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"The Administration's intention was repeated by the Secretary for Security, Mr Peter Lai, at the special Finance Committee meeting last Thursday.

"The Administration has today informed the Legislative Council Secretariat that such arrangements can be made in early April. A convenient date and time is being worked out.

"As we have yet to receive details of the Committee stage amendment, we are not able to comment at this stage.

"As a matter of principle, we hope Legislative Council members would appreciate that the budget package as a whole is intended to serve the community needs, and Committee stage amendments which reduce provisions for any individual department would damage the operational efficiency and would adversely affect the provisions of service of the department concerned."

End

HK to host OECD workshop discussion on MAI

Participants from member and non-member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) will tomorrow (Tuesday) hold a two-day meeting in Hong Kong to discuss the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) which is currently being negotiated in the OECD.

The MAI would be the first multilateral treaty providing high standards for the liberalisation and protection of international investment, and for effectively settling disputes. Negotiations on the terms of the MAI opened in the OECD last May and should conclude by mid-1997.

Although countries outside the OECD do not participate in the negotiations, OECD countries are eager to consult non-members as the formal talks progress.

Consultations at the meeting in Hong Kong are part of the regular policy dialogue between OECD Members and Dynamic Non-Member Economies (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei and Thailand). Participants from China, India and the Indonesian private sector have also been invited to the meeting, which is organised by the OECD and hosted by the Hong Kong Government.