The new airport is an amazing engineering project, in which everyone in Hong Kong takes pride. We are much honoured to have invited President Jiang and Vice Premier Qian to officiate at this opening ceremony. Their presence has made this ceremony an even more special occasion. During the transitional period, Hong Kong managed to make smooth arrangements for this magnificent project with the injection of considerable capital to spur our economic development. This achievement is attributable mainly to the wealth of the Hong Kong people, the confidence they have in the future of Hong Kong and the Central People's Government's support of the policies implemented for the smooth handover of Hong Kong.
History is like a series of journeys, one coming after the other.
Following the completion of the new Hong Kong International Airport, the SAR Government has worked out development programmes of an even larger scale. These major investment projects will commence very soon and continue well beyond this century. The objective of these projects is to strengthen the competitiveness of Hong Kong, to lay a more solid foundation for our long-term development, and to create more job opportunities for our people. The SAR Government strongly believes that the implementation of these cross-century investment programmes will benefit our economy as well as our community. These massive projects bear further testimony to the ability and determination of the people of Hong Kong.