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Now Mr Governor, with regard to this Co-ordinating Committee, what are your aspirations or hopes for this Committee. And secondly, if the progress of work is not satisfactory, you Mr Governor, or the Hong Kong Government, will you take positive actions? Will you be tolerant and will you actively promote this major infrastructure projects in the Committee? And thirdly, will the Hong Kong Government regularly report to this Council on the progress of works, so that the Council and the public will know the progress and up-to-date situation of these major infrastructure works that will help the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong?
Governor: I think it's fair to say and it's commentary above all perhaps on the record of some of my predecessors and of previous civil servants, that this community has a pretty good record at getting on with infrastructure projects. I think it was the Late Lord Kadoorie who said that the day there weren't large numbers of holes all over the landscape of Hong Kong was the day you should start worrying. We actually managed to complete infrastructure
infrastructure projects more
projects more rapidly than most other communities and perhaps I could if I was in a less mellow and benign mood, refer to one or two infrastructure projects where delays haven't been the fault of the Hong Kong Government.
But we do think that it's important to discuss Cross-border infrastructure projects with the Chinese authorities. I said that in my speech to the Council at the beginning of October, taking up some suggestions which had been made initially by Chinese officials. We've been very pleased to make as rapid progress as we have in setting up this new Committee. We agreed on all the terms of reference and parameters of the Committee in just a couple of meetings, which I think spoke volumes for the goodwill on both sides. Now I know that those who will represent both the PRC authorities and ourselves want to get down to the real business of the Committee which is not talking about terms of reference but talking about roads and railways and related things. I have to say that I think we will occasionally find that the Chinese authorities themselves want to think through very carefully and co-ordinate even more sharply the infrastructure projects which are taking place in China and I'm sure that they will find that this Committee is a good way of focusing on some of those projects.
We certainly believe that the Committee should help to expedite decisions and implementation on the infrastructure rather than delay decisions and implementation. That was very much one of the things that we pressed for when we were talking about the terms of reference and we received assurances on that point. So we'll go on trying to make the best of this Committee. I hope it will meet, though we haven't yet got an agreement on this, I hope it will meet early in the New Year. I think it would make a lot of sense to start establishing one or two panels on issues like railways and roads which could do more detailed work under the overall umbrella of the Committee. It's an important step forward and we want to make it work as well as possible.