The following is issued on behalf of the Executive Council Secretariat:
 
     Following is a transcript of remarks by the Convenor of the Non-official Members of the Executive Council (ExCo), Mr Bernard Chan, at a media session on "The Chief Executive's 2018 Policy Address" in the Legislative Council Complex today (October 10):
 
Reporter: Regarding the East Lantau reclamation, the project is bound to face strong criticisms from the opposition and the public. Are you worried that it may face other challenges?
 
Convenor of ExCo Non-official Members: There are many divided issues in Hong Kong, and these divided issues have lingered around for too long. We have come to a point, and we totally agree with the Chief Executive, that we have to make firm decisions, and those decisions need to be made in the interest of the people of Hong Kong at large. On the issue of housing and land supply, the solutions are all there. We just have to make sure decisions are made in the interest of the Hong Kong people. According to the Policy Address, almost 70 per cent of the new land supply will be used for public housing. Based on that, I believe that is the best decision for Hong Kong. The issue will continue to be divided, because there's a lot of vested interests, but we just have to move forward. If we continue to stall on this topic, we all are going to suffer. As you can tell, housing prices are already on the verge of being unsustainable and unhealthy for Hong Kong's economy to continue to develop. So I think the decision to find more land for Hong Kong is very important. Of course reclamation is only one of the solutions, and it is considered to be of longer term, so we still need other short and medium-term solutions to ease the current shortage of land supply.
 
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Wednesday, October 10, 2018
Issued at HKT 15:40

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