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Following is the transcript (English portion) of the media session given by the Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, after his first meet-the-community session on the Policy Address 2005 at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum in Sha Tin tonight (January 20):

Reporter: Mr Tung, what are your feelings when meeting people from different districts after the Policy Address?

Chief Executive: I think it is extremely helpful to me because district personalities would give me a very different perspective of what they see, what they would like to happen, and they give me some very good advice about the Policy Address. It's very helpful.

Reporter: ... today, there are 200 people there, but you've only spoken to maybe 10 or 20 of them, how useful do you think this was and what kind of impact you think would be on promoting unity within the community?

Chief Executive: I think the purpose of this gathering for me is really to listen to the views of the people. And, this is the first of three sessions and then I have other arrangements throughout this period of time to listen to the views of the people. These're all being arranged. Of course, there would always be suggestions that, could you do it this way, could you do it better that way. Well, if there are better suggestions, we should certainly look at them. The purpose is for us to communicate with each other. That's what we are trying to do.

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

Ends/Thursday, January 20, 2005

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