Following are the remarks by the newly appointed Secretary for Transport and Logistics, Ms Mable Chan, at a media session today (December 5):
Reporter: What are your expectations and priorities of your new role? What do you want to achieve in the coming two and a half years? Also, the CE mentioned that he is confident in your leadership and articulation skills and also proactiveness. How do you plan to use such qualities to serve the general public? Thank you.
Secretary for Transport and Logistics: Thank you for your questions. I have been the Permanent Secretary in the Transport and Logistics Bureau. I have good knowledge of the policy areas under my portfolio. I know my colleagues well. I am action-oriented and have a proactive working style. I am confident that I will bring impetus to the Bureau in taking forward the various policy initiatives as set out in "The Chief Executive's 2024 Policy Address". In particular, our focus will be to further develop Hong Kong as an international shipping centre and an international aviation hub. Apart from that, the transport and railway development is very pivotal to the economic development of Hong Kong. As I've just mentioned, we have promulgated a transport blueprint (Hong Kong Major Transport Infrastructure Development Blueprint), which lists out a number of railways and road projects. In the coming years, I will be leading my Bureau in taking forward steadfastly in order to make sure that these projects are implemented and constructed on time within budget in order to better serve the population intake in various areas. As regards aviation and the shipping centres, Hong Kong has been a very international city. We have extensive connections with the various parts of the world. It is important that we leverage on our unique advantage of being part of the Mainland and our advantage under the "one country, two systems" principle in order to connect ourselves with the Mainland markets and the global markets. We should better serve our motherland as a "super-connector" in order to enable the various industries and enterprises to use Hong Kong as a platform in order to better connect with the world. With the development and implementation of the Three-Runway System, my Bureau will take a more proactive and more strategic framework and approach in extending and negotiating discussions with our aviation partners in order to unleash our potential in the Hong Kong International Airport in order to build our connections to better connect to the Mainland cities as well as the global markets. Lastly, as regards the shipping centre, no doubt that we are facing a lot of serious challenges but this is a good opportunity for us to work in partnership with our stakeholders to build Hong Kong's brand and to rebuild our competitiveness. The recent promulgation of our Action Plan on Green Maritime Fuel Bunkering lists out a number of measures which I am confident that with the industries' support and participation, we will increase and enhance our competitiveness and be more proactive in attracting more ocean-going vessels to come to Hong Kong to add their green fuel as well as to enable them to come to Hong Kong to do business. Thank you.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the remarks.)
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