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Following is the transcript of remarks (English portion) by the Financial Secretary, Mr Henry Tang, at a media session at the West Wing lobby, Central Government Offices, after the first meeting of the Commission on Poverty today (February 18):

Reporter:  Mr Tang, you said that you can look at different indicators with an "s", does that mean you have ruled out drawing a poverty line as such, and also after the first meeting, do you see any differences ahead because some of the members have already said they want to press for the Government to set up concrete objectives, targets, for example, eliminating the problem in ten years, are these some of the objectives that you will look at and you will set?

Financial Secretary:  One of the members actually made a very good suggestion which we will adopt.  It's that when we roll out whatever programme we will decide to roll out, we should set targets and measurements of progress, so that we will be able to quantify as well as to identify whether the targets or goals have been met, and whether we are meeting that at a pace we would like to.  As far as a poverty line is concerned, we are going to study various social indicators because poverty involves more than a rigid group of targets.  We have to identify whom our service targets are.  We are looking for this kind of social indicators in order to identify the right group of targets.

Reporter:  So there is not going to be a poverty line, so to speak?

Financial Secretary:  I don't want to use the very rigid word of a "line" because most people will identify a line as a very rigid line.  If you say all those who are CSSA recipients are poverty stricken, that¡¦s not true.  There are often people who are not CSSA recipients but who would require more social services.  That is the approach that we are taking.  We have not made any conclusion as to what those social indicators are.  We will prepare a paper for discussion at the next meeting.

Ends/Friday, February 18, 2005

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