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Following is the transcript (English portion) of the press conference given by the Chief Executive, Mr Donald Tsang, at the Central Government Offices New Annexe after delivering his Policy Address in the Legislative Council today (October 15):
Reporter: Why aren't there any new and solid policies towards solving the current financial crisis in the Policy Address today?
Chief Executive: We have a very solid financial monetary foundation in Hong Kong. We have one of the best regulatory systems. Of course it's not perfect, but it's one of the best in the world. We have been able to weather our various tests including a rumour-inspired run on a bank. These incidents have happened but we overcame that. We have been able to respond to each and every measure taken by various other governments in other markets in a way which boosts confidence in the Hong Kong market. This is not a time for innovation. This is a time for consolidation and objective assessment of the situation, devising the best counter-strategy and at the same time exploiting the opportunities that are there for strengthening Hong Kong's position as an international financial centre. This is the strategy I followed in the Policy Address and I believe this is the right strategy to adopt at this time.
Reporter: Under the subject of greater integration, two points. I wonder if you could give us some of the background on these new moves toward opening up and engaging Taiwan and how that has come to be. Related to that would be, I think you mentioned the idea of a Hong Kong-Shenzhen metropolis. I wonder what your vision of that would be and how that would work?
Chief Executive: First of all, on the question of Taiwan. Taiwan has always been an important trading partner for Hong Kong. With the improvement of the cross-strait relationship, I believe they offer us good opportunity to deepen and broaden our economic activities in Taiwan. For that reason our TDC is going to establish a branch office in Taipei very shortly. At the same time, we are now loosening up and relaxing the travelling restrictions for Taiwanese people. I hope this will be a two-way flow as well, and there will be greater interaction between businessmen in Taiwan and Hong Kong. For that reason I am setting up a Hong Kong-Taiwan special economic group to promote bilateral trade economic relationship. This is certainly to the benefit of Hong Hong. It is important to realise that while Taiwan is an important trading partner, it is also a rival in terms of trade. We have to be on the alert. We must be able to compete in areas important to Hong Kong. These include, for instance, logistics, trade in goods and services and aviation and so on.
In regard to our relationship with Shenzhen. It is natural. This is part and parcel of the Pearl River Delta development. We have developed this relationship for many years. I think we both realise the great complementarity between the two of us. They have, for instance, the manpower resources. We haven't got enough of them. We have the intellectual property rights to protect any patents, any intellectual inventions in Hong Kong and we are able to conduct highly restrictive research capability. For that reason this will complement the industrialisation of Shenzhen - the complementarity is so great. In order to do that we must connect the two places. We have a number of things. We have the bridge being built. We have finished one causeway on West Shenzhen and we are going to build another connection between the two airports. So the two territories can combine together to create a much greater metropolis; much stronger, most externally oriented and also be able to tap more closely into the markets of the Mainland. Our Taiwan strategy and our Shenzhen strategy are two separate strategies but both of them are important for the medium-term development of Hong Kong.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Issued at HKT 17:45
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