*****************************************************

Following is the transcript (English portion) of the press conference given by the Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, at the Central Government Offices New Annex Conference Hall after delivering his Policy Address this (January 12) afternoon:

Reporter: On West Kowloon Cultural District project, you barely mentioned it in the early part of your speech and you didn't go into any more detail on it in the cultural portion of your speech. Are you backing away from the single developer plan that's currently been imposed.

Chief Executive: We have been very consistent in what we have been saying on this particular project. It is a very good project, it is a project I first mentioned in the 1999 Policy Address, and I would hope the West Kowloon development will come into fruition. We are now at the stage of listening to all the views. We are in the stage of consultation and I have said it again and again, we will carefully listen to the views of the public and we will make the decision, taking into account the views of the public as well as the fact that whatever we decide must be in the best long-term interest of Hong Kong. Our position hasn't changed.

Reporter: A quick question on constitutional reform. You said in your speech that constitutional reform will proceed at a steady pace according to the Basic Law but given public demands for some kind of a timetable, could you be more specific about what kind of a timeframe we're looking at?

Chief Executive: Well we are moving ahead in the constitutional development in accordance with the Basic Law, in accordance with the decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in April last year. We are now in the process, as you know, of consultation and at the end of this consultation period, we will then take this matter forward. So we are moving ahead according to our plan. And the plan calls for, at the end of the consultation period and other process that goes beyond, us to develop the framework for the selection of the Chief Executive in 2007 and the formation of the Legislative Council in 2008.

Reporter: Mr Tung, you mentioned you have been critical of yourself in the policy address, describing... inadequately prepared... and yet you say you are going to improve governance from now. What makes you think you and your team are better equipped to achieve this than before and how exactly are you going to go about it?

Chief Executive: One of the things one learns in one's lifelong journey is to be critical of oneself, to try to learn from the lessons of the past and try to do better. This is a constant process we need to be engaged in - especially people in our position of responsibility. Over the last 18 months I, myself, and my colleagues in the government, really spent quite a lot of time looking at governance, looking at how we need to improve ourselves, looking at how we can move with the people. I think over the last 18 months you could see tangible evidence of that. More important than that, over the next two and a half years you will be able to see what we will be doing, how we are going to deliver the pieces in this Policy Address, and then I think we will convince you that we are really moving forward.

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

Ends/Wednesday, January 12, 2005

NNNN