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Following is the transcript of remarks by the Financial Secretary, Mr Henry Tang, on Harbour Fest at the Main Wing lobby, Central Government Offices this morning (October 21):
Reporter: What do you think about the withdrawal by the three singers?
Financial Secretary: I regret that the three local singers have decided to withdraw. However, there are still numerous local singers, as well as Asian singers, who will perform in future events. I believe our focus now should be to solve any outstanding problems, whether it's keeping order during the performance or trying to get our corporate friends to buy as many tickets as possible. After all the events have finished, we will then review the whole operation and learn from it.
Reporter: What do you think about the organisation of the whole event and should anyone be held responsible?
Financial Secretary: I would like to compliment the American Chamber of Commerce for having proactively suggested to us out of their goodwill and sincerity to help Hong Kong to come out of SARS to organise this event. It is an exceedingly complex event with very little time to organise. I believe they have not done anything like this before. So due to a lack of experience, there has been confusion. The result so far is not ideal. However, we are all working together to help them to sell tickets. The focus now is to sell the tickets and to try and get the events to come out as well as possible. My understanding from last night's performance was that the crowd was quite happy with the performance. I hope we can learn from that experience and build on it.
Reporter: Did the Government underestimate the ability of AmCham to organise this event?
Financial Secretary: We overestimated that they are able to pull off such a complex event in such a short period of time. We underestimated the complexity of such an event. I thank them for their sincerity and for actually wanting to help Hong Kong. We are always grateful for AmCham for having its heart in the right place.
Reporter: (inaudible)
Financial Secretary: We will review the whole event after the last concert is finished. I believe now my focus is to try and get the remaining events to come out as well as possible.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript)
Ends/Tuesday, October 21, 2003
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