The second point I wish to make, and I speak personally and not necessarily on behalf of my colleagues here, is that there seems to be some suggestion that this deal has been cooked up behind our backs between the British Government and the Chinese Government without local participation.
譬
I simply wanted to say that as Secretary for Economic Services, we have probably ate, dreamt and slept on the airport for the last four years. I personally welcome this document. I see it, first of all, as removing the uncertainty that we have lived with for the last nine months. That uncertainty cannot be good for the Hong Kong people and it certainly is not good for international investment.
We have now secured for ourselves a basis upon which we can proceed with certainty as regards the speedy and cost-effective implementation of the airport projects which is extremely important in terms of underpinning the economic prosperity and stability of Hong Kong both now and after 1997.
Last, but not least, it does signify an improved relationship and co-operation between the Chinese, the British and, of course, Hong Kong together with the British Government. And I am personally hopeful that this
this augers well for the next. JLG and we hope to see better progress at the next JLG meeting.
Mr Yeung:
Perhaps I could associate myself fully with Mrs Chan's remarks. I could conclude this session by giving you a story - it is for print.
There has been ä
a lot of innuendo in the printed media that: "Here we go again. The UK has done a great big sell-out of Hong Kong. That Hong Kong has not been involved in the talks."
The Governor is already on record as saying that that is not true. What he hasn't yet told you is the fact that before and during that weekend none of you had anyone outside Government House.
If any of you had been outside Government House in the wee hours of Friday evening, Saturday morning, Sunday morning, you would have noticed a quiet passage of a number of private, not AM [government registered] cars, private cars. Because I can tell you that several of us, CS, the FS, the Governor, Political Advisor, myself and several amongst us, were trotting in and out. And we were busily giving instructions to our team in Peking.
the
These guys tend to negotiate in the morning, then send telegrams back for instructions. We answer them in the afternoon. They carry on in the afternoon, send back instructions which we get in the evening sometimes late evening. And we work on those telegrams. So, We were very closely involved in the issue of negotiations throughout. As the Chief Secretary said in Legco, it has to be done in secret. Otherwise you get megaphone negotiations.
On that note, I can assure you, ladies and gentlemen,
gentlemen, that we were in control.
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