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Following is a transcript (English portion) of the remarks made to the media at the Main Wing lobby of Central Government Offices today (October 23) by the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mrs Rita Lau, after the SME summit :
Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development: We had a very productive meeting whereby we were able to exchange views on the immediate, medium-term and long-term measures which the government and the industry could jointly develop to help the SMEs to mitigate the various effects of the financial tsunami. It is important for us to maintain this dialogue and I have appealed to members of the Legislative Council to consider the proposed measures as soon as possible. I am glad to report that they have now agreed to consider this next Tuesday.
I also introduced some immediate measures in terms of providing export credit insurance to our SMEs by the Hong Kong Export Credit Insurance Corporation. We will also consider all the views put forth during this summit meeting. I will report that to the Chief Executive and the Financial Secretary.
For us to consider the next step, we will probably need a cross-bureau task force to concentrate our efforts and try to develop some measures which are appropriate and targeted to relieve the pain of SMEs.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Thursday, October 23, 2008
Issued at HKT 18:59
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