XN000022-1994-12-08 — Page 3

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Mrs Selina Chow: Follow-up Mr President, does that mean that the Governor would not put the position forward to the British Government as voiced by this Council yesterday?

Governor: I will report what the Council said, I will certainly report it, but I shall also add in terms what I've just said to the Honourable lady.

Mr Hui Yin-fat: Thank you Sir. Governor, in view of the explicit rejection by the Chinese Government on the proposed old age pension scheme, proposed by the Hong Kong Government, and a recorded statement of our Government officials that the scheme should not start without the agreement of the Chinese Government, how would you, Governor, propose to introduce the proposed scheme and when?

Governor: The aim which I imagine we all share, is to find ways of providing better, more comprehensive assistance to the elderly as soon as possible. Hong Kong has been discussing the possibility of a pension scheme for the best part of three decades. Meantime, the number of those who would be affected by a pension scheme as beneficiaries has increased exponentially, part of Hong Kong's success story, in particular, the number of those who are very old has increased very substantially. But we still don't have any comprehensive way of addressing the financial insecurities which the elderly face, or which those who are soon going to be elderly and retired, face.

The Government, a few months ago, as the Council will know, put forward what in our view was the most sensible, immediate, and cost effective way of dealing with the problem of providing for the elderly and since then we've been involved in a consultation exercise which has drawn six thousand or rather more than six thousand responses which we're at present examining. Some responses, of course, haven't been specifically addressed to us as part of that consultation exercise. For example, one or two Chinese officials, both on and off the record, have suggested that the pension proposals that we put forward aren't in the interests of Hong Kong, represent a point which I would strongly contest, some lurch into socialism which the said officials for present purposes regard apparently as being a bad thing. They've made similar criticisms but most of the criticisms that we've seen have been from political groups in this Council or from organisations representing employers. We have to take very seriously what apparently is the view of the future sovereign, though we haven't had that put on the record in the Joint Liaison Group, and we have to take account of what's said within the community. I think it would be very difficult for us to proceed without a broad consensus which embraced first and most significant, because we will have to legislate, a majority in this Council, second, most business leaders and trade union leaders in the community, and third, those who speak for the future sovereign power. Without such a consensus I think any scheme would have great difficulty moving forward. Indeed I don't think without that consensus that we would be able to get a scheme through this Legislative Council.