XN000022-1995-10-04 — Page 6

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Transcript of the CS's media session

Following is the transcript of the media session by the Chief Secretary, Mrs Anson Chan, at Central Government Offices lobby today (Wednesday):

CS: I very much welcome the agreement with the Chinese on how to resolve this issue of facilitating better communication and dialogue between civil servants and their Chinese counterparts. I believe that this agreement reflects the Chinese' wish to take into account previous concerns expressed by the civil servants. I believe this way of proceeding, ie through informal get-togethers, would be the best possible avenue in terms of facilitating getting to know each other and facilitating better communication between civil servants and their Chinese counterparts. Of course, we will now discuss the detailed arrangements with the Chinese side and I very much hope that we'll be possible to have the first of this sort of get-together in a few weeks' time.

Question: Do you think that this kind of gatherings would undermine the sovereignty..

CS: Not at all. I think not only does it not undermine the credibility of the government, on the contrary, it will facilitate, improve channels of communication between officials on both sides in a relaxed climate in Hong Kong. I think my civil service colleagues would feel that in that sort of atmosphere, they can be rather more relaxed about how they conduct this dialogue with their Chinese counterparts. I am sure all these improved channels of communication will assist each other to better understand their work. We would be hoping to discuss, as I said earlier, with the Chinese detailed arrangements with a view to starting the first of these get-togethers as quickly as possible.

Question: How frequent is the....?

CS: I think it's difficult to say at this stage. It depends on how we can fit in the timings and there will be timings to take into account not only on the part of our own colleagues but also on the part of the Chinese officials who will be attending these get- togethers.

Question: Will the sessions all be conducted in Hong Kong ....?

CS: Yes, we would hope to conduct most of these in Hong Kong, but of course this doesn't replace the channel of communication that's also available when policy secretaries or other senior officials go for visits to China. We would very much hope as we already do so now that they can also, when they visit, call on officials in the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office.

End/Wednesday, October 4, 1995