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Following is the transcript of the media session by the Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, after meeting community representatives of New Territories East at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum in Sha Tin this evening (August 22):
Question: Could you explain how confident are you in this series of district visits in helping to establish a new rapport?......How successful do you think you have been at changing public perception through these channels?
Chief Executive: This is my third visit. It has been extremely useful to me and, I hope, also useful to those who have attended this gathering. I am here to listen, to understand, and to listen very carefully to their criticisms against the Government or against me personally. It has been very helpful; it will enable us to do better. The other thing which is very interesting is that the concern of the community at district level, the issues they are worrying about, the issues they are concerned about, are somewhat quite different and they give me direct access to understand what are their areas of major concern. You can, if you want, talk to those who attended the meeting today who would have found this meeting very useful. Certainly it is very useful to me and I have said many times we are going to institutionalise this. This is not just for me but for all the Principal Officials. They would need to come to the district to understand what is happening there.
Question: On the economic front,......the significance of tourism in stimulating economy......Beijing and Shanghai will similarly loosen......
Chief Executive: The second question first. The "individual visit" scheme will apply to Beijing and Shanghai and I think it will start very soon. Insofar as the first question is concerned, obviously tourists are important at this stage of our recovery, but we need all cylinders going forward. For instance, logistics, trade, financial services. All the areas are going forward. The good news is that the external economic environment looks pretty good. So I believe all the other cylinders will be going very well.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
End/Friday, August 22, 2003
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