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Following is the transcript of remarks (English portion) by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Henry Tang, at a media stand-up session after visiting Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground this (November 22) morning:
Chief Secretary for Administration: I am very happy to have this opportunity to come to Tseung Kwan O Stadium today, because we are in the final stage of preparation for the East Asian Games. East Asian Games is the first major international sporting event that we are organising. Last year we did the equestrian events, that was a single event, but this one is a multi-event games. So this is a challenge for us, we are all doing our utmost to ensure that the facilities, arrangements and everything are in order. I am very pleased to say that all those who have participated are excited but they are happy with what we have done so far. So we are doing everything we can to ensure the games go smoothly and successfully.
Reporter: (ticket sale)
Chief Secretary for Administration: No. Actually as far as the ticket sales are concerned, we are sold out on basically all the popular events. The ones that we still have tickets are actually the ones we have very large stadium, very large capacity, such as football, such as rugby, where we do it at the Hong Kong Stadium. The capacity is 40 000 seats, I don’t think we will sell 40 000 tickets for all the events, because just the football and the Rugby together represent about 100 000 tickets out of the total 330 000 tickets, they are nearly one third. I don’t think we could sell 40 000 tickets for each of the events. Therefore we are pleased with the result. But of course we will continue to sell tickets to the public who wish to participate and to see some of the events where we still have tickets for.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript of remarks.)
Ends/Sunday, November 22, 2009
Issued at HKT 13:49
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