Chief Executive CY Leung has expressed his "utmost regret" over the various ways of filibustering by pan-democratic legislators in relation to the funding application for establishing an Innovation & Technology Bureau.
In a statement issued this afternoon, Mr Leung said the Finance Committee has held meetings for 27 hours in the past five days to examine a number of livelihood items proposed by the Government.
The Chief Executive added that in order to expedite the passing of these livelihood items, he announced on June 19 that the funding application for establishing the Innovation & Technology Bureau, which was originally scheduled as the first item, would be put to the end of the committee’s agenda.
Pan-democratic legislators still turned a blind eye to this positive move by the Government and insisted to obstruct the normal examining and voting of the new bureau by various delaying tactics. Those pan-democratic parties who claimed not to join the filibustering have created the same impact by raising repeated questions, the statement added.
Filibustering and "disguised" filibustering does not only violate the proper form of discussion at Legislative Council and the principle of democracy, it also seriously damages the competitiveness and international image of Hong Kong. They have wasted public money, ignored the demands of the society and the industries, and hindered Hong Kong's development, he noted.
Mr Leung thanked all the other legislators and government officers for working so hard in the past five days.
He reiterated that innovation and technology is closely linked to Hong Kong's competitiveness and urged the pan-democratic legislators to examine the funding application in a proper manner and move on to the voting process as soon as possible.
