Transcript of Secretary for Development's remarks

Following is the transcript (English portion) of remarks made by Secretary for Development, Mrs Carrie Lam, at a media session at the West Wing lobby, Central Government Offices today (August 1):

Secretary for Development:  The Queen's Pier incident has been dragged on for several months and as you know, if everything has gone according to our schedule under the Central Reclamation Phase III Project, we should have handed over the site occupied by Queen's Pier to the contractor on February 23 this year. This delay of over five months has also caused possible claims by the contractor as well as some inevitable disruption to the completion of the Central Reclamation Phase III. But having said that, as a responsible response to people who have these feelings toward heritage preservation, the Government has conducted a lot of consultation over the last five months consulting various professional groups on various options to preserve Queen's Pier, also with District Councils, with members of the public and with the Legislative Council, resulting eventually in the approval by the Legislative Council of funding of $50 million to preserve Queen's Pier.

But at the same time, we have a duty to act responsibly and in the overall interest of Hong Kong. I believe that the majority of Hong Kong's community are rational. They understand the time-criticalness of the Central reclamation project and they are worried about the undue delay that will cause to completion to the works and also the extra public money that might be incurred. That's why having done all the necessary legal procedures and notification required, we started the operation this morning. I am relieved to realise that by and large the operation has been carried out in a most professional manner by our Hong Kong Police and I am also gratified to know that the protesters, as far as those who are on ground are concerned, they have left the scene in the least confrontational manner. Particularly for the three young people who were on hunger strike, I wish them all the best and hope they would take care of their health.

Coming back to judicial review proceedings, as you know, the judge is fully aware of the urgency of the project, and hence the judicial review proceedings will be heard next Tuesday. As far as the Government is concerned, as a respondent, we have already filed our affidavit to court and to the applicant this morning, to give them plenty of time to understand the Government's arguments.

I just want to say a few final words. Balancing development with heritage preservation is not an easy task. It requires the concerted efforts of all parties concerned and it has to be done with mutual trust and mutual understanding in order to deliver the Chief Executive's election pledges. As the first Secretary for Development of the Hong Kong SAR Government I pledge to work with all sectors in order to deliver the Chief Executive's mission. Thank you very much.

Reporter: Will you review the role of the Antiquities Advisory Board to prevent the judicial review from happening again? What would you like to say to the hunger strikers?

Secretary for Development: Well, the Antiquities Advisory Board will continue to play a very important role in advising the Government on heritage preservation work in Hong Kong. As you know, since early this year, we have increased the transparency of the board's work and we have included a few new and young members who will bring innovative thinking in the board's deliberations. We are also working very hard on a new strategy to preserve Hong Kong's heritage buildings and one which will meet the Chief Executive's pledges of maximum public involvement and participation. So I do look forward to working very closely with the Antiquities Advisory Board. In fact I have arranged to meet with the board in the near future to discuss the plans that we would like to put into place. As far as the three young people who have been on hunger strike for over four days now, I wish them well and hope that they would shortly recover, and I look forward to discussing with them and engaging with them in public debate on heritage matters in the future.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Issued at HKT 18:24


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