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Residential status issue still being discussed
In response to press enquiries on a Chinese-language newspaper report about "cut-off date for returning emigrants", a government spokesman today (Friday) stressed that "how Hong Kong people who have emigrated overseas can keep their permanent residence is one of the technical aspects which the Joint Liaison Group (JLG) experts will need to address".
Welcoming the assurance by the Chinese Vice-Premier, Mr Qian Qichen to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, the Rt Hon Malcolm Rifkind that all those who have permanent residence in Hong Kong will be able to retain it after 1997, the spokesman said: "Following the Vice-Premier's unqualified statement, we have been assured that JLG expert talks on this subject will take place soon and hope that rapid conclusions can be reached."
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Need for legal reforms is being considered
Please note that the following press release is embargoed until 9 pm today. (Friday).
The Solicitor General, Mr Daniel Fung, QC, told an inaugural meeting of the Victoria Junior Chamber this (Friday) evening that no legal system could afford merely to stand still other common law jurisdictions had carried out reforms and the Hong Kong Government was considering the same need.
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"Nowhere does this truism apply more aptly than to Hong Kong at this time of profound constitutional change, the more so especially if we wish to maintain, as we face the onset of the new century, our present position as the leading centre for dispute resolution as well as legal and other services in East Asia and the Western Pacific Basin," he said.