Following is the transcript of remarks by the Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, at a media session before the Executive Council meeting this morning (September 4):
Reporter: …that Mainland officers will be staying overnight in the terminus, and what about their meals? Some reports say that we're going to pay for their meals, I mean how is the Government going to ensure that? And secondly, regarding the set-up of the Mainland Port Area, why doesn't the Government decided to do it, like, not publicly?
Chief Executive: First of all, what has taken place at midnight at the West Kowloon terminus is a working level handover. The legislation on co-location took effect at midnight today on September 4, so there was a little working-level handover procedure in order to indicate this. That was not a ceremony per se, so I wasn't there on this particular occasion. The important opening ceremony will take place on September 22 and will be formally officiated by myself and Governor Ma Xingrui of Guangdong Province. This brings me back to the point I was just making, that apparently and unfortunately, anything relating to the high-speed train normally is presented with some worries and anxieties. I don't want this to continue to repeat itself between now and the opening of the high-speed train on September 23, so I have asked the Transport and Housing Bureau together with the MTR Corporation to provide responses as promptly as possible to any queries or worries or anxieties either conveyed by media friends or we pick up somewhere, so as to allay all these unnecessary fears and anxieties.
The same applies to the provision of meals to officers working in the Mainland Port Area. As I said, these Mainland officials will not leave the Mainland Port Area. They come in on a daily basis from Shenzhen to work in the Mainland Port Area and they are not allowed to go out to have their lunch or dinner, so we need to find arrangements to provide meals to them. The cost of all these meals as well as the cost of all the other expenses, like cleansing, collecting rubbish, electricity and water, are all picked up by the Mainland authorities, but we need to help them to arrange these things. It's as simple as that.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
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