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Following is the transcript of the Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology, Mr Joseph W P Wong, speaking to the media today (March 7) about the 2007-08 Budget proposals to support the local film industry and the provision of WiFi wireless Internet access facilities at Government premises:
Reporter: Do you think public resources should be put into subsidising private film industry?
SCIT: First of all, I would not categorise this support as subsidy. In a sense it is a limited support in the form of investment and we think it is appropriate to do so for two reasons. First of all, the film industry, as I mentioned earlier, is a very important creative industry in Hong Kong and the revival of this important creative industry will have a lot of spill-over effects, not just in terms of the film industry, but also in other activities such as entertainment, employment and so on. Secondly, when we look round outside Hong Kong: you can look to the UK, you can look to France, you can look to our neighbouring economies, such as Singapore and Korea, you will find a lot of examples of governments playing a more active part in supporting the film industry. I believe this is a good policy and I believe this policy will yield returns not just to the film industry but to the community as a whole. So far, since announcement of this proposal by the Financial Secretary, generally I have got the impression that the feedback from the community has been a positive one.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Issued at HKT 18:16
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