Transcript of remarks by FS (with photo/video)

     Following is the transcript of remarks by the Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan, at a media session after attending a radio programme this morning (August 17):
 
Reporter: You mentioned there are grants and loans to help university students so they're not getting money this time, but it's not a new thing, there were grants and loans before and they can still get money, so why is this time so special? Or there are actually other reasons that they are not included?
 
Financial Secretary: Please be assured that I have no intention to discriminate against our university students. In the last two Budgets, I proposed to give needy students an allowance when the school term commences. The coming economic challenge is daunting. During difficult economic times, usually middle-class families and grassroots families would suffer financial hardships. Our thinking is that by giving students an allowance, we can in a way relieve the financial burden of their parents. And in fact in the past two years, when I proposed to give needy students allowances, there were proposals from the community and also from the legislature to extend the coverage to cover also other students. That is why in this round we extend the coverage of that allowance to all secondary, primary school and kindergarten students. Thank you.
 
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)