1
Congress. The Basic Law Drafting Committee, appointed by the National People's Congress, has met on three occasions in Peking.
23
of its 59 members come from Hong Kong. Five Special Groups have
been established to consider particular areas of the Basic Law. Mainland members of the Special Groups have made study tours to Hong
Kong where they have consulted a wide range
of individuals and
groups. The Special Groups have made progress reports to the full Basic Law Drafting Committee. It is expected that on the basis of these reports the Drafting Committee will, in the course of 1987,
consider drafts of individual articles of the Basic Law. A full
draft is due to be published in 1988.
19.
The Basic Law Consultative Committee in Hong Kong has
been active in collecting the views of the Hong Kong people and
reflecting these to the Basic Law Drafting Committee.
20.
Chinese
Her Majesty's Government welcome the steps taken by the
Government to consult the people of Hong Kong on
wide
basis on the drafting of the Basic Law, and will continue to follow
the drafting process closely.
V.
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT
21.
Last year's report described in some detail the historical background to the development of representative government
in Hong
Kong, which is now structured on framework of three separate but inter-connected tiers: District Boards, Municipal Councils and the
Legislative Council.
22.
The District Boards are advisory bodies established in each of the 19 urban and New Territories administrative districts. Some two-thirds of District Board memberes are directly elected, on the
franchise which a
includes all adults over the age
basis of
21 years who have
have resided in Hong Kong for a minimum of
of 7 years.
The remaining third of members are appointed by the Hong
Government.
Kong,