TNAG-1752-FCO40-2472-Future-of-Hong-Kong-Parliamentary-debates-1988 — Page 58

drafting process from the start. We have welcomed the extent to which their views have been scrupulously taken into account. Now the first stage of the drafting committee's work is nearing completion. The committee will meet in plenary session in Peking in April. Shortly afterwards, in early May, a first draft of the Basic Law will be published in Hong Kong. Thereafter there will be a period of five months for consultation, so as to give the people of Hong Kong an opportunity to comment on the first draft and to make their views known. These views will be collected by the Basic Law Consultative Committee which has already been established in the territory. This procedure will give the people of Hong Kong the means to influence the content of the second draft of the law, which will be published in the Autumn, before the final version is promulgated in 1990. All this demonstrates a meticulous regard for

Know the views of Hong Kong people. I hope that hon Members will join me in welcoming the opportunities for repeated consultations provided by the Chinese Government.

9.

At the end of this process we will wish to see, and I am confident that we shall see, a Basic Law which fully implements the terms of the Sino-British Joint Declaration. The drafting of the Basic Law is of course the sovereign right of the Government of the People's Republic of China. But the implementation of the Joint Declaration through the Basic Law is a matter in which we and this House have a legitimate interest.

10. My rt hon Friend, the Foreign Secretary, assured this House in the debate on 20 January that it was "the solemn responsibility of the British Government to administer Hong Kong up to 30 June 1997 in the best interests of its people". We shall indeed discharge that responsibility to the utmost of our abilities. We shall also seek to ensure that the Sino-British Joint Declaration is fully and faithfully implemented so as to preserve confidence in Hong Kong and to create a firm basis for Hong Kong's future stability and prosperity. These are objectives to which the British and Chinese Governments are both firmly committed. I am sure that the House will wish to join me in endorsing these objectives and the policies. which we are pursing in order to achieve them.