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Following is the translation of the opening remarks and the transcript (English portion) of the media session by the Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, about the third Legislative Council election this (September 13) afternoon at the Conference Hall, 1/F, Central Government Offices New Annexe:

Chief Executive: I am pleased to note that members of the new-term Legislative Council (LegCo) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) have been successfully returned through election. On behalf of the HKSAR Government, I would like to extend my hearty congratulations to all newly-elected members of our legislature. All my colleagues, the entire HKSAR Government and I, look forward to working closely with the new LegCo in the next term to serve the people of Hong Kong.

All our newly-elected legislators worked flat out yesterday in the final stage of their election campaigns. I will start approaching them tomorrow to fix up meetings with them as soon as possible. I hope to listen to their views on how to enhance the relationship between the Administration and the legislature. I will also sound them out on the Government's policy priorities. I will start discussing with them areas of public concern, including economic, political and social issues, and I hope such dialogue will be held on a regular basis.

Economic revival, social harmony and the birth of the new legislature are what the people of Hong Kong would like to see. We cherish such a situation. We will join hands with our legislators and members of the community and spare no effort to maintain the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong.

I note that there have been some flaws in the electoral arrangements. The Chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission, Mr Justice Woo Kwok-hing, gave an explanation earlier today. He promised to conduct a thorough and comprehensive investigation and review, and to submit a report to me within a short time. But I would like to emphasise that this LegCo election has been conducted in an open, fair and honest manner. Thank you.

Reporter: Mr Tung, how do you feel about the election results and do you think it will make it easier for you to work with the LegCo now and will it make it easier for you to reintroduce Article 23 legislation?

Chief Executive: This is a good election result. It was held in a fair, open and transparent manner and we are looking forward to working with the members of the new legislature. I am making arrangements starting tomorrow to meet with all the new members of the LegCo, to talk to them about how we move forward from here with regard to all areas of concern, whether it is social issues, political issues or economic issues. At the same time I look forward to discussing with them how we can work more closely together for the overall benefit of the community as a whole. So we are looking forward to working with them very, very closely. And what are the programmes over the next year or two? We will be looking at these things as we move forward.

Reporter: The LegCo is going to be dominated by the pro-Beijing parties and pro-Government parties, so is it likely to reintroduce the Article 23 in the coming ..?

Chief Executive: Let me say this. We should all be very comfortable and proud of the election results. All these candidates, they worked very, very hard for this election and people have made their choices. And as I said again and again, we'll be working with them very closely. They represent different sectors of our community with different views and quite rightly so - it should be like this. And we look forward to working with every one of them. On legislative programmes, we have not gone into the details of that yet.

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

Ends/Monday, September 13, 2004

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