XN000022-1995-02-23 — Page 6

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But what of those elderly who are in need today? I am obviously, principally aware of the figures of support for the elderly over the last three years, since the summer of 1992. I look at CSSA rates over that period and they have gone up considerably. It's not playing with figures. I'm not saying that it necessarily represents all that should or could be done but the figures are astonishingly impressive. For any single person on CSSA, the figures have increased by 58 per cent in cash terms since the summer of 1992, or 29 per cent in real terms, after allowing for inflation. The figures for a family of four or larger are even more impressive. So, we have increased the support that we provide for the elderly in need and for others in need. And when the Council or others say, 'But you haven't yet done enough', they do have to remember that we not only have to be as generous as we can be, but as prudent as Hong Kong must be over the next few years. So, I hope that in meeting our obligations to the elderly and to others under CSSA and in other ways, we will also remember our obligations to run the economy as smoothly as possible.

Mr James Tien: Thank you Mr President. Governor, the Liberal Party and the business community welcome the decision to shelve the OPS and we are very much in support of the Government's new proposal for a mandatory privately managed retirement scheme. We will support the motion as outlined by the Government yesterday. However, yesterday there was a press statement that was released which outlined several of the main features. However, one main feature that was not included is the point that we were worried that of the 2.8 million people that are working, when we have any mandatory retirement scheme we want to cover all of them. The point I want to raise is that, would Government consider either running or setting up a statutory body to manage those self-employed and the employees of the small employers, let's say with five workers or less. They will certainly not be the majority of the 2.8 million workforce; they possibly might total several hundred thousands. Otherwise, this group of people will be left out without any scheme and we certainly would not like to see that happen.

Governor, the second point is that, a Government spokesman who released the press statement yesterday - I assume it is not Mr Michael Leung, Secretary for Education and Manpower the first statement he made was: If we are to propose an alternative to the OPS then we must have the clear support of the LegCo, clear support from LegCo will mean that we will proceed and so on and so forth. We would like to understand a bit more on your wording of "clear support". I hope it doesn't mean 58-1. I hope it means something like 29-28 would still mean clear support and that you will go ahead and not defer this with further consultation into the SAR Government. Thank you, Governor.

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