Transcript of Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa speaks to Hong Kong media yesterday in Tokyo before concluding his visit in Japan:

Question: A personal question for you, you keep talking about your former life as a businessman, you recognise a transformation in yourself, could you let me know, what have you gained and lost now that you have been the Chief Executive for three months?

Mr Tung: I've lost a lot of sleep! I 've lost the freedom of movement, because as you know I really don't have the freedom to move about or to travel to places like I used to do. What I've gained, I think, enormous challenge all of us, and I look forward to the challenge. I want to make Hong Kong a great city in the 21st century. I'm glad in this respect I have good people together working with me now and hopefully with the help of all of you, and all the Hong Kong citizens, we will make it better.

Question: An elaboration on your speech. You have explained that functional constituencies were not intended as universal suffrage and then accept that universal suffrage is the ultimate aim. Can you explain to me, assuming that you believe in equality, why should the people of Hong Kong accept that some people should have more say than others?

Mr Tung: This has been an evolution of the democracy process. Functional constituency was originally designed as an indirect election, it was designed with that in mind, so we are moving forward on that basis. I think, Jenny, you know when America's constitution was written, election was developed, it was also indirect election to start with and then the process will evolve and eventually will move towards direct elections, and eventually towards universal suffrage and I think given a 10-year period to move in that direction is a good one. You might say I'm too conservative, well, as I said many times, I am conservative. I think it is important for Hong Kong to move in a very sure-footed way to ensure that we will continue to be very successful.

Thank you very much.