******************************************************
Following is the transcript of the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Tsang Tak-sing, speaking to the media after the passage of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority Bill this (July 3) afternoon:
Reporter: Obviously you are happy that the bill was passed. But despite the overwhelming majority in the passage of the bill, does the fact that all the amendments tabled by lawmakers were rejected would put a kind of a dent to the Bill? My second question is when do you expect the authority to be up and running?
Secretary for Home Affairs: The amendments proposed by legislators are made with good intent. The point is whether it is proper for those proposals to be put into the Bill and to be written down in the legislature. Some of the amendments may not be workable if they are written into the law. But some of the ideas will definitely be proposed for the future authority to take forward. We expect that the authority could be set up within a year.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Thursday, July 3, 2008
Issued at HKT 19:07
NNNN
