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Question: Good morning Mr Governor, I have three questions, the first one is why is it that the Government does not use a tax system to control imported labour. You can give tax concessions for employing local workers. You shouldn't have a broad brush of course. Just to give a quota of five thousand. Would it be better? The second question is the government is going to implement a new regulation so that for caretakers aged above sixty-five they will not be able to look after shopping arcades and so on. Won't that lead to unemployment. Now I am also an assistant of a LegCo member I receive a lot of complaints, in fact a lot of caretakers reaching the age of sixty-one have already been fired. What can they do with themselves, even if you boost the CSSA it may not help this group of elderly people.
Governor: I will try to answer your questions quickly before eight o'clock because they raise extensive issues. First of all I am not actually in favour of juggling with our tax system to produce a particular set of results. The great thing about our tax system is that it is extremely simple and that is the result of decisions we have taken over the years, and it is extremely low and I wouldn't want to use it to try to do other things. If we want to do something about imported labour then we can act on that directly I think, rather than shifting about our tax system. Secondly, we have been concerned in the past to ensure that caretakers are capable of doing their job adequately, of course it doesn't mean that just because you get to a certain age that you can't, but we want to check that people are up to the responsibilities of the job, I think everybody that lives in a block of flats with a caretaker knows how valuable it is when you've got a good one and how difficult life is when the reverse is the case. So really it's a respect for the job that I think we've quite properly shown and if there are people who were caretakers, who aren't now able to work and don't have enough resources, then of course ther'll be CSSA for them to turn to though I agree with what everybody feels instinctively in their bones that it is much better if you can have a job, than if you're receiving CSSA payments.
Question: My third question I suggest that Government do this. The Ocean Park, can you turn it into something like Disneyworld so that you can bring in more tourists and boost our economy.
Governor: Judging by the bus queues in Central on the last Sunday there are quite a few people heading out to Ocean Park. I'm afraid I've been there only a couple of times, but my family, my daughters have been there pretty regularly, I know how popular it is, I think it is well run, I think they are developing lots and lots of additional attractions, I've done sufficient advertising for them for this morning and they do a terrific job for Hong Kong's tourism.