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I would be more than content to have my role examined by
that committee. AS far as the second part of
officers in the
Mr. LI'S
Monetary
question is concerned where he referred to Hong Kong being
the only market to close, he no doubt saw in the newspaper
the other day that one other market, the New York market,
was said to be within five to ten minutes of having
closed, but that was one person's opinion. Mr. LI
questions the competency of
Affairs Branch in the light of that closure and in the
light of Hong Kong Government having to assist. As I have
said in this Council and elsewhere on many occasions, the
decision to close was the decision of the Stock Exchange
itself. It did not need the approval
the approval of the Government.
Once that decision had been made and the market had been
closed, the Government had a very clear and very simple
responsibility and that was to ensure that the markets
refopened again in the shortest possible period of time in
an orderly and normal manner. That we achieved and I
think that all those involved were seen to have performed
extremely well. There could be no question raised at all
about their competency.
le.
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