XN000022-1995-09-20 — Page 2

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Transcript of the Governor's media session

The following is a transcript of the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten's meet-the-media session after visiting Li Po Chun United College and Jockey Club Ti-I College today:

Governor: I am delighted that I have been able to visit Ti-I College and Li Po Chun College this afternoon, particularly since I am the patron of the United World College, and I am pleased to see what a good education both colleges are providing.

Question: Governor, the democrats are already drawing up plans for private member's Bill to stop the importation of labour scheme. How do you intend to deal with that, given that they are the majority nowaday?

Governor: I'll be looking forward to discussions with representatives of the Democratic Party and of the other parties as well. And what we are all obviously looking for is a cooperative approach in ensuring that Hong Kong continues to be extremely well governed.

Question: On the co-operation between Government and LegCo there's a lot of talk in the past about setting up a committee of some sort....is that a bit of ping-pong in this issue?

Governor: No. There is no ping-pong although I played rather good ping-pong earlier this afternoon. We are going to be talking about these matters and other matters with the political parties with their representative over the next couple of weeks and I am sure that they will be as keen as the administration is to find ways in which we can improve our cooperation. As I have said before, I don't think that the vote on Sunday could be interpreted by anyone as a vote against the fundamentals which have ensured Hong Kong's success. Obviously there are individual legislators who have different views about how we can best carry things forward. We want to do that in a cooperative way. I am entirely relaxed about the best ways of doing it. But I am sure that legislators will want to be positive on their side as we will want to be. In the past, I have made proposals about how we could improve the cooperation between the executive and the legislature. I made proposals in 1992 which at that stage legislators weren't too keen on. I am not sure whether they'll want to look at that again but the first thing for me to do and the first thing for Anson and Donald and others to do is to talk to the political groups and the independent members, and that's what we'll be doing in the next few weeks.

Question: You must have some new ideas.