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Following is the English portion of the transcript of the media session given by the Information Coordinator, Mr Stephen Lam, to the media today (January 10):

Information Coordinator: Today, at the beginning of the new year, the Chief Executive has started a new round of discussions and consultations with political parties and Legislative Councillors. Indeed this is a process which

we carry on once every few months.

In September last year, while we were preparing for the Policy Address delivery, we listened to the views of the political parties and individual members on issues across the board. For example, on the issue of alleviation of poverty, Legislative Council Members put forth a lot of views. And these were very beneficial to us in formulating individual measures in dealing with, for example, alleviation of poverty. And therefore back in September we had already communicated to the political parties that the Chief Executive will meet with them from time to time once every few months.

Today, for the meeting which lasted over an hour or so, most of the discussion focused on the state of the economy and prospect for the coming year. And all of us were of the view that the Hong Kong economy will continue to grow. The Chief Executive pointed out that we in Hong Kong need to make very good use of Hong Kong's economic strengths in furthering our co-operation with the Pearl River Delta Region so that we can keep our competitive edge and make full use of the business opportunities which will flow from WTO accession.

Members of the Liberal Party pointed out that the business environment deserves our collective attention. The Chief Executive pointed out that in terms of establishment of regional headquarters and offices in Hong Kong, we had made very substantial progress. In 1999, there were only 2,500 such regional headquarters and offices established in Hong Kong. At the end of the year 2000, the number had increased to 3,000.

The second point which we made was that, for example, in respect of the IT industry, the feedback which we have got from the Vice-Chancellors and Presidents of Hong Kong's universities is that their graduates in the IT field, 98 per cent, 99 per cent of these graduates are able to find employment immediately or soon after graduation. Now, that's a good sign.

And thirdly, we also reviewed the situation in transportation trade and on the environmental front, we expressed our appreciation to the Honourable Miriam Lau and other members for their support and co-operation in facilitating the transformation of Hong Kong's taxis to LPG use. This has improved the trade and the business. It has also brought some improvement to air quality.

So, by and large, that's the scope of our discussion this morning. Any questions?

Reporter: Mr Lam, is the Government trying to lobby...?

Information Coordinator: Well, let me say this. We met the Members of Legislative Council of the Liberal Party today for something like an hour and 15 minutes. Only towards the last two or three minutes did this issue come up.

The position of the Government is as follows: Basically, we do not think it is necessary for the Select Committee to be established. The Government will continue with its own internal disciplinary enquiries. The cases before the court or being investigated by our law enforcement agencies, those proceedings will continue and we will continue to reflect our views to Members of Legislative Council.

Information Coordinator's transcript (Chinese part)

End/Wednesday, January 10, 2001

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