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The following is a transcript (English portion) of the Secretary for Economic Development and Labour, Mr Stephen Ip, speaking to the press on the BoAo Forum after attending the special meeting of the Panel on Economic Services today (June 12):
Reporter: How important is this forum, Mr Ip, in helping Hong Kong to recover from SARS?
Stephen Ip: I think this would be a very important forum. First of all, this forum will be organised by the BoAo Forum, together with the World Tourism Organisation and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government. We are inviting ministers from over 50 countries and also representatives of the travel trade. This is a very high level forum to discuss how to revive the tourism in Asia. It would be a good opportunity for the trade and the media to be in Hong Kong to see for themselves what Hong Kong is like, and it would also provide a useful forum for all these ministers and trade representatives to discuss how to revive tourism in Asia. I think that would be the biggest forum after SARS to be held in Asia.
Reporter: Who's footing the bill for the forum?
Stephen Ip: All the organisations involved, of course. The HKSAR Government of course will help to foot the bill. But it's not a lot of money because if you think about that it would give Hong Kong recognition and it would provide a chance for the media and for all the travel trade ministers to be in Hong Kong; that would be a very good opportunity. A lot of countries would like to host this sort of forum of course.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion)
End/Thursday, June 12, 2003
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