XN000022-1995-03-23 — Page 11

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In a few weeks time, he said, the Financial Secretary would begin to prepare the 1996 Budget by contacting all Members of the Legislative Council and to meet them to discuss expenditure priorities for the following year's budget.

"This series of consultations, spread over a few weeks, provides a valuable opportunity for the Administration to improve its understanding of the community's aspirations, and for the community through the Legislative Council to make itself heard.

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"This takes place alongside the consultation carried out by our Policy Secretaries with their network of advisory committees and professional contacts. Thus the resource requirements of their programmes are defined and honed," he said.

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He said the feedback from this consultation process was a major factor when Star Chamber which comprises the Chief Secretary, the Financial Secretary, the sat down to Secretary for the Civil Service and the Secretary for the Treasury consider the competing bids from Policy Secretaries for the annual Resource Allocation Exercise and to assist the Governor in preparing his Annual Policy Address

The consultation on revenue measures began in the autumn of each year with the Financial Secretary once again making contact with all Legco members and interested parties and the culmination of this process was the Budget speech in early March, said Mr Tsang.

"Once the Budget proposals have been promulgated, they are scrutinised in public, justified in public, debated and voted on in public," he added.

To further involve the public in the Budget process, Mr Tsang said starting from next year, the complete draft Estimates would be fully bilingual.

"Thus the full picture of what we are doing will be readily accessible to all Hong Kong people in both official languages. In a modest way, I hope this small step will contribute to the consensus building process," he said.

Mr Tsang said the Government also proposed to bring the Chinese side inside the budget process.