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What I am thinking about for immediate action is about six in all. So that it would be manageable. We will look at, for example, the regulations, the controls, the way in which the selected departments interface with the business sector and look at how that could be streamlined, review whether certain regulations are outdated and should be, for example, completely deleted from our statute books and so on.
Our aim is to be able to report progress within about six months for this first phase.
FS: Thank you very much.
End
FS highlights the importance of Budget
A Budget is not simply an accounting exercise. Neither is it just a routine report on the territory's economic and financial well-being, the Financial Secretary, Mr Donald Tsang, said in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday).
It is, with the Governor's Policy Address, one of the two set-piece occasions each year when the Government:
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accounts for its stewardship of Hong Kong's economic and social affairs;
addresses the concerns of the community, which Members of the Legislative Council have articulated so forcefully; and
discharges its duty of leadership by offering a clear vision of what the future holds for Hong Kong.
Moving the second reading of the Appropriation Bill 1996, Mr Tsang said this was a very proud, a very privileged moment for him.
"Proud because I am the first Financial Secretary who grew up here. Privileged because I am delivering this Budget to the first fully-elected Legislative Council in Hong Kong's history.
"The fact that I, like all the Members of this Council, am very much part of this community gives the Budget special meaning and gives all of us a special responsibility. I say this because Hong Kong is our community. It is our home. And its future is our future," the Financial Secretary said.