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Transcript of opening remarks by Chairman of LegCo Finance Committee at end-of-session press conference
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The following is issued on behalf of the Legislative Council Secretariat:

     Following is the opening remarks by the Chairman of the Legislative Council (LegCo) Finance Committee, Mr Chan Kin-por, at the end-of-session press conference at the LegCo Complex today (July 27):
     
     During the 2017-2018 legislative session, the Finance Committee has held 75 meetings spanning about 161 hours. Of these, 64 meetings were spent on deliberating financial proposals put forward by the Administration. The Committee has deliberated and approved 29 financial proposals involving $73 billion.

     There were heated debates on controversial proposals. Regarding the Committee's deliberations, I noticed several phenomena this year.

     On average, the Committee spent a much longer time on (deliberating) each item this year, which was 4.2 hours per item versus 2 hours last year.

     Individual proposals were more frequently taken out from the Subcommittees' en bloc recommendations for separate discussion in the Finance Committee. This year 79 per cent and 89 per cent of the number of items endorsed respectively by the Establishment Subcommittee and the Public Works Subcommittee were deliberated again at the meetings of the Finance Committee. In comparison, the figure was only 20 per cent last year.

     There was also a higher proportion of meeting time spent on dealing with the motions that we called "37A motions" (which were moved under paragraph 37A of the Finance Committee Procedure, reaching) 10 per cent of time this year versus 7.3 per cent last year.

     Members also frequently moved and spoke lengthily on procedural motions such as adjournment motions or those for shortening the duration of ringing the division bell. All these contributed to the Committee's slow progress in dealing with the funding proposals on the agenda. On some occasions, the Committee's proceedings were obstructed by individual members' disorderly behaviour. In the face of these challenges, I have tried my best to ensure smooth and orderly deliberations at the Committee's meetings. I hope members in future can really focus their discussion on the funding proposals.

     Lastly, I am most grateful to the Deputy Chairman and the Secretariat staff for their support over the past session.
 
Ends/Thursday, July 27, 2017
Issued at HKT 17:49
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