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Transcript of Chief Secretary's media session
The following is the transcript of the media session by the Chief Secretary, Mrs Anson Chan, after visiting the Trade Department today (Thursday).
CS: Good morning everyone. I am sorry I didn't get a chance yesterday to speak with you after I got off the flight. As you know, I've just spent one week in London. This is my first official visit to London since taking up the post of the Chief Secretary. I met with ministers. I met with the Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd, the Minister of State, Mr Alastair Goodlad, a number of officials in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. I also met with a few members of parliament and with business people. And as you know, I addressed the Conference on Hong Kong 2001, which is organised by the Department of Trade and Industry. I also spoke with the Hong Kong Association. This was a very useful and productive meeting and a series of meetings. At my meeting with Douglas Hurd, I was able to bring him up-to-date on issues of current concern to Hong Kong. In particular, we reviewed progress on the Court of Final Appeal, on the establishment of the Court of Final Appeal. I am very glad to notice that the council of the Law Society has agreed in principle to support the establishment of this court. This is very very welcome. And I hope very much that the Bar Association would also review its stand on this matter. I think the issue to concentrate on is not so much whether the Law Society has or has not changed its mind. The real issue at stake is do we set up a Court of Final Appeal before 1997, or do we take the risk of, a real risk of, a legal vacuum, because we're not likely to have a better Court of Final Appeal after 1997. So as I said, I hope very much that the legal profession as a whole will review its stance on this.
Question: What's your comment on the scrapping of the ICAC ....
CS: We do not believe that the Section 10 of the ICAC Ordinance in any way infringes the Bill of Right Ordinance. The Attorney General will be taking immediate steps to appeal against the court's judgment.
end/Thursday, December 1, 1994