SJ on co-location arrangement of Hong Kong Section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link

******************************************************************************************

The Secretary for Justice, Mr Rimsky Yuen, SC; the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Mr Frank Chan Fan; and the Secretary for Security, Mr John Lee, met the media after attending the joint meeting of the Panel on Transport, the Panel on Security and the Panel on Administration of Justice and Legal Services of the Legislative Council (LegCo) on the co-location arrangement of the Hong Kong Section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link this afternoon (August 8). Following is the transcript of remarks of the media session:

Reporter: Mr Yuen, why doesn’t the Government consider holding a public consultation on the controversial co-location arrangement?

Secretary for Justice: I think as I have been explaining on the last occasion as well as on this occasion, the suggestion of co-location is not a new idea. It didn't happen just out of the blue. In fact, as soon as the Express Rail was planned, the question of co-location was raised. And then, in the year 2007-2008 Policy Address, the then Chief Executive also positively said that the Government would be studying the possibility and feasibility of implementing co-location at the West Kowloon Station. And thereafter on many different occasions including the occasions when application was made to the Finance Committee of LegCo for the relevant funding, the same issue was raised. So this question of co-location has been discussed and has been ventilated in the community for a considerable period of time. Therefore, there have been considerable opportunities for different sectors of people, including lawyers, including academics, including people who are interested in development or transport, to express their views. Also, ever since the Government announced the proposal on the 25th of last month, we have also been listening to the views of the people of Hong Kong. I think what we want to stress is that we all along place great importance on Hong Kong people's views. And that's the reason why we have been collecting views of Hong Kong people from different channels and that's something that we will continue to do because we still have a bit of time and we would like to know what people think about the proposal that we have put forward on the 25th of last month. Thank you.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Tuesday, August 8, 2017
Issued at HKT 20:46

NNNN

Archives Yesterday's Press Releases Back to Index Page Back to top

Today's Press Releases