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Following is the transcript of remarks by the Chief Executive, Mr C Y Leung, at the press conference on the 2015 Policy Address at Central Government Offices, Tamar, this afternoon (January 14):
Reporter: Mr Chief Executive, you were saying there are some gems of wisdom that you've got in your speech. It's like a housing and land 101, and also the fact that there are some directions that you've set out for the population policy, like for women, gender mainstreaming, and also for active ageing and for the youths. But at the same time, I'd like to ask you, how did "Occupy Central" occupy much of your policy and thinking on this Policy Address? Because obviously, from paragraph 10 and the first few parts, you were thinking about "Occupy Central" and you were trying to encompass an opinion that is opposed to you and also the Central Government. So how would you encompass these different opinions and try to encourage them to go back maybe to a dialogue with you or the Chief Secretary?
Chief Executive: I'm afraid "Occupy Central" occupied much of my time rather unproductively in the past four months, but it doesn't occupy much of the policy initiatives or thinking behind the policy initiatives in the Policy Address that I delivered this morning. I know society has various interpretations on why and how "Occupy Central" as a movement took place and took the form that it did, and many have said that we should do more to engage the young people, which is something that I have done in the Policy Address. But there are many, many areas in the work of Hong Kong Government that have little to do with Occupy movement, and in so far as our constitutional development is concerned, the key thing that we have to focus on is to realise the opportunity that we now have to elect for the first time in Hong Kong's history the head of Hong Kong Government by universal suffrage - "one-man, one-vote". It has never, never taken place before, but we have now an opportunity to do it in 2017. And if we can convince a few more members of Legislative Council that they should listen to the people, because the people want it, and that we should have "one-man, one-vote" according to the NPCSC's Decision and the stipulations in the Basic Law, then there will be a reality in a couple of years' time. So I think this is the key thing, and the key thing, as you said, you used the words, and thank you for the compliment, you used the words "gems of wisdom", these are basically like our catchwords, catchphrases, in this year's Policy Address. We need to grasp these opportunities according to the law and, in so far as universal suffrage is concerned, the laws are the Basic Law and the NPCSC's Decisions.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Issued at HKT 18:56
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