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But secondly, there is also the question of right of abode in Hong Kong and I think that some of them who are in Canada and Australia for example, have been concerned about that issue rather more than they have been concerned about right of abode in the United Kingdom. I very much hope that the discussions we are having on that at present with Chinese officials will clarify some of the doubts about how people can secure right of abode in Hong Kong while perhaps having a Canadian or Australian passport, and I hope that will encourage some of those Eurasian families who have made a contribution to Hong Kong but, alas, left in the last few years, to return and continue to make a great contribution.
Question (in Chinese): Good morning. I would like to go on to the issue of housing. Why is it that now I am talking about HOS - why is it so expensive? We are eligible and it is beyond our affordability. Is this policy therefore appropriate?
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Governor: I think that there are two problems in the housing field. The first is that despite the efforts, the sterling efforts of the Housing Authority, despite the fact that we are still building so many new flats, there are still a lot of people in need who have been waiting for years for Housing Authority accommodation. Secondly, at the other end as it were, there are people who would like to become home-owners but find it too expensive. Now we are trying to help them. We will help about 175,000 families buy subsidised flats over the next four or five years and there are various ways in which we do that, for example through the Home Ownership Scheme, but I think that, as I said yesterday in my policy address, the housing problem is one of the most difficult, perhaps the most difficult.
Question (in Chinese): It is beyond our affordability. We can't afford HOS flats.
Governor: Well, that is something that obviously we will need to look at if there are people like you with a decent income who can't afford to purchase your own flat. Obviously, there are always going to be some people.
Question (in Chinese): I make about more than $10,000 a month. We cannot get into public rental housing and yet we cannot afford HOS flats, so what are we going to do?
Governor: We have actually tried to increase the assistance that we provide through the Sandwich-class Housing Scheme. If you would like to drop me a note I will see whether your case would be one that was helped through the extension that we have made to the Sandwich-class Housing Scheme because we are concerned to help people who are, as it were, pressed between
Question (in Chinese): Well I can't get into sandwich-class housing, we only make $10,000 a month.