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Following is the transcript of remarks by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mrs Carrie Lam, at a media session after attending the Forum on Population Policy held by the Hong Kong Coalition of Professional Services this afternoon (January 6):
Reporter: Mrs Lam what are you hoping to achieve through the dinner tonight? Are you hoping that consensus can be reached simply through these dinners?
Chief Secretary for Administration: Definitely not. I have no illusion that through these four dinners we could reach consensus on such a difficult and complex subject. But as I said at the time of releasing the consultation document, we attach a lot of importance to the views of the Legislative Council members, because these 70 members will have an important constitutional role to play in taking forward the constitutional development, because I am sure you will recall that in what we call the five-step process, step three requires approval of the government proposals on constitutional development by a two-thirds majority in the Legislative Council. So, these four dinners are sort of trying to provide an alternative approach to listening to the views of the Legislative Council members. And I hope that in a more relaxed atmosphere, that members from different political parties, apart from expressing their views to government officials, including myself, that they will also have a very frank and candid exchange amongst themselves.
But if these dinners are proven to be useful in helping each other to understand the other's position, then I am very happy to organise more of these dinners in future.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Monday, January 6, 2014
Issued at HKT 20:39
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