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The Financial Secretary, Mr John C Tsang, is in Honolulu to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) Finance Ministers' Meeting on November 9 and 10. Following is the transcript of remarks by Mr Tsang at a media session today (November 9, Honolulu time):
Reporter: Mr Tsang, tell us what you're going to bring or contribute to the APEC as the Financial Secretary.
Financial Secretary: We've been participating in APEC for a number of years. And in the Finance Ministers' Meeting, in this year in particular, we are very concerned about growth, because in the face of a lot of uncertainty arising from the Euro debt issues, arising from the slow growth here in the US. We'll be doing quite a bit of discussion about the growth prospects, how we could promote that. At the same time, we will also be talking a bit about the regulatory issues, in terms of the financial market regulation and so forth. So we'll be contributing that in a significant way.
Reporter: Tell us why you think the market in Hong Kong is going to be volatile in the near future? And any advice for investors?
Financial Secretary: I think that the market will remain volatile for some time. The biggest reason is that in the Eurozone the stability...a lot of economic issues which is becoming even a political issue for some of the countries involved, and that will persist for some time. And moreover, in the United States growth has been very slow and unemployment rate has remained high, and that will continue to be a cause for concern, and all of these issues are causing some repercussions in Asia, including Hong Kong, and you can see that our growth this year has been reduced, largely because exports have been very weak, and I think that will continue and so I would like to take this opportunity to advise investors to be careful in their investments, particularly small investors to be careful in their investments and do the things they need.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Thursday, November 10, 2011
Issued at HKT 13:44
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