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Following is a transcript (English portion) of the Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology, Mr John Tsang, speaking to the media at the Legislative Council Building this afternoon (October 18):
Reporter: Mr Tsang, can you also respond in English over criticisms that there is lack of communication between you and other NGOs?
SCIT: The claim that there has been lack of communication is all fallacious. With the People's Alliance, we have had meetings over six times this year and actually the roundtable that we had on Sunday was in response to their request. So we have had three hours of, what I would call pretty decent discussion, and that counts as part of our communication. I have also indicated to some of the young people who asked me to meet with them that I would be very happy to do that. I would actually welcome this sort of communication because we have never had too many requests to discuss the contents of the negotiations, which is a very important point. So if they have clearly identified what kind of substance they are interested in, I would be happy to talk. But we must talk in a civil, orderly manner because this is what the Hong Kong people expect of us.
Reporter: Do you think the protest on Sunday could have been more under control if you did accept the petition?
SCIT: It is not a question of accepting the petition or not. I agreed to talk to the press outside. I agreed to accept petitions. But as I was going outside with Pascal Lamy, the press stand was nowhere to be seen. It was already scattered all over the place with the protesters. I did not see anybody trying to hand me a petition or anything. It is nowhere to be seen. So in that instance, I said goodbye to Pascal and we left. So it is really no question of our non-willingness to do that as we do that (receiving petitions) every day.
Reporter: Would you be willing to meet NGOs before the WTO meeting?
SCIT: I would be happy to meet them as many times as they want if they have anything of substance to communicate with us.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Issued at HKT 19:01
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