XN000022-1995-05-19 — Page 5

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Governor: As the new Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands, who I know pretty well, said after the meeting, I think the results of the meeting were respectable. We're disappointed that we didn't get an agreement on CTs 9, 10 and 11. We're pretty clear on the importance of those container terminals for the further development of our port. I hope that Chinese officials will demonstrate at some time their concern about developing the port too.

Question: But it will hinder the economic development in Hong Kong if...

Governor: If we can't develop our port as rapidly as is required, we'll undoubtedly constrain our future development and of course it will have an effect on Southern China as a whole. So far, we've managed to cope with the delay by increasing through-put in other ways. I think as you know the container terminal operators have invested substantially in new and improved equipment, so that they can actually turn vessels round more rapidly, so they can unload and load vessels more quickly than was previously the case. But we can't go on depending on that sort of increase investment to deal with the bottleneck that's starting to arise. We do need new facilities and we need them as soon as possible.

Question: Is the administration satisfied with the land grant for residential use? Is it at the expense of the residential use of land along the railway to the airport as granted?

Governor: No, I don't believe so. As I said, I think this was a sensible agreement by and large, though I'm disappointed about the lack of any agreement on CTs 9, 10 and 11.

Question: What will the government do in order to get the CTs 9 and 11 ... supply

Governor: We'll go on deploying our arguments in the Joint Liaison Group and we hope that Chinese officials will demonstrate their sincerity and their concern for economic development of Hong Kong.

Question: Referring to Director Lu Ping yesterday's luncheon speech, what do you can't talk about... according to the Court of Final Court issue, but Director Lu Ping named that one example is the appointment of principal officials can be classified as another act of state. But people cannot resolve that sort of dispute by going to court. So he is saying that Hong Kong situation is so unique that the act of state issue cannot be oversimplified and it takes time for discussion.