Transcript of remarks by CS at media session (with video)

Transcript of remarks by CS at media session (with video)
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Following is the transcript of remarks by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mrs Carrie Lam, at a media session in the Legislative Council Complex today (October 28):

Reporter: Mrs Lam, can you explain why does the poverty commission hope to change the names of universal pension scheme, and why would you believe that it would not mislead the public?

Chief Secretary for Administration: First of all, it's not a question of changing the names. As we proceed to prepare the draft consultation document for this very important public consultation on retirement protection, which we intend to launch in December this year, we have to find adequate ways to explain what we are talking about. So this so-called "universal retirement protection scheme" is a term used very frequently by some of the concern groups. Actually, by the way, up till now, we have not decided on the English translation of the two terms, so I can only explain that in the Chinese versions that we have presented to the Commission on Poverty, which have been accepted by the majority of non-official members of the Commission on Poverty, is really what I would say is "call a spade a spade". One direction for enhancing retirement protection is to provide for a universal scheme. What does it mean by "universal scheme"? It is regardless of your financial situation that you will receive the same standard allowance from the Government. So to say that this is "不論貧富", that is regardless of a financial situation, is calling a spade a spade. The other direction is of course what we have been saying on many occasions, is we prefer a targeted approach, and that target must be those elderly who are in financial need. In Chinese, it is "有經濟需要". I think we are being very honest and try to facilitate public discussion on a very important subject for Hong Kong. There is no question of any misleading at all.

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

Ends/Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Issued at HKT 15:19

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