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The Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten, speaks to reporters after visiting the Visual Arts Centre in Hong Kong Park on December 15, 1993
Governor: Good afternoon. I am delighted to have seen this afternoon some of the facilities and services provided by the Urban Council which plays such an important role in enhancing the quality of life in Hong Kong. It's been a great pleasure to see both
great pleasure to see both the recreation and cultural facilities and to see some of the hard work that the Council does in the field of environmental hygiene. In my Legco speech a couple of months ago, I promised the community that before the end of the year, we would set out what we believe to be the right way ahead for helping those who've retired. We said we would put forward our views about retirement protection. We kept our words this afternoon and set out our views in a statement to the Legislative Council. I think the approach which we have put forward is the best way of providing better financial care for the elderly, both today and in the future in a way which is cost-effective. I want to make it clear that my view is that we should depend as much as possible on the encouragement of private schemes. I think that is the Hong Kong tradition and I want to encourage that. But if the community wants to more comprehensive approach to the issue, if it wants
it wants a more intervention approach, then I think the way we have suggested this afternoon is the right way forward. I think that
we were at the beginning of a period of pretty vigourous debate in the community on this important issue. We've clear what we think should happen. It's an important subject both because of the needs of the elderly today and because we kee" that the number of the elderly is increasing and the number of the very elderly is increasing as well... So this is going to be one of the biggest social problems, social challenges that Hong Kong has to face in the next few years and I think we've risen to that challenge in an intelligent and sensible way this afternoon and I hope that that will be recognised by the Legislative Council and by the majority of the community.
Question: Mr Patten, when are you going to gazette the second part of your reform bill as China has said repeatedly that the talks now are literally dead?
Governor: We haven't killed the talks. The reason for tabling and introducing the partial bill, the interim bill is in order to try to keep the talks alive. The whole community and, I believe, Chinese officials know perfectly well that we have to move in order not to miss our legislative and administrative deadlines. Everyone knew that even waiting until early December is cutting things very fine. We want to go on talking to Chinese officials about the outstanding issues which are controversial issues like the Election Committee, the functional constituencies and the through train. We are not going to walk away from the negotiating table and I hope that the Chinese side aren't going to walk away from the negotiating table either. I think that it would be a help if instead of using rather surprising language about what we've been doing in Hong Kong, Chinese officials, would have to tell us whether or not they think our proposals on the voting methods for the Legislative Council are reasonable. And if they don't think the single-seat, single unte
single vote method Le Mascosable, then they should say what they would like to do. I think they should say where they think we could find extra time in order to put in place the proposals which are necessary in order to have decent elections here
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