Following is the transcript of remarks made during a question-and-answer session by the Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, at the Annual Dinner of the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors (HKIS) this (Friday) evening:

Mr Tung: Mr Lau, friends, ladies and gentlemen, I have been out five nights in a row, I though tonight I will be relaxing, but your president has been very persistent and said that you are not going to get a free meal afterall. I just want Mr Tan to know that we welcome competition of any sort, particularly with Singapore and C.Y. (past president of HKIS) was saying to me that we are short of surveyors in Hong Kong, so you are more than welcome. If I may just say a few words, I think if there is any change since July 1, 1997, it is probably in the mindset of people. Hong Kong is no longer an enclave economy with an artificial or psychological barrier -- June 30, 1997 -- or the physical border separating Hong Kong with the mainland of China. In fact, I am very pleased to tell you that government officials are thinking way ahead, planning way ahead, thinking with a great vision for the future of Hong Kong.

Indeed as China moves forward confidently into the 21st century, and as Asia will surely recover from the financial turmoil which we experienced recently, Hong Kong will be uniquely placed to benefit from these extraordinary activities that we will experience. Real estate is the pillar of our economy and you as professionals are very important to us in Hong Kong. Hong Kong needs you, Hong Kong needs professionals with vision, with commitment and I am sure together we can all build a better future for ourselves and for our children.

Question: I am not a surveyor nor a valuer. During your policy speech, you made some announcements about the housing situation in Hong Kong and some policies about improving the housing situation. Given the recent financial crisis, is there any rethinking about these policies?

Mr Tung: Housing is a major challenge for our Administration, obviously we watch very carefully and we are very sensitive to the housing market because as I said earlier on, housing is a very important part of our economy and we really need to watch this very carefully. But we have no plans to alter our thinking at this moment of building 85,000 units/apartments every year. Yes, we have some of our short-term problem but we cannot make long-term decisions based on short-term what is happening today. What we have to look at is look at ourselves -- are we confident about Hong Kong's future economy? And the answer is yes. Are we confident about the fact that population continues to grow, there will be demand for these apartment units? The answer is yes. And we will go ahead with construction of these units.