Looking Beyond 1997
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As a forward-looking Administration, our planning horizon extends across 1997. Certainly our programme of implementing the Police Management Review extends across 1997; likewise our search for improvements in our Ambulance Service, our plans for increasing prisons accommodation, and the progress we are making towards providing the necessary security, safety and immigration back-up for the new Chek Lap Kok Airport. I wish, however, to highlight a particular area where we are making significant headway to tackle the challenge of a smooth transition. With the support of this Council, we have acquired $160 million for a computer system to produce the new SAR passport. The Budget provides for 60 new posts to take forward the planning and computerisation work, so as to enable us to begin issuing SAR passports from 1 July 1997. This is an important part of our work towards a smooth transition, but we will continue to press for early discussions with our Chinese colleagues to resolve the remaining problems of right of abode, and on how to achieve maximum travel convenience for Hong Kong residents post-1997, building on the British Government's decision to grant visa-free access to SAR passport holders.
Vietnamese Migrants
Like Honourable Members, I wish to pay tribute to the professionalism, courage and perseverance of our disciplined services, in particular our colleagues in the Correctional Services Department, who have been at the sharp end in coping with the Vietnamese migrants problem. We had a bad year in 1995; I believe we are now seeing the turning of the tide. In the whole of 1995, we had about 1,600 Vietnam migrants volunteering to return to Vietnam; in the first three months of this year, we already have 1,500 volunteers. That of course is still far short of the sort of figures which will enable us to clear the camps by mid-1997. Much remains to be done, in seeking the co-operation of the Vietnamese Government to clear all, I repeat, all the remaining Vietnamese migrant caseload, to step up the Orderly Repatriation Programme and to encourage more voluntary returns. The decision announced yesterday to release a small number of Vietnamese migrants from detention, as a consequence of the Privy Council's recent judgment, in no way affects our determination to achieve our goal. We will also do our best to enable our Correctional Services Department colleagues to better face their arduous tasks, to give as much protection to them against the possible dangers, and to seek to reduce the burden on them by speedy repatriation. Let me also take this opportunity to make it clear to the Vietnamese migrants in the camps: your only future lies in returning to Vietnam.