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Following is a transcript of remarks by the Acting Secretary for Transport and Housing, Mr Yau Shing-mu, in a media stand-up session after a briefing session of Long Term Housing Strategy Steering Committee today (January 5):
Reporter: (About the meeting and how the long term strategy for housing will be formed based on this......)
Acting Secretary for Transport and Housing: In this morning, we basically briefed Members on the economic situation in Hong Kong and the demographic growth trend. Members would take into account these factors to formulate whether they need a new approach or a model to make an assessment of the housing need. Members found this briefing very useful but the actual deliberation will take place later perhaps in February.
Reporter: How about the children who were born with no connection to Hong Kong, with parents from the Mainland and how will their numbers be taken into consideration?
Acting Secretary for Transport and Housing: I think the number we are talking about is 170,000. This figure is past figure. It means that from now on, there would not be any increase at all. So we are dealing with this number and through a number of surveys, we know that a certain percentage of this figure may aspire to live in Hong Kong. But we have to put a caution here. Not everyone under the survey, even though at that time they indicated that they had willingness to come to Hong Kong, will actually come. So there is certain percentage and this percentage will be taken into account when the members deliberate to what extent they will factor into the model if they want to have one.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Saturday, January 5, 2013
Issued at HKT 17:03
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