XN000022-1995-05-03 — Page 4

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Transcript of Governor's media session

The following is a transcript of the Governor's media session after visiting North District:

Governor: It's nice to be back in North District. The last official visits I made were in 1993. One for a general district visit like this, the other to see the consequences of the flooding. On those two occasions, the issues on which I was being most impressed were the building of the North District Hospital and I am delighted to see that that has started and is proceeding well and we hope that the hospital will be completed in 1997 and open in 98. There were two schools which the District Board were very concerned about and they've been completed. As for the flooding, part one of .. and training project, the work on the river, part one will start a little later this year and then we will get on with part two and three as rapidly after that as possible. Today, once again people were expressing, understandably, concerns about the flooding and were also expressing their anxieties about the Sha Tau Kok Road which will obviously have to carry a lot more traffic after the opening of the Northeaster New Territories Landfill. It does look as though the dualling of the road is lagging unfortunately behind the completion of the landfill project. So I take a very clear message from the district board that we've got to put our finger out on the road and get on with improving the road as rapidly as possible because soon there will be a lot more traffic on it, taking refuse up to the landfill dump.

Question: I've seen newspaper reports saying that actually China is not going to give the Court of Final Appeal final decision on some matters, especially on those politically sensitive issues. They are going to superimpose some kind of authority on top of the Court of Final Appeal. How do you react to that? Do you think that it is true?