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Following is the transcript of the English portion of the stand-up media session by the Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, at the Central Government Offices this (Sunday) afternoon before he leaves for Kuala Lumpur to attend the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting.

Mr Tung:In a few moments, I will be off to Kuala Lumpur to attend the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting. We will take the opportunity of our getting together to review the progress that has been made of the liberalization of trade and investment and we will also take the opportunity to exchange views of the financial turmoil and the impact in the Asia-Pacific region. As you know, this is a subject in the mind of almost everybody. Only recently the seven industrialized nations as well as Group 22 have pronounced their some very good objectives of how to regulate and supervise the financial institutions, particularly the hedge funds, and also how to build the new international financial infrastructure. We would want to make sure that these intentions and these promises will be kept. Additionally, Hong Kong has had real experience that we have been at the receiving and of all these activities. We have real experience and the ability to input our experience to those who are making out these regulations. So we are looking forward to making a point that we would like to participate fully in the process. So it is going to be a very full four days of meetings and I'll be very much looking forward to that.

Reporter:What subjects or what issues will you be raising when you meet the Chinese President?

Mr Tung:Well, as you know, I have only recently met the Chinese President, Mr Jiang Zemin, in Beijing in October, and I will have the opportunity to meet with him again on the fringes of the APEC Meeting, and normally we will talk about all sorts of things as we would. There is no particular subject that I'd wish to raise.

End/Sunday, November 15, 1998

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Chief Executive's transcript (Chinese part)