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Transcript of remarks by CE on Economic Development Commission (with photo)

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Following is the transcript of remarks by the Chief Executive, Mr C Y Leung, at a media session after chairing the second meeting of the Economic Development Commission at the lobby of the West Wing, Central Government Offices, Tamar, today (July 4):

Reporter: Mr Leung, do you think the matter is too politically sensitive and you want to avoid conflict of interest, that's why you rejected Mr Lee's offer?

Chief Executive: People who want to donate land for the purpose of building affordable housing for the various sectors or strata of society could actually achieve the same objective by doing it with NGOs in Hong Kong.

Reporter: You said there will be a lack of manpower in a couple of years. How serious will the situation be?

Chief Executive: A lot of ...?

Reporter: A lack of manpower. And the second question is: You said tourism is important for Hong Kong's economy. How can you balance the expansion of tourism in Hong Kong and prevent it from affecting Hong Kong residents?

Chief Executive: We need to strike a balance between the development of tourism and our capacity, and there is a lack of capacity, also pressure, on certain parts of Hong Kong. We have to strike a balance, and we will continue to pay attention to the importance of striking a balance between the two.

On the question of manpower, obviously we have to be mindful of the overall manpower situation, both the supply and the demand side of manpower. We have not come up with any decision yet, but we are aware of the fact that statistically our manpower will peak, in terms of the size of the manpower, will peak in about five years' time, and from there on we shall enter a rather long period of decline, again in terms of the size of the manpower. We don't have any decision yet. This is the second meeting of the Commission, and as soon as we have a decision or policy measures, we will announce it. Thank you.

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

Thursday, July 4, 2013