The Hong Kong SAR Government welcomes a breakthrough in the work of the Legislative Council to review bills

　　Xinhua News Agency, Hong Kong, May 9 (Hong Kong) The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government on the 9th welcomed the success of the House Committee of the SAR Legislative Council in handling a number of bills and subsidiary legislation that could not be processed due to the delay in the election of the chairman since October last year Review of the remaining term.

　　At the special meeting held on the afternoon of the 8th, the Legislative Council dealt with 13 bills submitted by the SAR Government in the current legislative year, and 31 reports of the Ministry of Legal Affairs of the subsidiary legislation published in the Gazette from March 27, 2020, Proposal to appoint chief justice of the Court of Final Appeal, and four bill committee reports.

　　A spokesman for the SAR Government stated in an announcement that according to Article 73 of the Basic Law, an important function of the Legislative Council is to make laws. The Inner Council is a particularly important part of the Legislative Council ’s responsibility for carrying out its constitutional functions, and it is intended to prepare for meetings of the Legislative Assembly.

　　Since October last year, the internal meeting has held 17 meetings. After more than 30 hours of discussion, it has not yet been able to elect the chairman and deputy chairman of the internal meeting of this session, which has completely paralyzed the internal meeting and cannot function normally. Acts closely related to social economy and people's livelihood.

　　As of May 8, the Legislative Council is considering 15 bills submitted by the SAR Government during the current legislative year, and 11 bills that have completed their first reading in the previous biennium and have established a bill committee to consider. Among them, the "National Anthem Bill" and the "Trademark (Amendment) Bill 2019" bills have been reviewed by the internal committee and have not yet been submitted to the Legislative Assembly to resume the second reading debate.

　　The spokesman said that after a total of 17 meetings and more than 50 hours of deliberation, the "National Anthem Bill" committee has submitted a report to the internal meeting on June 14, 2019. At the meeting on June 28, the internal meeting had no objection to the second reading debate of the SAR Government that it planned to resume the bill during the 2019-2020 legislative session.

　　The spokesperson expressed the expectation that Legislative Council Members would support the SAR Government ’s continued promotion of legislative procedures including the National Anthem Bill.