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Following is the transcript of remarks (English portion) by the Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology, Mr John Tsang, to the media after attending the "Dam the Spam" forum today (June 25):

Reporter: Will legislation be useful to tackle the problem? Will you discuss with other countries to solve the problem?

SCIT: Legislating solves part of the problem. It will not solve the entire problem. Only 5% of the spam originate from Hong Kong. Even if we legislate locally, which may provide a deterrent from spammers from using Hong Kong as the place of origin, it will not solve the 90% of the problem. What we're advocating also, another measure is to have some kind of international cooperative venture that we could help each other erase spammers around the globe. Otherwise we will never be able to solve the problem in its entirety.

Reporter: ...legitimate business will be affected ......

SCIT: That is a big concern. That's why whatever measure we come up with, it's got to be a balanced one that on the one hand, we could eliminate a lot of the unnecessary business cost that arises from spam. On the other hand we will not provide a deterrent for legitimate businesses to do business through telecommunications means.

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

Ends/Friday, June 25, 2004

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