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Following is the transcript (English portion) of a media session by the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Edward Yau, after attending the meeting of the Subcommittee on Product Eco-responsibility (Plastic Shopping Bags) Regulation this (February 19) afternoon:
Reporter: Mr Yau, the levy may not come into effect on the first of July because of all the concerns raised by members that the bill may not be passed?
Secretary for the Environment: There is every intention for the government to introduce and have this piece of legislation enacted, because the proposal of using a levy to reduce the abuse of plastic shopping bags has long been debated and has a strong consensus. The government is making every step to ensure that this law can be enacted in good time.
Reporter: What will you be doing to ensure that?
Secretary for the Environment: We have in fact conducted very extensive consultation with the trade to ease any concerns they might have in the enforcement details. On the other hand, I think there is sufficient debate and sufficient consensus among the public that this is a necessary step for us to use this levy to reduce the abuse and to build a greener Hong Kong. So I think we have to work together with the legislature, with the greater support from the community at large.
Reporter: The legislators said that the timetable was very harsh. Do you agree with them?
Secretary for the Environment: I take encouragement from the fact that the sub-committee has scheduled three meetings to go through this piece of legislation. And in fact the details of the legislation have been closely examined initially in the examination of the framework legislation enacted last year. Also, we have taken the opportunity during the last few months to further consult the trade to simplify unnecessary procedures. So we believe this is a very good piece of legislation and we hope that it can be enacted in good time.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Thursday, February 19, 2009
Issued at HKT 18:38
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