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Transcript of remarks by CS at media session (with photos/video)
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     Following is the transcript of remarks by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mrs Carrie Lam, at a media session after chairing a meeting between the Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Mr Zhang Xiaoming, and representatives of the Democratic Party to exchange views on constitutional development at the Central Government Offices this afternoon (August 15):

Reporter: Mrs Lam, has the meeting just now narrowed the differences between both sides? Did it go into concrete details of the political reform proposal? And what's the purpose of the Shenzhen meeting? Why does it have to be held in Shenzhen?

Chief Secretary for Administration: Well, the meeting that we just had was the first of a series of four meetings arranged by the Hong Kong SAR Government in response to a request from 23 LegCo members who belong to the "lunchbox group". They have expressed a wish to meet with central authorities' government officials. We have relayed their request and I'm very pleased that the Director of the Central People's Government Liaison Office Zhang Xiaoming has agreed to attend these four meetings. So of course it is not quite realistic to expect one meeting to reach a consensus, but I think the meeting has been held in a very candid, open manner, that both sides are able to express their principled positions on issues relating to constitutional development, and that's why both sides also concluded that it would be very helpful if we could have more opportunities of this sort in future. As far as the Shenzhen meeting is concerned, that is another attempt really to listen to LegCo members' views on constitutional development, especially after the Chief Executive has submitted his report to the National People's Congress Standing Committee and before the National People's Congress Standing Committee is going to hold its meeting later this month to consider the Chief Executive's report.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Friday, August 15, 2014
Issued at HKT 19:44

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