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Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Development, Mr Paul Chan, at a media session after attending the Construction Industry Council Graduation Ceremony 2015 today (November 10):
Reporter: Mr Chan, would the current Administration actually look into developing country park areas, especially after the CE (Chief Executive) this morning said that it is worth looking into developing some country park areas? What is the course of direction for your bureau?
Secretary for Development: Well, the CE in response to media questions this morning threw a proposition. But for the current term of Administration and as far as the Development Bureau is concerned, we will concentrate our effort in the area of rezoning the 150 sites that we have previously identified for residential development to meet our short- to medium-term (housing) needs. Out of these 150 sites, about 70 sites are from green belts. These are not part of the country parks, but in the fringe of the country parks or the new town cities. From our standpoint, we do not want to have any confusion or misunderstanding that the Government is going into the country parks for development of whatever purposes. For residential (development) purposes, we will concentrate our effort on rezoning the 150 sites.
Reporter: Sorry, is the bureau actually ruling out the possibility of developing country parks in the current ...?
Secretary for Development: In the current term of Administration, that is a definite yes.
Reporter: That you will rule it out?
Secretary for Development: I will rule it out in the current term.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Issued at HKT 18:43
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