.8 billion of which more than $400 million was earmarked for creating short-term jobs. We plan to create more than 21,000 jobs in the short-term. Right now we have already more than 6,000 people engaging in various short-term employment opportunities as well as in training opportunities. We believe that in the short-term there will be more people benefiting from these particular programmes. We also hope to, in the near-term, study ways to create more short-term jobs.

In addition to that, there are various measures that we'll be proposing, including those measures announced by the Team Clean, that will have employment opportunities such as maintaining the buildings and improving the cleanliness of Hong Kong. On top of this, the Government has a programme to relaunch the Hong Kong economy and we have earmarked $1 billion to do that. Through these activities, we hope to increase domestic consumption as well as increasing tourism and foreign investments in Hong Kong. All of these, in the medium term, will create more job opportunities for our people.

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

End/Monday, June 9, 2003

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• Prevention of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
• Team Clean
• Government committed to boosting employment and combating abuse of funds" (09.06.03)