(a)
7 -
to impose any necessary conditions as regards timing and routing.
This will enable measures to be adopted to ensure that demonstrations held within Hong Kong waters can be conducted safely and in an orderly manner. Any safety risks associated with the holding of a demonstration can be dealt with by deploying adequate Government launches at the scene and by imposing conditions on the organisers with respect to the avoidance of accidents and safety of persons.
Thank you, Mr President.
End/Wednesday, January 11, 1995
Exchange Fund (Amendment) Bill 1994 goes to LegCo
Following is the speech by the Financial Secretary, the Hon Sir Hamish Macleod in moving the second reading of the Exchange Fund (Amendment) Bill 1994 in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Mr President,
I move that the Exchange Fund (Amendment) Bill 1994 be read a second time.
The Bill seeks to modernise certain provisions in the Exchange Fund Ordinance with a view to enhancing the robustness of the legal framework for monetary management and for the prudent management of the Exchange Fund.
The Bill covers six main areas. First, in relation to monetary management, Members will be aware that in the past few years, we have implemented a number of monetary reform measures to strengthen our ability to maintain exchange rate stability under the linked exchange rate system. One of the important milestones was the "Accounting Arrangements" introduced in 1988. There is a contractual arrangement between the Financial Secretary as the controller of the Exchange Fund, and the Hongkong Bank as the Management Bank of the Clearing House of the Hong Kong Association of Banks. Under the Accounting Arrangements, the Hongkong Bank is required to maintain an account with the Exchange Fund, and to manage the net clearing balance of the rest of the banking system in such a way that it does not exceed the balance in its own account with the Exchange Fund.