XN000022-1996-03-07 — Page 6

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And so I don't believe that the community would welcome something like that and I am sure you do understand the situation. But as I have pointed out our revenue base is still quite stable and therefore we needn't worry too much.

Question (? speaker - in Cantonese): Mr Tsang, in relation to your consultation and co- operation with China in relation to the next budget; now you are saying that you will be trying to explain the proposals personally to the Chief Executive Designate but does that mean that the Hong Kong Government has already worked out all the proposals and will be informing them and see whether they accept, rather than working with the Chinese side?

FS (in Cantonese): As I have told you, talking about the transitional budget, we have already got a plan as mentioned by Sir Hamish last year and there are four stages and we are now at the fourth stage. And what is involved in the first stage is this. The co- operation will, of course, be enhanced when compared with the previous stages but our targets are the same. Smooth transition and it's something that the budget will have to be accepted both by government and also it should reflect the wishes of the people of Hong Kong. And so the objectives are common. And so what we call (say) about it, who is going to lead the whole thing, all those are in fact just technical points and a question of presentations. What we are saying is we should deal with this year's budget first and then after we have done that then we will have to deal with the other specific questions and we will have to talk to the experts of the Chinese side but I don't believe there will be insurmountable difficulties because after all we have a common goal and co-operation is something that is necessary. I don't believe it's difficult.

Question (? Speaker - in Cantonese): You are saying who should be taking the lead, it will be merely a technical point and secondary. The most important is the co- operation ...

Question (in Cantonese): Are you saying that who should be taking the lead is merely a technical point and is secondary, the most important is the co-operation?

FS (in Cantonese): What I said was that whether who is taking the lead, what we have to look at are all practical issues that we have to face but we are not talking about any difficulties in principle. We have to look at a number of logistics, for instance, documents - should documents be translated? Now, I don't have to worry about that. And Mr Kwong will have to give some thought to that and then within Government we will have to carefully deliberate on that. But to me, the question that is right in front of us is what I have to deal with now.

Question (in Cantonese ): Could Mr Kwong supplement what you have said?

(Mr KC Kwong did not speak)