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Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, at a media session after attending a conference this morning (September 14):
Reporter: Are?there room for government to compromise on the property cooling measures to secure lawmakers'?support?
Secretary for Transport and Housing: The cooling off measures are necessary because they are intended to dampen demand, particularly to suppress the sentiment that was around when we introduced the measures that the market would only go up and not come down. I think that is very dangerous. We?don't?want to see a repeat of the asset bubble bursting, we don't want to ..., ?we want to have soft landing should there be any major changes in the external environment. As far as the impact of our measures is concerned, we want to maintain the intended impact so I would not suggest that we would contemplate any diluting of the impact of our measures. In terms of some concrete suggestions, the government?has always been adopting a listening mode. For example, we have accepted the?concerns?expressed by some legislators and developers in the past, and that¡¦s why we have come up with a committee stage amendment on refining the arrangements?for redevelopment so that?the time for developers to get back the refund of the?Buyer's Stamp Duty will be very much?shortened.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Saturday, September 14, 2013
Issued at HKT 16:15
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