SCA: New attempts made to communicate with public and political parties
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The following is the transcript of a standup briefing by the Secretary for Constitutional Affairs, Mr Stephen Lam, after attending a seminar to mark the 10th anniversary of the delivering of the speech entitled "Continue to Promote the Reunification of the Motherland" by Jiang Zemin this afternoon (January 31)(English portion):
Reporter: About the Zeng Qinghong's speech yesterday saying that there is still room for improvement for the Hong Kong Government, so what is your opinion towards that?
SCA: In any community, it is always a challenge for the Government in power to continue to address public concerns and do our very best to address what the community needs. So as far as we are concerned, we have made new attempts to communicate with the public. For example in dealing with the review of constitutional development, we have engaged District Councils; we have organised district forums and we have invited members of the public to join these forums. So we believe that in so doing, we would be able to build a broader base for taking forward our work. And in terms of our everyday dealings with the Legislative Council, we continue to communicate fully with each and every party and individual members to ensure that our policies are consistent with the overall interest of the community.
Reporter: Yesterday, Choy So-yuk said (in the Letter to Hong Kong) that the Government seems to listen to only one side of the views of the community. Do you think... will the Government listen to views from the democrats etc.?
SCA: It is very clear that in dealing with all public affairs in Hong Kong, we continue to communicate with different political parties and representatives of different sectors. This applies across the board to, for example, the review of constitutional development and all the initiatives on the Policy Address and our policy agenda which we take to the Legislative Council. So, I think Hong Kong, being a free and open society, will stand a very good chance of making improvements across the board.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Monday, January 31, 2005
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