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Following is a transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Gregory So, at a media session after attending a meeting of the Legislative Council Panel on Information Technology and Broadcasting today (April 14):
Reporter: Mr So, on the filibuster attempt, is there any chance that the Government will actually listen to Leung Kwok-hung's views and explain the HKTV saga a bit better so that he will actually not launch filibuster?
Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development: I will be entirely open to communication. You know, we are not a closed-door bureau. We listen to the views of other people. But as I listen to Mr Leung's view today, basically tying in two separate matters into one, mainly the licensing issue with free TV to the establishment of the new Innovation and Technology Bureau, I believe this is probably not an appropriate way of tying in the establishment of the new bureau with the broadcasting matter. But I will communicate with Mr Leung and try to convince him that there is an urgency and actually a demand from the technology sector to establish the new Innovation and Technology Bureau as soon as possible.
Reporter: (about whether filibustering in the Budget will affect the setting up of the Innovation and Technology Bureau)
Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development: Of course this is a priority for us to have the Budget processed through the legislature, this is a priority, but the establishment of the new Innovation and Technology Bureau is also in response to the request of the technology sector, so therefore we would like to proceed as soon as possible. The sooner the new Secretary for Innovation and Technology could be appointed, then all the work will begin to see how we can push forward all this technology agenda, so I would hope that all this filibuster that has been mentioned would not prevent us from moving forward. I think we owe our citizens our best efforts to push all these constructive initiatives forward.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Monday, April 14, 2014
Issued at HKT 20:06
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