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Following is the transcript (English portion) of the media session by the Chief Executive, Mr Donald Tsang, in Beijing this evening (March 4):
Question: Also on the Tamar project. Are you going to come up with a new argument to the Legislative Council that the Tamar project is worth proceeding because it seems that they are still strongly opposed to it?
CE: This is a very good project. I have very good justifications for proceeding with this project simply from the point of view of additional employment for the construction industry which suffers at the moment over 10 per cent of unemployment rate, probably one of the highest among all major occupations. It will then allow the public sector to put in considerable investment in a piece of land and it would certainly be a stimulus to economic performance during the coming few years. Most of all, there is severe congestion among the offices of Government Secretariat and the Legislative Council. Both of us require this project as quickly as possible. We must not forget also that this project was approved by the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council not too long ago. And I am sure there are lots of things we can discuss with whoever advocating different views. I will continue to persuade people.
Question: About H5N1 infection in Guangzhou, are you satisfied with the notification system this time?
Chief Executive: I think they are doing exactly according to what we have agreed. They have a suspected case. They told us about this. Not only they have told us about this, they¡¯ve told us the circumstances around this case. The case has yet to be confirmed. And this allowed us immediately to pursue this thing further. We are in touch with the Ministry of Health in Beijing and we also are in touch with the Health Department in Guangdong. We also will take extra measures in Hong Kong. As soon as this case is confirmed, and I hope this is not the case, but if it is confirmed, then we will certainly escalate the various response mechanisms according to our rule. We have well laid-out plans on this. And we are doing according to our plans.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Saturday, March 4, 2006
Issued at HKT 23:43
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