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Following is the transcript of remarks by Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Stephen Lam, at a media session in Boao, Hainan, today (April 2):
We understood from the plenary session from Vice-premier Li Keqiang that even though the Mainland forecast economic growth has been reduced from 8 per cent to 7.5 per cent, there are still ample opportunities for Hong Kong to take advantage of. There will continue to be a process of urbanisation on the Mainland and this will lead to further improvements and increase in internal demand. This will enable Hong Kong enterprises to capitalise on new opportunities.
The Italian prime minister also made it clear that they are very committed in the eurozone to stabilising the situation.
On the part of Hong Kong, so long as the international financial and economic climate clarifies, this will be to the advantage of Hong Kong.
So, as far as Hong Kong is concerned the strategy is in two prongs: Firstly we should make use of the opportunity for further enhancement in internal demand and urbanisation in the Mainland of China to build Hong Kong brands for our enterprises. We have set aside a fund of $1 billion to help Hong Kong SMEs and companies to do brand-building in the Mainland of China. Also we have our strategy established to continue to promote Hong Kong as an offshore Renminbi service centre. This will enable Mainland enterprises to be listed in Hong Kong, to raise funds. This will also enable multinational corporations to raise Renminbi in Hong Kong and invest both in the Mainland of China and other parts of the world. So participation in the Boao Forum has been helpful and instrumental.
For the current-term administration of Chief Executive Mr Donald Tsang, when he took office in 2005, he made it clear in his manifesto and later his Policy Address that the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance will be amended to be applied to the Chief Executive. This process of legislative amendments took a bit of time but we succeeded in enacting an amendment bill to apply the ordinance to the Chief Executive. So our resolve of applying anti-corruption laws to the highest levels of the Hong Kong Government is clear and has been undertaken.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Monday, April 2, 2012
Issued at HKT 18:12
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