XN000022-1997-03-06 — Page 16

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Mr K C Kwong (in Chinese): In June 96, the establishment of the Political Adviser's office is transferred from the Government Secretariat to Government House. The Political Adviser's office will cease its work on 30 June. So in the Draft Estimate for 97-98, we only reserve the funding for three months. Comparing it with 96-97, there is therefore such a difference.

Reporter (in Chinese): There is a slight increase in additional commitments for the next year. Is there any special items, say for the handover or unexpected items like that?

Mr K C Kwong (in Chinese): Additional commitments are to earmark funds for expediter which cannot be precisely identified at this time or unexpected expenditure as you said. For example, the increase in salaries of civil servants and staff of subverted agencies or inflation-linked adjustments. Since those expenditures cannot be forecast correctly, I cannot say what items they are.

Reporter (in Chinese): There is an increase compared to last year.

Mr K C Kwong (in Chinese): If you look at growth in real terms, there isn't an increase.

Reporter (in Chinese): I have two questions, the first on housing. Mr Tung said he was concerned about the housing issue. A large part of the Budget will be within his term of office. Have you discussed with him on housing in relation to the Budget and are the conclusions of your discussions reflected in the Budget?

Mr K C Kwong (in Chinese): Concerning housing, if you look at the introduction to estimates, the majority of the expenditure on housing is the expenditure of the Housing Authority. You know that for the government estimates, it has not included a large part of the public expenditure on housing. The second point is that we briefed Mr Tung on the preparation of the Draft Estimates. Mr Tung was elected in about December last year, when by and large we had already decided on our draft estimates of expenditures.

Reporter (in Chinese): Recently, people are concerned about the new immigrants. Has the Administration considered taking care of the new immigrants in this Draft Estimates?

Mr KC Kwong (in Chinese): When you can look at individual heads in our expenditure, you will see that we have increased our expenditure to assist the new immigrants to integrate with our community.