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Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Wong Kam-sing, on waste management after attending a radio programme this morning (March 29):
Reporter: Secretary, despite your repeated efforts to stress how important the so-called "3+1" plan means to Hong Kong, your message is not getting through to the ears of the lawmakers. What's wrong? What's being wrong?
Secretary for the Environment: Increasingly the lawmakers are aware of the needs of these "3+1" infrastructures as reflected in the (Legislative Council) Environmental Affairs Panel meeting yesterday. I think the majority of the lawmakers is supportive to this approach and I hope in the coming (Legislative Council) Public Works Subcommittee meeting they can share a similar approach.
Reporter: Are you going to increase your pressure on some lawmakers so that they will support you?
Secretary for the Environment: It is to have a better
communication with them showing on one hand it is the overall need of Hong Kong, and at the same time, we are working on various measures to reduce the local nuisances or concerns. So based on these two aspects, I would like to have better support from the lawmakers.
Reporter: Secretary, can you answer a last question? How confident are you that your "3+1" proposal will be passed by LegCo? And would you at any point consider to debundle the package?
Secretary for the Environment: As I said earlier, the "3+1" proposal is to respond to the overall need of Hong Kong in terms of waste disposal. And at the same time, we are working very hard in reducing the local nuisances in relation to these infrastructures. I hope the lawmakers are aware of this overall need and also our local efforts. The coming meeting would be sometime next month. We will make our efforts to keep the dialogue with them in the coming days so that they can have a better communication with our government. In case they have any queries, we would like to respond as far as we can.
Reporter: So you will not consider to debundle the package?
Secretary for the Environment: In terms of decision-making by the lawmakers, they have their way to do it.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Saturday, March 29, 2014
Issued at HKT 14:31
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