XN000022-1995-03-06 — Page 12

-

10 -

Governor's closing statement at drugs summit meeting

The following is a transcript of the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten's closing statement at the Drugs Summit today (Monday):

We've had a long and wide-ranging debate during the last almost three hours and I don't want to keep you any longer. I have found it very useful indeed and I hope others have found it useful as well. I am extremely grateful to all those of you who participated, very grateful to all those of you who shared your knowledge and experiences with us, both from the table of panelists and from the floor as well. You've been extremely patient and very well behaved.

Let me try to sum up and suggest where we might go from here. And I say very deliberately where we might go from here because this is not the end of the road.

When I suggested the idea of a Drugs Summit, a few months ago, I was determined that this shouldn't be a one-off public relations flourish, achieving a bit of publicity for a day or so, and then falling off everyone's agenda. I've been around for long enough to know that success lies not in the main event but in keeping up momentum and in keeping up progress long after it's over.

-

-

It will of course be for all parts of the community for voluntary agencies, for District Boards, for Fight Crime Committees, for schools, for parents and so on to play their part. We need to mobilise the whole community if we are going to win the war against drugs. But it is right that the Government should lead the way in this and that the Government should set an example. So in anticipation of our Summit Meeting today I asked my officials from all parts of the Government machine involved in the fight against drugs to work together to draw up a Forward Action Plan.

It is not a wishy-wash statement of interest. But it's a detailed list of concrete actions which the Hong Kong Government will be taking and setting out who in Government will be responsible for these actions. So that you can actually pinpoint the responsibility.

Some of these are actions which are in the pipeline; others are completely new initiatives. Together they add up to a total package of measures costing some $30 million in the 1995/96 financial year.