XN000022-1997-02-19 — Page 19

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The majority view of the British community, including their employers, is that these inevitable changes should be implemented well before 1 July 1997, so that they would have sufficient time to adjust to the changes before the transfer of sovereignty. We appreciated the need for the required legislation to be scrutinised carefully by this Council. We have therefore taken action to finalise our proposals and put forward the Immigration (Amendment) Bill 1997 as soon as we possibly could. We hope that this Council would give priority to this Bill, and have it enacted before 1 April 1997 so that the changes can be implemented on that date- a date which we believe strikes the right balance.

We believe that the Bill, coupled with the administrative changes we proposed, is the simplest and the most precise way to achieve our objective of removing the privileged immigration status of British citizens. We do not think that it is desirable to complicate the matter by introducing amendments to the Immigration Ordinance which will fundamentally change our approach to immigration control in Hong Kong. We hope that this Council would focus attention on the Immigration (Amendment) Bill 1997 first, since the privileged immigration status of British citizens is our more immediate concern. The Immigration (Amendment) No. 2 Bill 1997, which I understand will be introduced later today by the Hon. Chan Yuen-han, affects a different and much bigger issue of the Director of Immigration's discretion, which forms the fundamental basis of our long-established system of immigration control. There may be a time and a place to debate the wider issue of the fundamental basis of our immigration policy. But given the need to remove the privileged immigration status of British citizens well before the change of sovereignty, I hope Honourable Members would appreciate the uncertainties that would arise if the implementation of proposals, which have been accepted by the majority of those affected, were to be delayed by being drawn into a wider and more complicated debate.

Thank you, Mr President.

End