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Following is the transcript (English portion) of a media session given by the Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, about co-operation between Hong Kong and Guangdong at the Central Government Offices today (June 27):
Chief Executive: A ceremony to mark the full commissioning of the Dongshen Water Supply Scheme will be held in Dongguan tomorrow. As I am tied up with Premier Wen's visit to Hong Kong, I have asked the Chief Secretary for Administration to represent me at this ceremony and to thank the Guangdong Province for their support for Hong Kong. This is a meaningful project and will be beneficial to the community as a whole. The Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Sarah Liao, will also attend the ceremony.
As I said in LegCo yesterday, with the closer relation between Hong Kong and the Mainland, and the signing of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA), we anticipate that our co-operation with the Mainland, in particular Guangdong Province, will enter a new phase. Not only will CEPA open up many new business opportunities for Hong Kong, it will also have a far-reaching impact on future co-operation between Hong Kong and Guangdong. Therefore, after discussions with the Central and Provincial Governments, we have decided to upgrade the leadership level of the Hong Kong/Guangdong Co-operation Joint Conference. From now on, the joint conference will be chaired by myself and the Guangdong Governor. The Chief Secretary for Administration and the Executive Vice-Governor of Guangdong will be responsible for taking forward the deliberations of the joint conference.
Based on our experience in the past few years, in addition to upgrading the leadership level of the joint conference, we will consider how to better leverage on the efforts of the business sector to assist and promote economic and trade co-operation between both places.
Also, to make the work of the joint conference more concrete and pragmatic, both Guangdong and Hong Kong will each strengthen our research work on matters of co-operation and development. On our side, such research work will be undertaken by the Central Policy Unit. The corresponding teams on both sides will step up co-operation and communication.
When I met the Guangdong Governor, Huang Huahua, in Beijing in March, we discussed issues relating to our co-operation in concrete terms. Now that the battle against SARS is behind us, for both of us, forging ahead with our co-operation has become an important item on the agenda. Governor Huang and I have decided to hold the sixth Hong Kong/Guangdong Co-operation Joint Conference in Hong Kong early next month.
Both Governments have done a lot of work and have made significant achievements through the joint conference in various areas in the past, including the flow of people and goods, infrastructure developments, environmental protection and tourism.
I'm confident that our co-operation with Guangdong will scale new heights under the new structure of the joint conference.
Thank you very much.
Reporter: About the withdrawal of the National Security Bill, do you think those 426 US Congressmen are truly misled ?
Chief Executive: I have said earlier on just now in Chinese that the enactment of the law to protect national interests of China is our duty to the Chinese citizens. We also have the obligation under the Basic Law to enact such laws here. Certainly, I want to emphasise this doesn't affect Hong Kong people's freedom or the way of life. We will do our best to explain to our friends overseas what is happening here in Hong Kong. And for those who care about us, we will spend time to explain to them, and having listened to us, I am sure they will understand what we are trying to do.
End/Friday, June 27, 2003
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