XN000022-1996-12-23 — Page 3

1.

Governor's transcript at photo-call session

The following is the transcript of what the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten, said at the photo call after meeting the SAR Chief Executive (Designate), Mr Tung Chee-hwa, at Government House today (Monday):

Governor: Mr Tung and I have had I think a good and constructive and pretty lengthy meeting. I've certainly found it extremely useful. We are intending to have further meetings from time to time as the need arises over the coming weeks and months. I know that C H will also be meeting the Chief Secretary and the Financial Secretary and other senior officials in the administration as he needs and as he sees fit. We all know, perhaps I know better than anyone what a challenging job C H has, running one of greatest cities in the world. I know that the whole community wishes him well and certainly we in the administration want to provide as much support as we reasonably can. And we will be discussing the precise details and precise mechanisms of that in the coming weeks and months. But it was a good and useful meeting. And I think we both now deserve a Christmas break, particularly C H as he has to work rather harder than I have.

End

New membership of Governor's Business Council

The Government announced today (Monday) the new membership of the Governor's Business Council.

The Governor has re-appointed all of the current members of the Governor's Business Council for six months from 1 January 1997 to 30 June 1997 upon expiry of their current term on 31 December 1996.

"In the past four years, the Governor's Business Council has discussed a wide range of issues which have an impact on the economy and the conduct of business in Hong Kong," a Government spokesman said.

"The topics discussed in the 1994-96 term of the Council include harbour reclamation, importation of labour, intellectual property rights, Hong Kong's participation in the Singapore Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization, Hong Kong's Individual Action Plan for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), territorial development strategic review, terminal handling charges, and Consumer Council's various competition study reports.