Following is the transcript of remarks by the Acting Chief Executive, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, at a media session today (August 14):
 
Reporter: Will the Government consider to take back FCC's building?
 
Acting Chief Executive: Well, the building is in fact under a lease, currently a seven-year lease up to January 2023. We make available the premises to FCC and this testifies to our support of its work over the past decades. In fact, we've been co-operating very, very well with the FCC in Hong Kong. We also value the importance of press freedom, of speech freedom in Hong Kong. No question about it. These two freedoms are also protected under the Basic Law. They also represent the core values of Hong Kong, which underpin our present success as a vibrant, open, inclusive and international centre. But having said all that, this exercise of the freedoms concerned – press freedom and individual freedom, particularly speech freedom – has to be within the confines of the law, within bounds of the law. In other words, there is a limit beyond which you mustn't overstep. OK?
 
Reporter: Secretary, given the statement today and the Government's position, is the Government prepared to cease to co-operate with FCC given today's talk, that is it damages the relations of your Government and the FCC? And my second question being, are you prepared to, perhaps, arrest Chan Ho-tin or not, because given this express statement he made in the FCC, and could you point us to which parts of his statement particularly concerned you?
 
Acting Chief Executive: First of all, we have a very cordial relationship with the FCC, and I'm sure that this relationship will continue. We don't see any disruption to this very cordial working relationship. That explains why we support the allocation of the present premises, which is actually a graded building, under a pretty long lease to FCC over the past years. So there's no question of us ceasing relationship at all. I don't think this is a question we should consider at the moment, in fact consider in the future either.
 
     Hong Kong, as I said, is a free place. We pride ourselves on being an open, vibrant, free international city. This is our recipe for success. We'll certainly continue to build on our success. But having said all that, we mustn't forget that Hong Kong has a constitutional responsibility to protect, safeguard, the national sovereignty, territorial integrity and national security of the People's Republic of China, and Hong Kong is an inalienable part of the People's Republic of China, so there is no question about independence. That's why we always say that we can't tolerate any discussion, let alone promotion, campaigning, for the sake of pushing forward nationalism, independence in Hong Kong. No question about it.
 
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:

     The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) wishes to alert members of the public to a press release issued by Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited on fraudulent website, which has been reported to the HKMA. Hyperlink to the press release is available on the HKMA website for ease of reference by members of the public.
 
     Anyone who has provided his or her personal information to the website concerned or has conducted any financial transactions through the website should contact the bank concerned using the contact information provided in the press release, and report to the Police or contact the Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau of the Hong Kong Police Force at 2860 5012.

The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:

     The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) today (August 14) announces a new service schedule of the two "Coin Carts" under the Coin Collection Programme, for the period of August 27 up to October 28. The schedule and other details of the Programme are shown on the HKMA webpage (coincollection.hkma.gov.hk).
 
     Since the launch of the Programme in October 2014, the two Coin Carts have completed 20 cycles of serving the 18 districts on June 17, 2018. The Carts had carried out 454 000 transactions, collecting 379 million coins with a total face value of HK$514 million during the period. The collected coins are re-circulated to meet demand.
 
     The Coin Carts provide service at locations that are convenient to the public without affecting the normal flow of traffic and pedestrians. Locations that have suitable power supply facilities, such as the Leisure and Cultural Services Department mobile library service locations, are preferred so as to reduce the need for using the Coin Carts' own stand-by generators. This makes the Programme more environmentally friendly. In selecting the service locations, the HKMA has taken into consideration comments and suggestions given by district councils and members of public; and has consulted the Transport Department and the Hong Kong Police Force as necessary.
 
     The two Coin Carts collect coins from members of public in the 18 districts of Hong Kong on a rotating basis. Under normal circumstances each Coin Cart will stay at a location for a week, subject to availability of the parking space and the maintenance schedule of the Cart. Service hours are from 10am to 7pm. Each vehicle is equipped with two coin counting machines and operational staff will be present to provide assistance. An electrical wheelchair lift is available for use. Users can choose to exchange coins for banknotes or adding value to their stored value facilities, such as Octopus Cards or e-wallets (including AlipayHK, Octopus O! ePay, Tap&Go, TNG Wallet and WeChat Pay). There is also a Community Chest donation box inside each vehicle. The coin collection service is free of charge.
 
     The HKMA will review the Programme from time and time; and will regularly update the service schedule to give advance notice to the public.

The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:

     The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) released today (August 14) the key analytical accounts of the Exchange Fund at the end of July 2018.
      
     Foreign assets, representing the external assets of the Exchange Fund, increased during the month by HK$2.3 billion to HK$3,541.8 billion.
      
     The Monetary Base, comprising Certificates of Indebtedness, Government‑issued currency notes and coins in circulation, the balance of the banking system and Exchange Fund Bills and Notes issued, amounted to HK$1,645.1 billion.
      
     Claims on the private sector in Hong Kong amounted to HK$199.6 billion.
      
     The analytical accounts of the Exchange Fund are released in accordance with the International Monetary Fund’s Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) and are referred to as the Analytical Accounts of the Central Bank under SDDS (Annex).
 

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     At present, four press releases relating to the Exchange Fund’s data are issued by the HKMA each month.  Three of these releases are issued to disseminate monetary data in accordance with the International Monetary Fund’s Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS).  The fourth press release, on the Exchange Fund’s Abridged Balance Sheet and Currency Board Account, is made in accordance with the HKMA’s policy of maintaining a high level of transparency.  For the month of August 2018, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows:
     

     According to the statistics released by the Census and Statistics Department today (August 14), the provisional estimate of the Hong Kong population was 7 448 900 at mid-2018, representing an increase of 57 200 or 0.8% from 7 391 700 at mid-2017 (Table 1).
 
     Population increase comprises natural increase (i.e. births less deaths) and net movement of Hong Kong residents (i.e. inflow less outflow). The natural increase of the population from mid-2017 to mid-2018 amounted to 7 600, with 55 000 births and 47 300 deaths. Over the same period, there was a net movement of 49 600 persons, of which 41 000 were inflow of One-way Permit holders and 8 500 were net inflow of other Hong Kong residents.
 
     The Hong Kong population is measured on the definition of Resident Population, which comprises Usual Residents and Mobile Residents. Among the total population at mid-2018, 7 228 100 (provisional) were Usual Residents and 220 800 (provisional) were Mobile Residents.
 
     "Usual Residents" refer to two categories of people: (1) Hong Kong Permanent Residents who have stayed in Hong Kong for at least three months during the six months before or for at least three months during the six months after the reference time-point, regardless of whether they are in Hong Kong or not at the reference time-point; and (2) Hong Kong Non-permanent Residents who are in Hong Kong at the reference time-point.
 
     For those Hong Kong Permanent Residents who are not "Usual Residents", they are classified as "Mobile Residents" if they have stayed in Hong Kong for at least one month but less than three months during the six months before or for at least one month but less than three months during the six months after the reference time-point, regardless of whether they are in Hong Kong or not at the reference time-point.
 
     The revised figure for the year-end population for 2017 was 7 413 100. The number of Usual Residents was revised to 7 181 400 and the number of Mobile Residents to 231 700. The population growth rate from end-2016 to end-2017 was also revised to 0.5%.
 
     The population figures for recent years are shown in Table 2.
 
     Under the current practice, the latest population figure is released on a provisional basis in each round. The revised figure will be released six months later. In other words, while the provisional population figure for mid-2018 is released today, the corresponding revised figure will be released in February 2019.