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Following is the English portion of the transcript of the stand-up session given by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mrs Anson Chan, after attending the symposium organized by the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong this (July 20) morning:

Reporter: Mrs Chan, can you respond to today's SCMP report. How do you think that the functional constituency elections make us......?

CS: I advise all of you first of all to read very carefully the article in the Hong Kong Annual Report. My article in fact covers several areas that impact on Hong Kong society, including not only the whole question of constitutional reforms and the pace of these reforms, but I've also touched on the economy, touched on the civil service and on the whole question of information technology. So, first of all, please read the article and then I hope you will judge for yourself as to whether the headline in one of the local newspapers is a correct one or not.

I also want to say that functional constituency is, of course, part of the historical development of representative government in Hong Kong. It plays an important role. What I have raised in my article is a question of how we move from the current transitional stage to the ultimate objective of universal suffrage. I think it is important that in this process that there are plenty of opportunities for the public to debate what they would like to see so that the end of the day everyone in the society can have an equal participation and equal voice in the way in which they are governed.

Photo: The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mrs Anson Chan, attended the symposium on Sexual and Reproduction Health in the New Millennium organized by the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong in celebration of its 50th Anniversary. Clinical and health care professionals, social workers, policy makers and academic researchers took part in the discussion of gender-based violence and male sexual and reproductive health. Picture shows Mrs Chan addressing at the symposium.

Chief Secretary for Administration's Transcript (Chinese Part)

End/Thursday, July 20, 2000

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