'Agenda win-win solution for HK, mainland'

(China Daily HK Edition)
Updated: 2007-01-19 09:29

The report and action agenda of the economic summit on China's 11th Five-Year Plan and the development of Hong Kong are highly workable and are very important for Hong Kong, Chief Executive Donald Tsang said yesterday.

More importantly, as the theme of every single measure is a win-win solution to both the mainland and Hong Kong, there is no such thing as Hong Kong asking for favors from the central government.

As to the relations with Guangdong Province, Tsang said Guangdong and Hong Kong are like "kin brothers" at times competing with each other.

Speaking in an interview with Now Broadband TV, Tsang said the report was Hong Kong's response to the 11th Five-Year Plan. Collectively prepared by the businesses, it is not only thinking of the government, he said.

"When we compiled the report, we started from a win-win perspective that each and every proposal not only benefits Hong Kong but also economic development of our country because you cannot divide Hong Kong's benefits from China's as far as economic development is concerned. We are confident that it will have the backing of the central government and various provinces," he said.

When asked if he was asking for benefits from the central government, he replied: " I will not do anything to purely ask for benefits from the country and then cause loss to the country. The mindset behind each of the 50 policies and 207 measures is to make our country move forward and benefit its economic development, at the same time as benefiting Hong Kong's financial, trading and shipping industries."

Tsang further called the report the beginning of an interactive action and constructive discussion. "We do not just talk about theories but the action agenda," he stressed. "For each and every proposal, we have set out our target and some even have timetables that will make us work more proactively to achieve our goals. And if what we do for taking part in the 11th or 12th Five-Year Plan or what the economic summit proposes will weaken or destroy Hong Kong's uniqueness or brings harm to Hong Kong, we will surely not do that."

On Guangdong-Hong Kong relations, Tsang said their relations are very fine like "kin brothers", and the good relations stemmed from his days as Chief Secretary for Administration a few years back.

"Our cooperation at government level and business level are deep and wide, ranging from commerce, infrastructure to environmental protection and food safety. You should not use the difficult example of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge to extend to the other areas of our mutually beneficial relations. But the progress is not bad, for we have completed the feasibility study and routing plan, and have also done one's own immigration clearance system.

"I strongly believe that our relations now are like blood brothers. Look at our economic measures and I do not see any big inconsistencies between the interests of Guangdong and Hong Kong. But if you talk about infrastructure, capital financing, there must be competition but there is also a lot of room for cooperation and negotiation," he said.



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