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Following is the transcript of media session (English portion) by the Financial Secretary, Mr Henry Tang, after the first meeting of the Committee on Economic Co-operation with the Mainland of the Commission on Strategic Development at the ground floor lobby of Central Government Offices (West Wing) this afternoon (December 5):
Reporter: What kind of consensus have you reached in the meeting just now?
Financial Secretary: We went through a discussion for over two hours. It was an excellent discussion because we all agreed that we should study both the forest as well as the trees and we must not look at trees and miss the forest, nor just study the forest and completely miss any of the trees. We have a very strong consensus that although Hong Kong¡¦s economy is going through an unprecedented recovery in the last two years, there are also unprecedented challenges in the future. So we must be visionary but we also must be practical and progressive. We have reached consensus on that basis and there are a number of strategic issues that we will prioritise in our agenda. One of them is, of course, employment creation. This is one of the most important issues. The other one is creative industries and then we have high value-added logistics as well as solidification of talents. Because I strongly believe the future will be great for talents. This is something that we need to examine and form strategic directions on how we can make Hong Kong a centre for talents in the whole region.
Reporter: Can I ask what¡¦s your view on yesterday¡¦s march and do you think this will actually hurt the administration¡¦s image?
Financial Secretary: I think all the views regarding the march have been expressed by the Chief Executive already and I have nothing to add to that.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion)
Ends/Monday, December 5, 2005
Issued at HKT 20:13
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