6
By introducing the Copyright Bill into this Council today, I hope that Honourable Members will give the earliest possible consideration to the Bill. While the time-table is extremely tight because we must put in place our own copyright regime before 1 July 1997 if we do not want to see a legal vacuum in an extremely important area of intellectual property protection in Hong Kong, I am confident that with the support and co-operation from Honourable Members, we would be able to achieve our task.
Thank you, Mr President.
End
Consumer goods safety and children's products safety bills
Following is the speech by the Secretary for Trade and Industry, Miss Denise Yue, in resuming the second reading of the Consumer Goods Safety (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 1996 and Toys and Children's Products Safety (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 1996 in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Mr President,
I would like first to thank members of the Bills Committee, especially its Chairman, the Honourable Fred Li, for their thorough examination of the Consumer Goods Safety (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 1996 and the Toys and Children's Products Safety (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 1996. I am also grateful for the useful comments made by the various trade and industrial organisations as well as consumer welfare groups during the deliberations of these two Bills.
The Consumer Goods Safety (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 1996 seeks to empower the Secretary for Trade and Industry to establish, by means of regulation, bilingual safety labelling requirement so that all consumer goods covered by the Consumer Goods Safety Ordinance are required to have their safety markings or labels provided in both English and Chinese.. The Toys and Children's Products Safety (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 1996 is to enable the adoption of safety standards other than the British Standards Institution (BSI) standards for the specified children's products under the Toys and Children's Products Safety Ordinance. I am pleased to note that the Administration's proposals have received support from the Bills Committee. believe that the bilingual safety labelling requirement will not impose undue burden on manufacturers, importers or suppliers. Upon the implementation of this requirement. consumers will enjoy greater protection. We also believe that the adoption of multiple safety standards for children's products will encourage competition in the Hong Kong market and hence increase consumers' choice.
We