Transcript of FS' remarks (with video)

Transcript of FS' remarks (with video)
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Following is the transcript of remarks by the Financial Secretary, Mr John C Tsang, at the launching ceremony of the Trial of Electric Vehicle at the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department Headquarters today (May 12) (English portion):

Reporter: Mr Tsang, how would you describe the launching of this first electric car? There appear to be concerns about where people could charge them in the future, do you think it's going to be...

Financial Secretary: I think it's an extremely exciting project that we are engaged in. What we are doing is not merely a process to change what we are using now, the fuel-based vehicle into an electric-based vehicle. We are talking about changing the mindset, changing the culture of a city. The whole city would be changed, involving the city planning, even a lot of business opportunities. So this is a very exciting start and we have the very good steering committee. All the members are very excited about this and we are talking about different ways how we could push this process forward as and when the electric vehicles become available. It's probably in a couple of years to two, three years' time that we could be fully engaged with the city in pushing this matter forward.

Reporter: How are you going to overcome this concern about where to charge them - that's one of the real concerns.

Financial Secretary: Surely. Indeed this would be something that we would be involved in discussing in great length. If the charging is not convenient, nobody will use the cars. And what we're aiming to do is to provide a vehicle that would be environmentally friendly but at the same time it would serve a commercial, it would serve a business purpose as well as a private purpose. So this would be very important. This is something that we will be discussing in the future. And we look forward to finding a solution that would be suitable to Hong Kong.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion)

Ends/Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Issued at HKT 18:43

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