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10.
The best possible safeguard for Hong Kong's way of life is for Hong Kong's institutions to work vigorously and effectively. The better they work, the more they command the confidence of the community, the less incentive there will be to change them. In practice that means developing Hong Kong's governing institutions in a way that keeps them both strong and executive-led and maximises their accountability to the Legislature. And accountability is the ally, not the enemy of strong government, so the two go conveniently hand in hand.
11.
I have set out to Hong Kong's Legislative Council a number of ways in which we can make Hong Kong's Government more efficient and effective, more accountable to the Legislature, and entrench democracy in Hong Kong.
12.
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The Legislative Council will be responsible for running its own affairs; it will decide its own rules of procedure and elect its own President. I shall stop down from that post, which, historically, the Governor has always held. I intend to establish a Governor's Question Time and make myself available to answer questions from LegCo thereby enhancing the accountability of my office and of my Government to legislators. I want to clarify the roles of Hong Kong's Executive and Legislative Councils by excluding from Exco members of LegCo thereby freeing the Legislative Council to fulfil its proper task of holding the Government to account, and legislators to build up their political parties nd programmes. At this stage in Hong Kong's political development, I am sure that this is the right approach. We shall also establish a Government-LegCo Business Committee, in which members of the Government and legislators will be able to sit down and discuss the management of the Government's legislative and financial programmes.
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