Legislative Council

LC Paper No. CB(3) 598/98-99

Ref: CB(3)/SC/PL

Purpose

This paper invites Members to endorse the recommendations of the Parliamentary Liaison Subcommittee on the activities to be organised to promote closer links with the parliamentary friendship groups formed with Japan, Canada, Australia, European Parliament and Singapore respectively.

Background

2. At the House Committee meeting on 18 September 1998, Members agreed:

1. to continue the Council's ties with the legislatures of Japan, Canada, Australia and the European Union through the friendship groups that had been established previously; and
   
   
2. to set up an additional friendship group with the parliamentarians of the Republic of Singapore.

3. Contacts were subsequently made with the Consuls-General concerned to seek their assistance in ascertaining the position of the respective friendship groups and for their advice on the way forward. The response has been positive and contacts with the respective parliaments are continuing.

4. At a recent meeting of the Subcommittee with the Chairman of the Singapore-Hong Kong Parliamentary Friendship Group during his visit to Hong Kong, he reiterated the wish of the Singapore parliamentarians to strengthen the ties with the Hong Kong legislature and to visit Hong Kong in the near future. Separately, the President of the European Parliament-Hong Kong Parliamentary Friendship Group has expressed an interest to renew contacts with the Legislative Council and has made a tentative plan to visit Hong Kong early next year.

Proposals

5. Having regard to the position of the individual friendship groups, the interest expressed by them in reinforcing links with this Council, the resources available for organizing liaison activities and the previous liaison activities with these legislatures, the Subcommittee recommends that:

1. members of the Singapore-Hong Kong Parliamentary Friendship Group; and
   
   
2. the President of the European Parliament-Hong Kong Parliamentary Friendship Group
   
   

be invited to visit Hong Kong in the first quarter of 1999.

6. The Subcommittee also proposes that a delegation of Legislative Council Members visit Japan in late February 1999 with a view to strengthening the ties established with members of the Japan/Hong Kong Parliamentarian League and gaining first-hand information on Japan's experience with the financial turmoil in the country and Asia.

Decisions Sought

7. Members are invited to endorse the recommendations of the Subcommittee in paragraphs 5 and 6 above.


Legislative Council Secretariat
10 November 1998