XN000022-1997-02-20 — Page 11

. 9.

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I suspect that when the historians open their account on the story of these years they may well conclude that the Governor of Hong Kong far from having gone too far, hadn't perhaps been sufficiently robust in what he did. But I will leave that for the historians, of whom I was once one but my expertise was in the 12th century.

Any more? That will give the ladies and gentlemen of the Fourth State more opportunity afterwards to invite me to answer questions on subjects which I didn't discuss in my speech and have no intention of discussing with them.

I just throw that in so that I won't disappoint them too much when I go outside and repeat what I said in my speech, that there will be a great deal of speculation in the next days and weeks and months, wall to wall speculation, speculation which will often be imaginative and frequently fictitious, speculation which is I think less fruitful and less helpful for Hong Kong than just pointing out what a spectacularly successful and decent place this is and how this city has managed to take great events in its stride over the last few years because of its natural resilience and because of its value system. I think it is perhaps more useful for the Governor of Hong Kong to talk about those things than to join the speculation of the professional and amateur Sinologists, most of whom have this at least in common that they have usually been wrong,

End

Transcript of remarks by Financial Secretary

Following is a transcript of the remarks by the Financial Secretary, Mr Donald Tsang, after attending the First Landing at the Chek Lap Kok Airport this afternoon (Thursday):

FS: Good morning. It was indeed a very exciting and moving day for us. We manage to fly, although for a very short while, slightly over fifteen minutes. But it was a very historical event. We took off from one commercial airport in Hong Kong and landed on another commercial airport also in Hong Kong. I think this is the first time we had ever done it. I found it exceedingly moving, and the occasion, of course marked another milestone in the construction of our Airport Core Programme, we are well ahead. And from tomorrow onwards, I understand that the Airport Authority and the Civil Aviation Department which had done enormously for this project would start a series of test including the Instrument Landing System and then there would be other tests as well. We are now on schedule. I am pretty confident that the Airport Authority together with all the government departments concerned would be going to deliver this Airport to the people of Hong Kong on time, in Easter next year, and within costs. Thank you very much for coming. Well, it is a very bright and sunny day which is very appropriate for this occasion. Thank you.