XN000022-1996-05-01 — Page 14

1 -

CS's Beijing visit

Following is the speech by the Chief Secretary, the Hon Anson Chan, on her visit to Beijing in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Mr President,

The Chief Secretary is delighted to give a full account of her recent visit to Beijing.

At the invitation of Mr Lu Ping, Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, I visited Beijing from 25 to 27 April. I was accompanied by the Secretary for Constitutional Affairs and three supporting staff. I had a very useful and businesslike meeting with Mr Lu on 26 April.

Mr Lu and I exchanged views on a wide range of key transitional issues, covering political as well as economic matters. These included co-operation with the Preparatory Committee, the civil service, co-operation with the Chief Executive Officer (Designate), the Provisional Legislature, Hong Kong's economic autonomy and the second runway at Chek Lap Kok.

On co-operation with the Preparatory Committee, honourable members will be aware that on 1 April, our Liaison Office received from the Preparatory Committee Secretariat Hong Kong Office a list of items for co-operation. The full list containing altogether ten items was published by the Secretariat of the Preparatory Committee yesterday evening. After studying the list carefully and in a positive spirit, we arrived at a preliminary response. I made use of my Beijing visit to deliver our response to Mr Lu in his capacity as Secretary General of the Preparatory Committee Secretariat.

I reiterated to Mr Lu our readiness to offer the Preparatory Committee practical assistance on the basis of our three established parameters. Of the ten items put forward by the Preparatory Committee, we have already provided assistance on some of them. In the recent meetings of the Selection Committee sub-group and the Economic sub-group in Hong Kong, we made appropriate security arrangements and facilitated processing of visa applications. We also arranged for the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Affairs to give a briefing on the proposed Mortgage Corporation. In addition, the Preparatory Committee had asked for information on the functional constituencies which represented the professional sectors, plus a list of legislation amended or newly made since 1984. These are all factual and open information which I left with Mr Lu during our meeting.