The taskforce on constitutional development will visit Beijing to consult with central government officials as soon as possible after the Lunar New Year holidays.

Chief Secretary Donald Tsang, who heads the taskforce, announced this yesterday.

Before going to Beijing, the taskforce will, from tomorrow, invite various stakeholders in Hong Kong, including legislative councillors, political groups, legal practitioners, academics and the business sectors, to input their views.

The task force comprises Secretary for Justice Elsie Leung and Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Stephen Lam as members. The trio will attend the relevant Legislative Council meeting today to give an account of their work plan.

The SAR government yesterday received a reply from the Office of Hong Kong & Macao Affairs of the State Council, indicating its willingness to give assistance to arrange meetings between relevant authorities and the taskforce, Tsang told a media session.

"We have also issued a paper that touches on matters of principles and procedures under the Basic Law concerning constitutional development to members of the Legislative Council Constitutional Affairs Panel,'' he said. "The matters focus on principle issues and Article 45 and 68 of the Basic Law, as well as principal and legal issues arising from Annex I & II.

"I hope the paper will form a basis for in-depth and rational discussion in the community. I wish to reiterate that the task force will adopt an open and frank attitude to listen to the views of the people of Hong Kong and relay them to the Office of Hong Kong & Macao Affairs,"Tsang said.

In the paper, the taskforce lists two questions on legislative process and three on related legal issues.

On legislative process, it asks if local legislation is sufficient for amending the selection methods in Annex I & II, or should there be any principled provisions on top of the annexes and complemented by domestic legislation.

Second is the amendment to the selection methods in the annexes tantamount to amending the Basic Law" If so, the amendment process shall comply with Article 159.

On legal issues, who is the authority to kickstart the amendment process" And since Annex II does not set out selection method for the fourth term Legislative Council, it is not sure if the selection method for the third term legislature can be used for the fourth term onwards.

The only sure answer is the meaning of "subsequent 2007" In light of internal studies and reference to relevant materials, including the speech of Ji Pengfei, the then chairman of the Basic Law Drafting Committee, at the third meeting of the seventh National people's Congress on March 28, 1990, the taskforce concludes that if there is a need, amendment to the selection method for the third term chief executive can be considered.

Referring to the paper, Demo-cratic Party Chairman Yeung Sum said the government was intending to complicate some very simple issues.

Whereas domestic legislation will suffice, the government is "upgrading"the matter to constitutional level, and he worried that the inner motive is to delay constitutional development.

But Ip Kwok-him, vice-chairman of Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong, concurred that there is a need to amend the Basic Law to facilitate election of the chief executive by universal suffrage in 2007, but amendment can take the form of the addition of certain provisions.

Liberal Party Chairman James Tien said that although lawyers from the democratic camp said there is no need to amend the Basic Law to achieve the above purpose, lawyers from the non-democratic camp think differently while the opinions of mainland legal experts are also very important.

(HK Edition 01/15/2004 page1)