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Question: Mr Tsang, the World Bank has decided to issue one billion dollar fixed rate bond in Hong Kong with maturity of five years. Given that Hong Kong and China will be separated by then, because they......won't issue paper in places where they give aids to. Can you explain why the World Bank decided to make that decision? Can you......?
FS: I think the World Bank has accepted now that although Hong Kong after 1997 will be a Special Administrative Region of China. But it is a distinctly different set of economic entity. They have accepted Hong Kong and the rest of China will be two separate economic entities although falling into one same country. So their policy of not borrowing from a place in which they are aiding in the case of China is totally consistent with this policy in that Hong Kong is a separate territory, a separate region within China but operating on a completely different economic setting.
(Questions and answers in Cantonese)
Question: What are the plans for working with China over the Budget and what are the steps you wouldn't be talking to ..?
FS: We've already outlined, we went through it the whole of last year. We've got a procedure which is familiar to both sides. We have also in the last expert group, my colleague K C Kwong passed on a whole table, a schedule of meetings that will set out a programme of work for the whole year.
(Questions and answers in Cantonese)
Question: On the record prices fetched in the recent land auction, are you more optimistic that land revenue for the current fiscal year will be higher?
FS: Well, you wouldn't have believed me when I say that I have forecast that. Now, I think you have to look at the land market not from the point of view of one or two land sales. You have to look at the entire land disposal portfolio we have for the coming year. As regard the locations and the timing of sales are very much dependent on the prevailing market conditions at the time. So it is very early to say whether one land sale is going to influence events for the remaining part of the year. Thank you very much.
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