Transcript of remarks by CE (with video)
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     Following is the transcript of remarks by the Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, at a media session on the first working day at the ground floor lobby of the Chief Executive Office this morning (July 3):

Reporter: You said you are asking EDB to review the whole BCA or TSA system. Do you have any timetable that when will that be happening? Also about the educational spending, how confident are you that the pan-dems will accept it and because you mentioned that the priority items will be dealt with first, what are these?

Chief Executive: As far as the BCA review, I don’t think we need a lot of time to do this exercise because a lot of people have expressed a lot of views. The important thing is to bring the different parties together to sit down and try to resolve the differences and reach a consensus. I have this feeling that over a period of time people tend to take a very polarised position, so it’s either for or against, but I certainly, and personally believe, that there’s always a middle ground for us to reach consensus and to move on to achieve the original purpose of this assessment and also to relieve the burden and pressure on young students as well as their parents.

     As far as the package of measures to improve education and address some of the pressing problems faced by teachers and schools, my confidence of getting this through the Legislative Council Finance Committee as soon as possible is based on the very positive and constructive interactions and discussions we have had with different political parties and education stakeholders over the last three months or so, and with that groundwork being laid down, I am cautiously optimistic that we should be able to get this through before the summer recess of the Legislative Council, so that when it comes the 2017-18 school year, the new resources will be injected into the education system.
     
 (Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Monday, July 3, 2017
Issued at HKT 10:57

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